For any of our European readers, what should we expect from Team Austria (Pyrovision). From their website we can learn that they won the Nuits de Feux in Chantilly this year. Did anyone see this display? From Pyrovision's website it sounds like the display there is quite a lot smaller than a typical Montreal show - though, of course, raw shell count can be very misleading. Any insight anyone can offer would be appreciated!

Paul.

I think pyrovision is going to desing a very sensitive show. They win in Chantilly this year with a very creative display with a very strong theme. They did a completely successful job in all aspects (music, choice of effects, theme...) they deserved the tittle of winner .

I think Austria will be the surprise in Montreal this year, their shows remind me the Jupiter Pirotecnia displays. With lots of good ideas and always looking for new ways to do firewoks.



You can see the video here: http://www.freakpyromaniacs.com/forum/nuits-de-feu-2008-f/19262-movie- pyrovision-austria.html

Thanks for the link and the information - it's always exciting when there is a new competitor that has the potential to surprise everyone. If I may so bold as to copy a post from the freakpyromaniac's forum on this display:

The best of the best!

Frankly, I had heard many good of this company and I have not been
disappointed!

Any frame and the theme of the show was respected and thoughtful! The choreography
was amazing! amazing! Many audacity! Congratulations!

It should be noted that rigour typical 'German', this research and that the
subject has been thoroughly studied! A job completely successful! They deserve
really their title winners!

The products were very beautiful and very well-chosen music-related
theme, timing formidable, worthy of the best in the field
(V. Caballer, R. Caballer, Parente ...)

Really great!

Lots of good ideas ... Austrians have simply daring where others
have often sometimes afraid to venture!

The double false final was great, the gross part without music shared between
beginning and end of the display was a good idea! The music was very well
chosen!

Pyrovision, really a major new figures from fireworks industry!

An excellent mix of genres, styles and traditions, a lot of research, finesse, rhythm, emotion, parts quieter, a frame innovative!

WONDERFUL! What to say?

Congratulations!

I'm downloading the Nuits de Feux video right now and will watch it as soon as I get a chance.

Paul.

Let me add something to that one ^^^

First of i tihnk that the competition in france has the same level with montreal fireworks despite the fact that the show there are 15 minutes short compared to the displays in montreal. I think the given budget to the 15 minutes show is 43,000 euro. And the rules are just a pain to the ass for all the competitors hehehe.

Well i watched their show in a video by pyroworld.nl! I really think that they could do something very surprising both with the theme and with synchronization. Their shows aren't the most Complex but they are surely enjoyable and original. I think that the shows i've seen by them so far gives a very good nostalgic feeling, similar to the display of australia and portugal this year. They are also good with using the space available and in incorporating lower level effects such as fountains. They combined both "playful" and a more serious feel to their displays.

Some of the effects they always use in their displays are propane flames, very good colored cakes of comets in all sort of pattern, cakes of whistling serpents ending to a barrage of crackles, Different kind of Horsetails (i saw some that's very thick and reach the ground), and set pieces.

vander

Rovira: I think Austria will be the surprise in Montreal this year

I had this same feeling all along - in large part because I am impressed by their choice of theme. Like with the Canadian theme, if Austria can pull it off I think that they have a great chance at winning the big prize.

And the quotes that Paul found really serve to build up the anticipation!

TRae,

"I had this same feeling all along - in large part because I am impressed by their choice of theme."

Heh...I had this same enthusiastic feeling as well ever since I read about it before the competition had started. This will surely be a display that should possess very distinctive transitions in both pace and emotions, but I sincerely hope the team will do it justice and let all of "Hell" break loose in the finale and perhaps even in the penultimate piece.

I have a slight suspicion that this display will have a similarly concocted approach in terms of structure comparable to that of England of last year, in which case, England's "Day and Night" dedicated about 50% of the show to the more diurnal aspects, while then using the last half in representing the more nocturnal contributions - they did a really great job last year in doing that.

I'm expecting both a creative and powerful display from team Austria in this sense.

Trav.

Trav: I sincerely hope the team will do it justice and let all of "Hell" break loose in the finale and perhaps even in the penultimate piece.

You crazy people and your finales!

Trav, I hope you are right about it being similar to England's "Day and Night" display from last year - oh how I loved that display! Actually, I half-take that back. I hope that with Pains Fireworks in mind, Austria is similarly successful at exploring their theme. From the insight provided earlier in this thread about Pyrovision it seems they are becoming known for originality and detail - I trust them to plot an arc which suits their display (be it similar to England 2007 or not).

The only sentiment that Pains Fireworks brought out in me which I hope Pyrovision will evoke as well is the thought, "they absolutely deserve to win gold."

The Austrian crew is in Montreal since several days. They were here for the Australian display, in addition to the Canadian one. I discussed with some of them last night. They were impressed by both displays and I felt that they are afraid to do a display in this competition with these other performances in mind. Their products come from a wide range of suppliers. Moreover, I did understand that some parts of their soundtrack has been recorded specifically for the show in Montreal.

First of i think that the competition in france has the same level with montreal fireworks despite the fact that the show there are 15 minutes short compared to the displays in montreal.

Vander, I believe that you can't really state that the Montreal competition has the same level than another one which requires only 15 minutes. For several pyrotechnicians, one of the biggest challenge with the Montreal competition is to do a 30-minute display. I'm not a pyrotechnician myself, but it looks to me that the relationship between the length of a display and the level of difficulty is exponential rather than linear: to design a 30-minute show rather than a 25-minute one is more difficult than to design a 25-minute show rather than a 20-minute one. The rationale is that longer a show is, more difficult it is to create various effects and to avoid repetitions.

