Drone Light Shows in Austin

Nationwide. Full airspace and safety planning included.

Austin's festival and event calendar makes it a strong drone-show market, and the Class C airspace is more workable than the Class B cities. Crowd density at festival sites is the governing constraint rather than the airspace.

Choreographed light shows for sports, corporate events, festivals and brand activations. The work is half animation and half aviation: the show is designed like motion graphics, then flown under an airspace plan with the safety case a public crowd requires. We consult on shows nationwide as well as fly them.

Permits and authorizations in Austin

The Texas Film Commission coordinates statewide and the Austin Film Commission handles the city, with state and local incentive programs stacking on top of each other. Permitting is generally faster here than in the coastal markets, which is a genuine scheduling advantage.

When Austin actually flies

Texas summer forces exterior work to the ends of the day and heat affects both aircraft performance and how long anyone wants to stand in a field. Spring and autumn are excellent, and winters are mild enough that shooting continues.

We shoot downtown, the river, the Hill Country, and the Texas landscape — and we travel. CineDrones works nationwide, so if your production is basing in Austin and shooting somewhere else entirely, that is a normal week for us.

What a Austin booking includes

  • Show design and choreography
  • Airspace plan and FAA coordination
  • Crowd safety case and exclusion zones
  • Site survey and launch geometry
  • Full crew on show night, plus rehearsal

Fleet sized to the design rather than a fixed package, because resolution in the sky is a function of aircraft count.

Selected credits

Our aerial units have worked on Ozark, Jack Ryan, Bosch, Mayans M.C., SEAL Team, NCIS: New Orleans, Fear the Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Modern Family, 9-1-1, Goliath, The Resident, Raising Dion, Castle Rock, Doctor Sleep and Chef's Table, for Netflix, Amazon, Apple, HBO, Hulu, Showtime, Sony, CBS, AMC, MTV and Bravo. See the work →

Drone Light Shows in Austin — questions we get

How many drones does a show need?

It depends entirely on what you want in the sky. Simple logos and text need far fewer aircraft than animated sequences. We size the fleet to the storyboard rather than selling a package and cutting the design to fit.

How far ahead do we need to plan a show in Austin?

Longer than most clients expect. The airspace approval and the safety case are the schedule drivers, not the animation. Start the conversation months out for anything over a public crowd.

What happens if the weather turns on show night?

There is a defined go/no-go framework agreed before the event, with wind and visibility limits set in advance. Building the contingency into the contract is part of doing this properly.

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