CINEMATIC DRONE LIGHTING
MASSIVE 2500W LED DRONE OR 600W FPV SETUP
Over the past years, we have developed a series of groundbreaking drone lighting systems designed for high-end film productions. Our custom-built lighting drones are deployed as mobile key lights to illuminate film sets, track fast-moving subjects, or when moving light itself becomes a conceptual and narrative element of the production. Flying powerful drone lighting systems opens up cinematic possibilities that are simply unattainable with traditional rigs. This approach is used across commercials, feature films, music videos, and complex film productions where flexibility, precision, and creative control are essential. All of our drone lighting technology is engineered and developed in-house in our Amsterdam workshop. Driven by a strong technical foundation, we deliver bespoke, no-compromise solutions, designed on set and proven in real-world production environments. If your requirements are highly specific or a shot seems technically impossible, we will design and build a fully custom system, tailored precisely to your production and creative vision. Importantly, we are fully certified for night-time drone operations, allowing us to operate safely and production-ready under demanding conditions.
"CONCEPTUAL LED OR KEY LIGHT FOR DIFFICULT SET LOCATIONS"
1200W LED GIMBAL SETUP
2500W WATER COOLED LED
Coloured and dimmable
600W OR MINI FPV LED
600W LED INSPIRE 3
POWERFULL 360 LIGHTBULB
ADVENTAGES OF DRONE LIGHTING
FAST & FLEXIBLE | EASY TO RELOCATE | STATIC OR MOVING |
Hard-to-reach locations where a crane or Manitou can not get are a piece of cake for our lighting drones. Using GPS we can get back to the same location over and over again, always providing continuity for your production. We can fly our lighting systems above water, in dense forests, in the mountains, or deserts, it’s no problem for us. Our drone lights are gimbal-controlled so we can adjust the angle in mid flight. We can dim the lights and turn them on and off from a distance and fly one or even multiple drone lighting systems simultaneously! All our drones are equipped with an FPV camera so our pilots and lighting operators can easily see where they are aiming the light.
2500W AND 360.000 LUMEN
MAXIMUM LIGHT POWER WITH ONE OR MULTIPLE DRONES
Flying drones equipped with high-power LED lighting requires deep technical expertise. Not only in terms of flight performance, but also in ground-based control, precise dimming, and the ability to trigger complex lighting sequences such as storm or lightning effects. Contrary to common assumptions, high-output LEDs generate significant heat, making thermal management absolutely critical. This is why, as early as 2019, we chose a water-cooled design for one of our first drone lighting systems. This initial 1,800W LED unit measured just 15 × 16 × 14 cm, weighed only 1.8 kg, and delivered an output of 163,000 lumens—a combination of size, weight, and performance that was truly unmatched at the time and opened up entirely new creative possibilities. Today, even more powerful LED technologies are available, and we continue to push boundaries through in-house development and rapid prototyping. Using our own 3D printers, we design and build custom LED configurations tailored to different drone platforms. Our current systems range from compact 600W LED FPV cinelifter setups to gimbal-controlled 1,000W LEDs, a 600W LED system for the Inspire 3, full-color LED drone lighting, and—currently in development—a water-cooled 2,500W LED system delivering unprecedented light output from an aerial platform.
"STATIC 'MOONLIGHT' VS LIGHTING A HIGH SPEED CHASE"
Dual drone key-light for high-speed film sets
FPV DRONE LIGHTING SETUP
CINELIFTER FPV DRONE FOR SMALL FLYING FAIRY TALE EFFECT
In addition to our larger aerial LED systems, we operate a compact FPV lighting setup that enables a distinctly different lighting approach. Flown on an FPV platform, this system functions as a small, moving aerial light source, creating a controlled, floating point of light. Unlike our larger systems, the LED is directly hard-mounted to the drone. With single- or dual-directional output, this setup produces a tight, mobile light orb that can be choreographed through space, delivering an almost ethereal quality while remaining fully controllable on set. This FPV lighting system is flown by our dedicated FPV pilots, Thomas de Koster and Vladdie de Koning. The setup has been used on a range of high-end productions, including Mitsubishi commercials, an Oceanco superyacht reveal, and the SIRE campaign released in late 2023.
DRONE LIGHTING WORKFLOW
AIR TIME | CHARGING BATTERIES | MONITOR
Working us and our drone lighting system is a little bit different than working with a crane or Manitou. Our drones can get to hard to reach places you were never able to put up a light. We can easily change locations, we can hang absolutely still or chase the action flying 100kmph. A disadvantage is maybe we need to change batteries once in a while. Currently, we have a flight time of 12 minutes so during the reset we also land and change the batteries of the drone. This takes around 2 minutes after which we can take off and fly to the exact same location as before, using GPS. We are currently working on a bigger setup and bigger drone getting our airtime up to 20 or even 25 minutes! Charging we do next to our Kiwi van or using a 5KW generator. These things are always discussed in pre-production in collaboration with ELT. using the genny makes us able to have non-stop drone flights, not missing a single take. To see what we are adding to the image, we like to give our DJI transmission sender to the VTR so we can see the A camera image on our own 21″ monitor. This way we know what the 1stAD or DoP is talking about and we can deliver in the best possible way.
"FOR FULL FEUTURE FILM PRODUCTIONS OR CONCEPTUAL COMMERCIAL OR MUSIC VIDEO"
YOUR CUSTOM DRONE LIGHT
ALWAYS BUILDING GROUNDBREAKING EQUIPMENT
Our drone lighting systems are available in multiple formats and are fully customized to meet the specific technical and creative requirements of each production. Every system is modular and custom-built, engineered for maximum control, flexibility, and reliability on set. The LED units can be flown beneath our drones, but are equally deployable on vehicles, RC buggies, or as hand-held fixtures. This cross-platform approach allows a single lighting concept to remain consistent throughout a production, regardless of movement, location, or shooting conditions.
If your idea goes beyond off-the-shelf solutions—whether it’s an alternative light form, a LED tube, or an experimental aerial setup—we intentionally look beyond standard configurations. From our Amsterdam-based workshop, we develop no-compromise, bespoke lighting systems built for productions that push technical and creative limits. Custom engineering is not an exception for us—it is fundamental to how we work. If a setup seems impossible on paper, we’re interested.