Fred

Fred

Fred, I thought this considering not just the length of the show.. Some of the aspects that made me think this was because of the following:

- RULES - the rules in the competition in france is nothing similar to any fireworks competition i have seen. For example this year the set of rules that they imposed on each of the following competitors are, They must be able to show the connection between the history of art and painting compared to their daily life as a pyrotechnician. 10 minutes of the show should be a pyromusical on that topic but with the pyrotechnicians choice of music, 3 minutes of the show should be on a music piece selected by the organizers, and this is a music piece by Maurice ravel i think.., 1 and a half minutes of classical fireworks display but focusing on the fireworks sounds, and lastly 30 second of classical fireworks display with just the imposed materials (falling leaves)
* Austria was able to meet this requirements superbly even their show wasn't as complex as Vicente Caballers and Fuegos artificiales jupiter.

- Location - The location of this show is just very wide! And a challenge would be that the firing site has no middle it's cut in half then there's a piece of land at the back ahaha.. Each competitor must set up their display all together dividing the location for each competitors (that's setting up more than 10 shows in just one location). Another big challenge would be the location is full of trees so smoke builds up a lot faster than here in montreal.

Sure a show that is 30 minutes long would be challenging too but a show that's just 15 minutes long but couple with some really hard guidelines could be very chjallenging too.. It's not very easy to win in the France competition just like the case with Fuegos artificiales jupiter and Vicente Caballer. Jupiter presented a show with a very good synchronization and innovation but somehow they weren't able to impose the guidelines in ther show.. Vicente Caballer Had probably one of the most complex shows i've seen full of running sequence with probably .001 seconds interval but they didn't win cause the smoke built up too much and because again the judges thought that they weren't able to follow the guidelines properly. This displays i've talked about, if stretched to 30 minutes could be big winners in montreal in a normal year!

vander

Edit: Here's a youtube video on their hannover show with theme The city of salzburg, http://youtube.com/watch?v=vvSmWlWM6zY The song used for the finale is the same with the song their using for their finale in montreal!! A willow finale it is! hehe, As i've told Pat/Saluteness before, austria's gonna be using the same song before the finale of feerie, france last year!

Vander,

thanks for providing all the of background information about the Nuits de Feux. From speaking to people in the industry I know that this is now a very important competition and is becoming the premier competition to be invited to participate in Europe. The site itself is very challenging and, even though the displays are 15 minutes as opposed to the 30 in Montreal, the budget is large and the creativity that's required is very high. Just looking at the names of the participants indicates that this is a competition for the best-of-the-best. I'm hoping that I can attend in 2010.

There was one edition of the Montreal competition (1994) that had an imposed theme and I think this is an interesting aspect to the Nuits de Feux competition. It would be good if this idea returned to the Montreal competition at some point in the future.

Paul.

Hey paul,

I think that it would be very interesting if the montreal fireworks competition would have an imposed theme! With 10 participants working with just one theme for 30 minutes... Now that would be a challenge. I too am hoping to visit both montreal and nuits des feux sometime in the future...

vander

No! never ! The imposed theme is not what Montreal needs!!


The best thing of the Montreal competition is that the theme is very important to win. If you force to put an specific song then the theme chosen by company can be deformed. I think this is a good idea in the case of Chantilly, where the shows are only pyromusicals, without tittle, only songs and fireworks. But in Montreal, where every show is an unique piece of art it's not a good idea.

I think this is the first and the biggest difference between the Montreal contest and the competitions of the rest of the world.

Your (and also mine) competition is something artistic, more than only fireworks.

There are more differences between Montreal in Chantilli. For example: THE RISK. Montreal every year invite new companies, new firms from all over the world. A risk that in 25 years have become a succes. In Chantilly ther's always the same line up (more or less) Caballers, Igual, some French companies and some other companies from Europe. There's no risk there.

Moreover Montreal is, in terms of organitzation, location and budget far from the other copmpetitions. Ther's no place like here to make a pyromusical. Maybe Chamtilly is a beautifull place. But In Montreal fireworks become a piece of art.

the Oscars of the pyrotechnic world.

No! never ! The imposed theme is not what Montreal needs!!


The best thing of the Montreal competition is that the theme is very important to win. If you force to put an specific song then the theme chosen by company can be deformed. I think this is a good idea in the case of Chantilly, where the shows are only pyromusicals, without tittle, only songs and fireworks. But in Montreal, where every show is an unique piece of art it's not a good idea.

I think this is the first and the biggest difference between the Montreal contest and the competitions of the rest of the world.

Your (and also mine) competition is something artistic, more than only fireworks.

There are more differences between Montreal and Chantilly. For example: THE RISK. Montreal every year invite new companies, new firms from all over the world. A risk that in 25 years have become a succes. In Chantilly ther's always the same line up (more or less) Caballers, Igual, some French companies and some other companies from Europe. There's no risk there.

Moreover Montreal is, in terms of organitzation, location and budget far from the other copmpetitions. Ther's no place like here to make a pyromusical. Maybe Chamtilly is a beautifull place, but I prefer to see fireworks in a place created only to see fireworks. The lake of La Ronde is the Theater of fireworks, and it's the only one. In Montreal fireworks become an art piece.

I didn't know a lot about this competition, which is held every two years. The 2008 line-up was impressive (Caballer, Igual, Parente, Macedo's, Fuegos Jupiter...). Their website is great. It looks that the displays were broadcast live on the web, as well as a daily newscast!

Moreover, all these shows are fired within 3 consecutive nights. Despite the fact that nights of the 2010 edition may be at the same time than the first show of the Montreal competition, it may be worth to plan a trip for that!

Fred

I went to la Ronde today... and i saw 8 (or 9 ?) cross shaped structures on ramp 3, and 7 hearts on 7 pontoons... Good and evil will fight tonite !!

Enjoy !!!