Tuesday August 1, 2:17
PM
Triple fireworks
treat planned for NDP 2006
SINGAPORE : For the first time, a triple treat is in store for fans
of fireworks at this year's National Day Parade.
Besides the traditional fireworks finale, you can also expect
fireworks to go off midway and at the start of the show.
The show will start with a bang, with fireworks bursting into the
sky as high as 80 metres from the rim of the stadium for about a
minute.
The stadium will be transformed into a giant birthday cake with 41
candles, signifying the nation's 41st birthday.
As a safety precaution, the last few rows round the stadium will be
cordoned off; Mountbatten Road and Nicoll Highway are also closed
to traffic.
Brackets have been specially tailor made for this year's show; each
of the 50 crates can take a load of up to 50 kilogrammes.
It takes some eight men to launch just one crate and each of them
is unique, packed with individualised fireworks.
Said Major Jason Lee, Chairman Fireworks, NDP 2006, "We have many,
many layers of safeguards. All the fireworks cues are actually
coded into a digital code and it is actually overlaid onto the
music that is being played during the show. In the event that our
digital system fails, we have a manual voice back-up to ensure that
we can still control the fireworks."
In the middle of the show, a minute of multi-coloured fireworks
will burst out from the heart of the stadium during the Provost
display.
About 20 props and mobile stages will be rigged with low-level
fireworks, hitting as high as 20 metres.
Said Adam Tan, pyro-technician, NDP 2006, "We have quite a lot of
mobile platforms, mobile staging. We needed to introduce a wireless
remote firing to control the synchronised fireworks remotely.
Therefore we have imported a German system, and this system works
well in an environment of close proximity with a wireless device to
about 500 metres."
The climax of the fireworks show is the three-minute grand
finale.
The fireworks will be launched from the practice track, some 200
metres from the stadium.
They are expected to scale some 250 metres into the sky, providing
a spectacular view even for those watching the fireworks away from
the stadium. - CNA /ct
