Sirotechnics. The year of 2013.

Sirotechnics. The year of 2013!

Our good friends at Epic Fireworks asked us to write a short piece about the outstanding year Sirotechnics Fireworks had in 2013, so here it goes!

Sirotechnics was born out of a long-held passion for fireworks, their effects and most of all their use in telling a story thought the magic of fireworks and music. Each and every year people go to firework displays around the country and enjoy the wonder that something so small can create such a beautiful impact in the sky. Indeed we started out with fireworks in the back garden. Each year we would buy a huge selection of Cakes and Rockets and have a BBQ with friends making the most of the annual Bonfire Night Celebration. This progressed into what we have today, an award-winning pyrotechnics company presenting fireworks displays now internationally as well as in the UK.

So, what made 2013 so good? Well put simply, Sirotechnics Fireworks won the British Musical Fireworks Championships held at Southport. The competition draws the creme de la creme of the firework industry into one venue for a 3-night battle to see who can come up with the most innovative, impressive, synchronised and spectacular firework display set to around fifteen minutes of music.

Since being crowned champions of 2013, many people including Paul at Epic Fireworks have asked how you go about presenting a world-class award-winning pyromusical? We have broken it down into a number of steps for you to see:

1) Hone your art by gaining years of experience. Sirotechnics did not go into this competition blind. By presenting displays to thousands of spectators we have practiced and practiced until we know how a firework display to music should look, and then, practiced some more.

2) Choose the right music. Music is a very personal experience, what we try to do is choose 1 track in each selection that will appeal to most ages and genres, and then always something we like too! Firework music needs a nice tempo and beat depending on how you want to work with it. If you want to create high impact displays with lots of single shot ignition points then go for something with lots of drums, rock music works great!

3) Product selection, would you believe, we also use retail fireworks? That's right, professional shows aren't always packed full of the biggest cakes you can get, Sirotechnics use a great variety of products some of which are available to the general public, we use fireworks such as Epics Silver Spirals for quiet shows and Angels Vs Demons has appeared in many of our professional wedding fireworks displays!

4) For every professional fireworks display, you need excellent equipment and an electronic firing system. Sirotechnics use a variety of equipment, some made by ourselves for holding Roman Candles and close proximity effects. We also use a Spanish manufactured device for single shot work for the bangs on the beat along with British made Pyroquip Mortar Racks for holding our Fibre Glass mortar tubes in place. To actually fire the display in a competition we use Japanese igniters - why - because they are the most reliable in the world with a failure rate of 1 in 1 Million!! We then team this with an industry leading firing system which is controlled by a computer script. For the BMFC in Southport, we employed the Pyromate Digital Nighthawk firing system using just over 1000 individual ignition points set over 24 different firing positions.

5) You can't do any fireworks display by yourself, it's just not safe or practical - so get some crew! Sirotechnics crew for the competition comprised of some of the industry leading professionals in our field, with over 350 years experience between them, you can see these guys know exactly what to do. Couple this with the preparation that is thought through to make the day as easy to set up as possible and you should be finished, ready to test, early. Sirotechnics had over 1800 individual fireworks in the display, that meant we stuck on 1800 labels which told us the effects exact position, angle and firing time. with 18 team members, we had tested the show, with 100% fire rate, by 4.30pm!

6) Finally, cross your fingers. On firework displays of this size, anything can happen. There have been plenty of occurrences in the past where things have gone wrong, a small fire on a cake can melt the firing system and stop the show, perhaps a shell has burst in the rack and ruined the safety of the show, peoples computers have even shut down! So yes we rely on a little bit of luck too to help us though sometimes!

There it is then, how to go and win yourself the coveted title of the BMFC!

Sirotechnics Fireworks will be back in a few years time to compete for the champions of champions event. Until then they have many exciting prospects coming up.

Here's the winning display of 2013 - Sirotechnics, The Best of British, 2013:

BMFC Southport Fireworks 2013 Winning Display by Sirotechnics Fireworks from Sirotechnics Fireworks on Vimeo.