I was part of a mid-sized drone show earlier this year, and honestly, the amount of preparation surprised me. The biggest factor is planning. From getting permissions to running multiple rehearsals in controlled environments.
On the technical side, the “brain” of every drone is its flight controller. A reliable FC makes all the difference because it stabilizes the drone, keeps GPS data accurate, and ensures synchronized maneuvers. For example, I’ve seen setups where teams used controllers like the BotWing F722 Flight Controller, which handled complex choreographies really smoothly.
Safety is another big one we had geofencing enabled to prevent strays, plus a backup protocol where drones would auto-land safely if they lost connection. Signal interference was less of an issue since we operated in a dedicated frequency band, but we still ran multiple interference checks before going live.
In short, while the glowing visuals get all the attention, it’s really the invisible systems hardware, software, and human coordination that make the show possible.