Made in Heaven
Designed by and soundtrack by Niki Langer; ~5000 cues with PyroDigit and PyroDigital firing
The steyrFire team, representing Austria for their second time in Montreal, faced unique challenges that were beyond their control. Firstly, they arrived one day late and so had essentially 20% less time than other teams for the display setup. Secondly, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl passed through Montreal on the penultimate day of setup and lingered for most of the day of the display, finally drying out in the early evening. Dropping over 80mm of rain, this amount of precipitation is a technical challenge as it impedes the work of loading the shells and potentially impacts all of the products that have already been setup. Niki told me during the interview that he believed the PyroDigit one-shot racking system is impervious to water, but we had had really a very large amount of water indeed and many were worried this would impact the display.
By 10pm, conditions were humid and cloudy but with a decently high ceiling and some wind, though not in an ideal direction. It was a relief, then, when the display started that everything appeared to function well. The vast majority of the one-shots functioned perfectly with very consistent firing heights and very good effects. Unfortunately, there were some errors in the setup of the shells, particularly on ramp 2 where it was clear some chains of shells had been inadvertently transposed. The time pressure of losing a full day of setup plus the extra time needed to move shelters over the groups of mortars during the setup in tropical storm conditions must have contributed to this.
The design of the display was good with especially effective use made of ramp 5, filling the available space completely and also avoiding some of the smoke build-up from ramp 3. The quality of all of the one-shots was very high, with excellent colours and great effects, especially the tourbillons. However, I found some of the firing patterns ended up being a bit repetitive – this is often the case in displays with a lot of one shots as there tends to be a somewhat limited range of calibres available. There were a few 300mm shells used in the display and these were shot so we could see them very well. The multiple pistil layers with gradation effects were very good indeed, but I was surprised to see the same effects used more than once (a silver rain type of shell). One other aspect that surprised me, was the repetition of various horse-tail effects. I had made similar criticism about repetition for their 2018 display, too. As well as repetition of horse-tails, there was also some repetition of the, admittedly very nice, kaleidoscope-type shells. The laser segments were as well integrated as they could be, but I still find their inclusion jarring, even though the two segments were the best we have seen so far.
The soundtrack was enjoyable, but I found the editing a bit odd. The length of time between segments varied between “just right” and “disconcertingly long”. Also, in one place, the fireworks finished quite a few seconds before the music, which continued to fade out. The balance between the low and high levels was definitely better done than in 2018, but I still found the overall design was somewhat conservative with fewer wow moments than I had hope. The finale was well done, with a great build up and some particularly massive salutes at the end. The audience gave the team an enthusiastic standing ovation too. All in all, it was a very good display, especially considering the challenges the team had encountered during the setup. At this point in the competition, I would place steyFire just behind La Rosa and just ahead of the Omagari Display Team. Making a podium prediction, now, is quite difficult as we still have some strong contenders to compete.