4 ms·

Years ago I was watching a public firework + music and was a bit disappointed in how out of sync everything looked. I figured there must be an economically fea

by aloer 6y ago

Years ago I was watching a public firework + music and was a bit disappointed in how out of sync everything looked. I figured there must be an economically feasible way to trigger the explosions remotely and in sync for such public displays. So essentially shooting the firework the traditional way but igniting the payload on demand. Is someone working on this?

milkytron 6y ago
I'd imagine fireworks + music would be difficult because of the difference in the speed of sound vs the speed of light, which would explain the out of sync experience you had.
- aloer 6y ago
  Apparently there are software simulations for this. Something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjggrxUQ78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjggrxUQ78 Not sure at what distance the speed of sound vs speed of light becomes disrupting
  - TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
    At 343 meters / 1125 feet the sound is going to be about 1 second out of sync with the light, and that's going to sound terrible. Wind direction and atmospheric pressure is going to make a small difference.
- jjk166 6y ago
  You can have fireworks go off such that the light from the next one reaches the crowd at the same time as the sound from the first. Tempo can be adjusted by changing the location/altitude where they go off. Then you only notice something off when you transition between fireworks that sound different, and even that can be mitigated by having transitions where one of the old type goes off simultaneously with one of the new type. You can't really adjust it on the fly, but you can break the show into discrete blocks that are synced to pre-recorded music, for example each song, and trigger each block on a cue to make what looks like a smooth continuous show.
rkangel 6y ago
I've been to several firework displays where the synchronisation is actually pretty good. Specifically, a few by Kimbolton Fireworks in the UK. I'd imagine one challenge is the area over which the crowd is spread. For large displays you can have the crowd spread over quite an area with quite a variation in arrival time of the sounds. I suppose that's just the normal sound engineering problem of a large gig - lots of speakers with suitably configured delay.

by aloer 6y ago

milkytron 6y ago

I'd imagine fireworks + music would be difficult because of the difference in the speed of sound vs the speed of light, which would explain the out of sync experience you had.

aloer 6y ago
Apparently there are software simulations for this. Something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjggrxUQ78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjggrxUQ78 Not sure at what distance the speed of sound vs speed of light becomes disrupting
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
  At 343 meters / 1125 feet the sound is going to be about 1 second out of sync with the light, and that's going to sound terrible. Wind direction and atmospheric pressure is going to make a small difference.
jjk166 6y ago
You can have fireworks go off such that the light from the next one reaches the crowd at the same time as the sound from the first. Tempo can be adjusted by changing the location/altitude where they go off. Then you only notice something off when you transition between fireworks that sound different, and even that can be mitigated by having transitions where one of the old type goes off simultaneously with one of the new type. You can't really adjust it on the fly, but you can break the show into discrete blocks that are synced to pre-recorded music, for example each song, and trigger each block on a cue to make what looks like a smooth continuous show.

rkangel 6y ago

I've been to several firework displays where the synchronisation is actually pretty good. Specifically, a few by Kimbolton Fireworks in the UK. I'd imagine one challenge is the area over which the crowd is spread. For large displays you can have the crowd spread over quite an area with quite a variation in arrival time of the sounds. I suppose that's just the normal sound engineering problem of a large gig - lots of speakers with suitably configured delay.