The growth of the drone show market has led to a $4bn global industry with hundreds of shows taking place across the world, and millions of people enjoying the spectacle of 1000s of drones taking part in coordinated displays. The industry is forecast to grow rapidly to over $12bn by 2033, growing at up to 25% per year. Existing first-generation drone show technology is highly resource intensive, using technology not originally designed for drone swarms. Two years of analysis of over 900 process steps showed almost all were carried out by human operators, with dozens of critical points of failure. Dependency on manual processes for design and operational delivery leads to increased safety risks, high costs and limited functionality. Formed in April 2024, HVN Labs is spearheading the development of next-generation drone show technology. HVN's ultimate goal is to create a fully autonomous system that requires no human involvement. Key to HVN's automated solution is a fly-in-fly-out landing case which provides automated drone take-off and landing, with in-case charging and diagnostics. This project will develop a prototype system providing precise navigational corrections to the drones during final approach and landing. This is a collaboration between HVN and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), a world-leading analysis and test organisation. The NPL's expertise will greatly assist HVN in obtaining a compact, reliable and safe landing drone landing system for drone light shows and give HVN the potential to become the world's leading drone swarm operator and leading to revenues of more than £50m within five years.

The growth of the drone show market has led to a £300m global industry with hundreds of shows taking place across the world, and millions of people enjoying the spectacle of 1000s of drones taking part in coordinated displays. The industry is forecast to grow rapidly to over $1bn by 2030, growing at up to 25% per year. Drone shows are even predicted to replace fireworks due to their improved environmental and safety impacts. However, current drone show technology remains in its infancy. Creative and production workflows still heavily rely on resource-intensive manual processes, leading to increased costs and narrower profit margins compared to traditional fireworks displays. HVN Labs is spearheading the development of next-generation drone show technology aimed at streamlining show design and delivery processes while enhancing accuracy, safety, and creative freedom. This project will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop faster and more responsive path mapping systems for large fleets of drones. By doing so, it will enhance show design efficiency and safety standards, whilst at the same time reducing production costs.

The growth of the drone show market has led to a £3bn global industry with hundreds of shows taking place across the world, and millions of people enjoying the spectacle of 1000s of drones taking part in coordinated displays. The industry is forecast to grow rapidly to over $10bn by 2030, growing at up to 25% per year. Drone shows are even predicted to replace fireworks due to their improved environmental and safety impacts. However, current drone show technology remains in its infancy. Creative and production workflows still heavily rely on resource-intensive manual processes, leading to increased costs and narrower profit margins compared to traditional fireworks displays. HVN Labs is spearheading the development of next-generation drone show technology aimed at streamlining show design and delivery processes while enhancing accuracy, safety, and creative freedom. This project will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop faster and more responsive path mapping systems for large fleets of drones. By doing so, it will enhance show design efficiency and safety standards, whilst at the same time reducing production costs.

Since launching in 2019 Celestial has established itself as one of the world's leading drone show producers, and has delivered shows in the UK and Europe, the US and Australia. Our unique focus on merging creativity with technology has led to collaborations with artists, writers and poets and we have created ground-breaking and award-winning shows that have pushed the boundaries of current technologies. This project will test and develop AI and machine learning based processes for control of large scale drone shows. By increasing the accuracy and responsiveness of drones, the new system will improve the creative and operational process of show design and delivery, leading to more cost-effective, safer and more exciting shows, improving the audience experience and opening up new markets and commercial opportunities. For more details on Celestial's work, see our website at www.celestial.show