$10,000 Drone Race and the Ring of Fire

When Extreme Drone Circuit racing wanted to create the hottest course ever, they chose Downtown Las Vegas as the location, Zappos as the sponsor, and LiveSpark to bring the fire. The 3-D slalom of neon hoops and tight turns would make even iron-stomached roller coaster fans quiver. But instead of gripping controls in the cockpit, these aerialists sat comfortably off the course, steering virtually, at the helm of their tiny quadcopter drones. Heads-up display 3-D goggles allowed 75 pilots to navigate with death-defying realism, yet survive those hairy crashes into truss, steel, screens, nets, and many other dangerous obstacles throughout the course—and oh there were many terrific crunches throughout the two-day championship.

LiveSpark knew that to match this Tron-like vision of the future, we would have to up our flame game, and so we did. Paying homage to the traditional circus ring of fire, we provided a flaming finish line: one final peril following the turning, climbing twisting dog fight of a race. And yet, conceptually this ring of fire had to be like no other. 

We mounted a dozen FirePixel effects pointed down-course on a 10-foot truss ring like a blazing tunnel of fire: flashing in chases, pulses and blasts of flame just as fast as these nimble drones could zip through the ring. The result? A futuristic flaming ring that brought the already high drama to fever pitch, merged thematically with the race, and brought glowing smiles to the faces of racers and fans alike.

First-person view drone racing

In first-person view drone racing, the racers see what their drones see.

Posted by The Verge on Saturday, January 16, 2016