This is a cross post from the CohesiveFT corp blog.

For many years setting off fireworks was a labor intensive task, with people running around lighting blue touch papers. That’s been changed in recent years, and large displays are now automated. Somebody programs a script into a box, then presses the Go! button to set things off. Once in a while there is some horrible error in setting the timings (like mixing up seconds and milliseconds) and all of the fireworks go off pretty much at once (with some newsworthy examples in recent years from Oban and San Diego).

As you can see, the results can be pretty impressive, but it lacks the duration and drama of the planned event – particularly when it was expected to be set to music.