Whether you attended the most-awaited Diljit Dosanjh's 'Dil-Luminati' concert in Delhi last weekend or felt 'FOMO' while scrolling through Instagram reels, you must have noticed unique colourful wristbands worn by the people who attended the houseful show.
These wristbands light up the entire stadium in sync and form intricate patterns. These bands are now commonly seen in various concerts across the world. Coldplay, Lady Gaga, and many other K-pop concerts have used this LED technology in the audience's wristbands to create immersive visual effects. What were those shiny bands?
There is no AI or advanced machine learning but they function using RFID technology or infrared technology, the Wall Street Journal explained in a video.
The wristbands are equipped with a signal receptor and a tiny computer to process the signal into lighting colours. An operator would send out the signals from a small control board, and change the colours in different sections of the audience.
This works very effectively when the audience sits in designated areas and doesn’t change their seats. Another method is infrared technology, which is the same as a remote control for the TV. Different moving patterns and shapes can be displayed like a digital canvas with this technology.
"By setting up robotic transmitters all over the arena, operators can send out lighting data through these transmitters to wherever they want, and create moving imageries like snakes. By placing masks on the transmitters, they can also create shapes like hearts," WSJ explained.
One more technique is often seen at K-pop concerts and it is Bluetooth. The fans would connect their light sticks or wristbands to their phones via Bluetooth with the information about their seating. This allows the lighting operators to create highly detailed patterns or words with light.