Wired UK – March 2019

In an abandoned London

theatre, four screens are

flying perfectly synchronised

around the dancer Zakiya

Wellington, flickering with

graphics and flooding the

stage with light and images.

The action in Bradley G

Munkowitz’s video is the

vindication of Dave Green’s

ten-year mission to combine

flying drones and screens.

Green’s software and

lighting turned stadium

seating at the London

Olympics into the world’s

biggest video display –

Drone troupers

Lights, special effects and even dance partners

have taken to the air for a new form of performance

but to attach a screen to a

drone, impeding its flight,

was a different challenge.

“Most drones are used to

collect information – video

and photography – but

these are here to distribute

information,” says Bryn

Williams, a co-founder of

Flying Screens with Green.

To achieve this, he equipped

each of the drones with two

0.8mm-thick screens made

up of 3,060 LEDs. Attached

via a special carbon-fibre

frame to a VulcanUAV drone,

they add just 273g overall.

Green envisions the

technology being used for

advertising and special

effects at concerts. It’s

currently too risky to fly

the 7kg drone in front of an

audience without a safety

net, but Green is confident

this will be resolved soon.

WIRED’s hot tip for the

BBC: commission Strictly

Come Droning right now.

Matt Reynolds resgb.com

Each drone is equipped

with two 0.8mm-thick screens,

made up of 3,060 LEDs

In Munkowitz’s video, dancer

Zakiya Wellington performs

with four drone companions

START 

PHO

TO

GRA

PH

Y:^ A

NT

ON

IO^ P

AG

AN

O