Kingstech Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Morning all, Happy new year to start off, Was it me or did the fireworks go off slightly early tonight? I noticed that the fireworks went off, my phone and Pc changed time and then big ben chimmed. What is the system they use to set them off? Is it timecoded or manually set off? Callum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biro Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 ..please, go out and enjoy new year and stop worrying about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peza2010 Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 ..please, go out and enjoy new year and stop worrying about it Says the one who replied B-) ** laughs out loud **I had to check it on my phone because I knew there would be a topic of some sortHave a good new year blue roomers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I sat with my family earlier and commented that there would definitely be a BR topic about the 'works tonight! However, on a positive note, in general I felt they were much better than in previous years. Still FAR too much change of camera for changes sake in my opinion BUT not as much as we've been used to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unfathomable Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I watched a spot of Jools Holland instead and the sound/lx was good. I feel sorry for the guys working tonight and hope they get to the pub soon. Happy new year everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Here's the budget for the 2009 event (info from the GLA website). Apparently £75K less than previous year, savings acheived by reducing the length of the display by 2 minutes and cutting the projection onto the Shell Building behind the Eye. (not sure how to make the column line up; if any mods can fix it at their convenience ... )Just wondering what the budget for 2010 was ... Expenditure £Project management (including development of crowd management plan) 173,900Sound system 124,433Show lighting 91,515Pyrotechnics 313,196Crowd control / stewarding 449,297Trafalgar Square / Parliament Square and directional LED screens 49,930Miscellaneous show production 152,456Power 31,388Permissions and fees 43,012Accommodation, travel and subsistence (non GLA) 27,875Insurance (excluding cancellation insurance) 35,500Event organiser fees 77,456Sub Total (Jack Morton Worldwide) 1,569,958 Consumer event marketing (including website, viewing area maps and staffing) 21,000Event Media Centre 3,000Resident communications 8,000Event photography 2,000Traffic order advertisement 15,000Project management (miscellaneous) 6,042Sub Total (Events for London) 55,042 Project Total 1,625,000 Funding £LDA (1,400,000)GLA Contribution (225,000)Total (1,625,000) Moderation: Fixed for you! (well, partially - but I can't make it any better!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scjb Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Sync seemed pretty bang on to me, if you'll pardon the pun. Obviously you hear the lift of the shells about three seconds before the first bong (so the shells are in the air for the cue), maybe this is what the OP heard and misinterpreted? Good job Kimbolton. One has to hope a British company will be in with a shot for the Olympics now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlyfarly Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I thought Kimbolton did a fantastic job and how nice that a British company is now involved. I have been a bit of a fan of Groupe F for a long time but I thought last year's display was rather "samey" to previous years and it had definitely worn its course. Agree with Ynot about the over-zealous camera angles....when pyro is set to music you want to see it from a front-on perspective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingstech Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 It was definatly the flash I saw before big ben went off? are they time coded to go off or manually set off? I agree to many camera shots, and 3 years ago I was up there, freezing cold, and right infront of the eye, it looked better than when I saw it on tv the next day, the tv does it no justice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scjb Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 From the gibberish being broadcast before the fireworks, it would appear that the fireworks were being synced using the timing information on the GPS signal as a reference. Kimbolton own and use FireOne, and I am presuming that was the system in use. I saw the BBC1 broadcast (YouTube link below) and all seemed fine to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 I watched a spot of Jools Holland instead and the sound/lx was good. I feel sorry for the guys working tonight and hope they get to the pub soon. Happy new year everyone!Well at least it wasn't the crew of the Jools show; that is prerecorded, I';ve been lead to believe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingstech Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 I was up at the bbc when jools holland was playing and thats all live, unless the new years one is pre recorded? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Shock horror its recorded!! If you didn't guess by the copious celebs who decided a night in a tv studio would be the best way to spend a new year... it was "reviled" by a red top a few years ago and I don't think anyone gave a dam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlyfarly Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Yep, Hootenanny is recorded about a week before NYE.......apparently they do offer booze to the audience to get them in the party spirit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 The London fireworks are all run to timecode, using the FireOne system which Kimbolton Fireworks have a large stock of (but not large enough for NYE, as they have 12 of our firing modules on loan at the moment! ). I'm guessing that when you say the fireworks "went off slightly early", what you saw/heard was the lift charges on the first cue of shells that started the display. A shell as used in a professional firework display consists of two parts - the lift charge, which propels the shell out of its mortar and into the sky ; and the burst charge, which pops the shell apart and ignites whatever effects are contained within. The delay between lift charge and burst charge will be anything between about 2 and 5 seconds, depending on the calibre of the shell - 3" shells, which are the smallest calibre that you'll generally find in a professional show, have a delay of a couple of seconds, whereas when you get up to the larger calibres (12" is perhaps the largest you'd find in common use in displays, although larger calibres do exist) the delay is longer as the shell breaks higher and has further to fly. So in short, what you probably thought was fireworks 'going off early' was the lift charges of the first shells fired in the display, fired at a few seconds before midnight to ensure that they burst on the stroke of 12. The lift charges on aerial shells, particularly the larger sizes and when used in the quantities that we're talking about here, are far more powerful than some people may think - even a smaller shell is quite capable of taking your head off as it comes out of its mortar, and when lots of large shells lift at once the combined effect of the lift charges (the sparks, debris and smoke coming out of the top of the mortar, the noise of the charges going off and the 'thump' of air pressure and recoil as the shell leaves the tube) the result can, to the 'uninitiated', sometimes be as impressive as an entire small display! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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