Ars Electronica SPAXELS Flying at Rock in Rio

Spaxels Rio 1

Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are among the superstars who’ve been booked for Rock in Rio 2017, one of the world’s largest annual rock music events. And this year, in addition to the class acts on stage, the entertainment lineup also includes a Rock in Rio premiere: a drone show in a class of its own.

Every evening of the event’s run, the Ars Electronica SPAXELS will take to the sky above Rio de Janeiro’s Barra Olympic Park to get the audience fired up for the headliner. The Linz-based swarm of LED-studded quadcopters will be conjuring up spectacular light sculptures in the festival’s airspace—a majestic 200-meter-long sine wave, a gigantic electric guitar and as the grand finale, of course, the Rock in Rio logo.

Spaxels Rio 2

Video Teaser Production near Neulichtenberg

The Spaxels crew began preparations for this shoot in mid-February. The next phase included several days of test flights in early April on a field near Neulichtenberg. The final sortie was accompanied live on-site by the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität’s Symphony Orchestra—a rendition of composer-arranger Hermann Miesbauer’s adaptation of the official Rock in Rio anthem. The Spaxels swarm and the 60-piece orchestra were the featured performers in a video teaser and reportage shot for broadcast on Brazilian TV. “Pretty damned thrilling!

Spaxels Rio 3

The Spaxels are undoubtedly the way of the future as far as visualizations are concerned,” was the obviously delighted reaction to the drone swarm’s aerial artistry by Rock in Rio Production Manager Nuno Sousa Pinto.

Source: Press Release

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