Engineering the Perfect New Year’s Eve
The first Times Square Ball Drop occurred a lot earlier than many may think: in 1907, just three years after the iconic locale's first New Year’s celebration. This first ball, designed by Ukrainian immigrant metal worker Jacob Starr, was made of wood and iron. It weighed 700 pounds and shined with only one hundred 25-watt light bulbs.
Over the following century, seven different versions followed. Though all were a far cry from the most recent ball, set to drop (imminently and eminently) in 2021. This modern masterpiece is a mind-boggling work of contemporary engineering and art: it's a 12,000-pound geodesic sphere 12 feet in diameter.
And its capabilities are even more prodigious than its size. It exudes the brilliance of more than 32,000 LEDs, 2,688 Waterford Crystals, and displays 16 million colors (who knew that many existed?) in billions of combinations of psychedelic patterns.
But it's not just the iconic ball receiving an update. An even older, lower-tech tradition is as well: confetti. NYE hopefuls from across the world can add their goals and dreams to the Digital Wishing Wall. So their ambitions can be printed out and added to the confetti that joyously flutters down on the cheering (and restroom-deprived) merry-makers in Times Square.
What's a New Year’s Eve celebration without fireworks?
In a different hemisphere, the 1,667-foot-high Taipei 101 skyscraper stands as one of the tallest buildings in the world. And also one of the tallest to have earned a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for its efforts to exhibit leadership in energy and environmental design.
Yet Taipei's proliferating pollution caused some of Taiwan's environmental officials to previously suggest canceling the New Year’s fireworks show. However, it was evident that the problem had deeper roots, primarily the many flourishing industries in the region. So the output from a single 300-second show would have an infinitesimal impact in the face of these graver concerns, which endlessly and prolifically pump out pollutants every day.
So Taipei 101's solution was to scale back the materials but not the show. And engineering came to the rescue. They used 16,000 fireworks instead of 30,000 but supplemented it with a machining marvel: a gigantic, 55-story-tall mesh screen embedded with 140,000 brilliant LEDs.
But that's not all. Another recent lighting renovation gave Taipei's tower the world's highest dynamic wall display, situated between its 97th and 100th floors. Featuring over 10,000 "individually controllable light points," it's unbelievably efficient, operating on less electricity than your toaster.
High-tech light shows will supplement, rather than replace, fireworks
Taipei hasn't done away with fireworks but reminds us that combustion is a last-millennium type of process. Luckily, drone technology offers an additional medium for stunning, eye-catching aerial light shows. For an example, look no further than the last New Year’s countdown from Seoul, courtesy of Hyundai and approximately 1,000 drones.
Like fireworks, these displays don't just mark outstanding occasions but outstanding people. Such as the healthcare workers and essential employees, who were honored last year in a show put on by Verge Aero.
Nearly 140 drones took to the sky, 400 feet above Philly's Franklin Field stadium on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Perfectly choreographed by time-tested software and under supervision by ground control, they avoided collisions and assembled themselves into different designs. All while in view of the nearby hospitals and medical centers.
One image, inter-joined hearts, demonstrated how most people feel, or should feel, about the under-appreciated and selfless healthcare workers and essential workers who've helped countless others.
In a broader, technological trend, that intricate show only required a ground control crew of two technicians. And alternative light shows like these demonstrate an integration of the engineering disciplines of the future: digitized realizations and their flawless translation to the real world.
With innovations like these becoming ever-more common, who knows what the future has in store for the long-honored tradition of New Year’s Eve. The only thing we know is that we can’t wait to find out.