UAE clubbers have never been short of options, with many an Ibiza mega-club making the country its second home, from Blue Marin to Pacha. Adding its name to the UAE’s Ibiza club lineup is Ushuaïa Dubai Harbour Experience – an epic new residency created by The Night League and Studio A by Addmind Hospitality that promises to deliver ‘an open-air musical spectacular unlike any the region has ever seen’. And the venue has certainly set out on the right foot, with its opening month seeing enormous shows from both Calvin Harris and Adriatique.
One moment that particularly captured the public imagination, garnering not only a huge reaction from the crown on the opening night but also massive attention on social media, was the sight of Ushuaïa’s iconic Colibri bird emblem formed by drones rising above the stage before bursting into flames and dropping towards the ground. Keen to find out how this unique effect was created, TPiMEA caught up with Groupe F’s Drones Project Director, Etienne Compain.
“It all started with a conversation with High Scream’s Romain Pissenem. Driven by a shared passion, having beautiful technology in our hands for a unique event, ideas came fast,” he commented, sharing the inspiration for the eye-catching spectacle. “With the opening of the Ushuaïa Dubai Harbour Experience, it’s not just a brand being exported, but an entire universe travelling and crashing spectacularly in Dubai. This is precisely the idea that we wanted to illustrate through this creation.”
The artistic project was co-developed between the High Scream and Groupe F teams. “We took the time to define the message we wanted to share and how to communicate it,” he recalled. “We began by putting our ideas down on paper. We were aiming for a short and intense show, minimising boring transitions.”
After finalising the storyboard, the concept was realised in full 3D simulation. “From that point, the details were refined all the way to the dress rehearsal on-site, just one day before the event,” he added.
A fleet of 500 drones was deployed, including custom-made pyrotechnics products, which had been specially manufactured and shipped from Europe for the event. “It’s a system that we use frequently, and its reliability has been proven time and time again,” he stated. “When technology fades into the background to only work on creativity, that’s when the real challenge becomes exciting. It took us a long time to reach this level of confidence in our technological systems.”
Discussing the main challenges of the project, Compain noted the importance of safety procedures and constant concentration. “Even today, drones remain complex electronics devices with many critical systems. Achieving a perfect flight requires a lot of work and concentration,” he stated.
“With this being the first pyrotechnic drone show in Dubai town, the flight authorisations were an initial challenge,” he added. “Once on-site, my main concern was safety zones. Everything that flies can fall. So, to integrate a fleet of drones, let alone pyro drones, into a show involves risks. That’s why safety zones are so important.”
While the flaming Colibri gag was the major viral success of the show, the Drones Project Director had an alternate favourite part of the show: “My personal favourite was the show opening,” he noted. “We had a perfect drone line break the Dubai sky, while an unknown object fell from the sky to ignite the line and gradually reveal the iconic arch, all synchronised perfectly with an amazing soundtrack.”
He concluded: “Here in Ushuaïa Dubai Harbour Experience, we had an event that was highly awaited, sold out with a high media exposure. Thanks to an amazing team and the support from Addmind Hospitality, everything went smoothly.”
‘Magnitude and precision’
Supplying a turnkey technical solution for the opening shows at Ushuaïa Dubai Harbour Experience was SLS Production. The company’s Project Manager on the production, Karl Choueiri, talked TPiMEA through the brief for the Adriatique show. “The brief was very simple: to produce the biggest show that Adriatique had ever done,” he stated. “It was a pleasure to work with the ambitious designs that were presented to us. There was an emphasis on creating a majestic glow coming from the monolith and creating the impression of a world hidden behind it.”
SLS worked closely with High Scream, which was the creative lead and overall show designer, along with Al Laith, throughout the project. “We had to work systematically together with our partners to build the skeleton structure for us to place our LED screens and lighting fixtures,” Choueiri recalled. “The design demanded a pixel perfect and millimetre precision to the distance between the LED walls and monolith structure as well as a complete blackout of the sides of the monolith to achieve a glow effect.”
SLS dedicated a total of 1,000 sq m of outdoor LED screens to the project, including 500 sq m of INFiLED GX2 4.6mm outdoor LED panels, and 500 sq m of Gloshine Vanish Plus 3.9/7.8mm. NovaStar H15 and 10 CVT-M fibre converters and a total of 500m of 12-core fibre was used, with Analog Way Aquilon RS4 and Zenith 200 used for screen management and Resolume Arena preferred to manage and playback graphics on all the screens.
The audio system was a rig of L-Acoustics K1, K2 and KARA II, along with KS28 ARC Subs. The system was integrated via AVB through a Luminex GigaCore 30i switchers network. The entire system was powered with LA12X amplifiers, while P1 processors were used to process the rig, enabling an even coverage throughout the venue at 110 dB. Control came via a DiGiCo SD12 console.
The lighting rig meanwhile comprised a combination of moving heads to provide dynamic effects, beams, and spotlights with pan/tilt capabilities; wash lights to add broad, even lighting for large areas or stages; and strobes to create dramatic, high-energy effects. The inventory included Ayrton Cobras, Robe MegaPointes and Tetra2s, Luxibel B BLAST PROs, as well as CHAUVET Professional Color Strike M and Color Strike 4C, with an MA Lighting grandMA3 Full Size used for control.
“Knowing that we were delivering the biggest and most ambitious production that the headlining artist Adriatique was performing was a massive motivating factor,” commented Choueiri, reflecting on the project. “As Project Manager, I was happy to see that my team at SLS was not intimidated by the magnitude and precision of the designs presented. The results speak for themselves.”
Photos: Groupe F, SLS Production
