Stunning Drone Show: King Kong Climbing the Empire State Building

Denver-based Studio Hock is a drone light show production company with two decades of experience. They recently pulled off this impressive display in New York, coordinating their drones to resemble King Kong climbing the Empire State Building: It can't be understated how technically challenging this was. Most of the drone shows we've seen have been fireworks simulations and aerial displays, conducted over wide-open fields with few vertical obstructions. But 34th Street in Manhattan is a very different animal, bristling with buildings whose reflective glass and steel structures can distort GPS signals and provide magnetic interference. Studio Hock compensated by building their own custom correction network for their drones, allowing for dynamic syncing that managed to block out the noise while correcting for wind drift. The result was that their custom Helios drones could maintain a positional precision of less than 2"!"All of it — the precision, the motion, the timing — ran on something special we've been developing called Helios Protocol," the company writes. "And yes, this all took place in one of the most tightly restricted pieces of airspace in the country. Every detail was cleared, calculated, and executed with zero room for error."You can see more of their stuff here.

Apr 7, 2025 - 14:37

Stunning Drone Show: King Kong Climbing the Empire State Building

Denver-based Studio Hock is a drone light show production company with two decades of experience. They recently pulled off this impressive display in New York, coordinating their drones to resemble King Kong climbing the Empire State Building:

It can't be understated how technically challenging this was. Most of the drone shows we've seen have been fireworks simulations and aerial displays, conducted over wide-open fields with few vertical obstructions. But 34th Street in Manhattan is a very different animal, bristling with buildings whose reflective glass and steel structures can distort GPS signals and provide magnetic interference. Studio Hock compensated by building their own custom correction network for their drones, allowing for dynamic syncing that managed to block out the noise while correcting for wind drift. The result was that their custom Helios drones could maintain a positional precision of less than 2"!

"All of it — the precision, the motion, the timing — ran on something special we've been developing called Helios Protocol," the company writes. "And yes, this all took place in one of the most tightly restricted pieces of airspace in the country. Every detail was cleared, calculated, and executed with zero room for error."

You can see more of their stuff here.