How do LED Wristbands Work?
If you go to a big arena concert, like Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, Coldpaly’s tour or attend a Kpop concert, light up sticks and wristbands will likely be a part of your experience, which turn the audience into part of the show, with synchronised light displays at the touch of a button. So how do these small devices create these huge immersive visuals?
Often times people think that there’s a GPS in each of these devices or like there’s a lot of AI, advanced technology involved, but it’s actually made of old school technology used in a creative method.
Montreal-based PixMob is a leading company in event LED technology. PixMob have done Taylor Swift’s tours, Coldplay, the Weekend, Bad Bunny and most of the major tours in North America. And to do that they use two different technologies.
The simplest — RF wristbands, receive a radio frequency communicating the precise timing and colours for each band. The wristband has LED lights, a small computer and a receiver. Based on the RF commands received by the receiver, the computer lights up the LEDs. Each of these are pre-programmed to be a part of a different group based on the effect.
In the control room, when a conductor activates one of the programmed effects, different groups light up in sync to create different patterns within the stadium. The conductor can also manually operate them based on the moment. This makes audience feel a part of the show and makes them excited. The signal is emitted from a transmitter about the size of a tissue box that is connected to a light board. RF technology is used by most of the wearable LED companies as it is easy to travel with the entire control system in a suitcase.
The more advanced wristbands use infrared technology. It is the same thing that is used to turn on your tv. It’s a technology that is 50 years old but we have been able to twist it in a way that makes it new and magical. Because we use Infrared, we can send data to specific locations and it doesn’t have to be the same data. That’s how they create those specialised effects which can almost turn the crowd into a video canvas. These signals come from robotic transmitters placed all over the arena. These transmitters are placed on the sound towers and on the stage.
The wristbands are also called pixels. By adding more transmitters we can create more complex animations. To create different shapes, PixMob uses masks and shines the infrared signal through it. The result being different shapes on different parts of the audience. When the beam is on you, your wristband displays that colour otherwise it doesn’t display any colour.
Audience concert lighting really started in Korea with K-Pop bands in the ’90s, and they get quite creative too. The lightsticks are not handed out as a part of the concert. They are mementos that fans will sometimes spend more than 8000Rs on. They work a bit differently. You download the app, enter your seating information and connect the light via bluetooth. It’s how detailed they can be with their arena-sized designs.
It’s wonderful right how old school technologies can be used in a creative way to create things that would otherwise require a lot of advanced technology?!
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