Canadian drone show company lands US headquarters in Tampa

Christian Ilumin knew a thing or two about aviation startups before starting his own company, Toronto-based Illumin Drone Shows, in 2021. 

In the mid 1990s he got his start at an airline and climbed the leadership ranks at Canadian Skyservice Airlines and Sky Regional Airlines, with a brief stint at Virgin America. His institutional knowledge of the industry prepared him for the life of aeronautical entrepreneurship that would eventually bring his company, which produces drone light shows, to Florida: The company recently announced its U.S. hub will be in Tampa.

Tampa was attractive for many reasons — weather being a big one. A wide open market is another one. “I love the beaches," he says. "There's a lot of open space. And you know, the way I see it right now is there's an opportunity in the sense that I don't see too many drone show companies making Tampa home yet."

For a drone light show, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), also known as drones, fly in a synchronized sequence with LED lights attached, creating a static image or alternating to tell a story to the viewer. The first drone art display ever recorded took place in Austria in 2012 at the Ars Electronica Futurelab, where 49 quadcopters took to the sky simultaneously.

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Illumin Drone Shows is self-funded through Ilumin and a business partner. Ilumin declined to disclose annual revenue. The company has 32 employees and a fleet of 700 drones in its possession and have flown for brands TD Bank and Range Rover, flying for a blend of brand marketing and events like fairs and music festivals. A lot of factors influence cost, such as permit fees and story complexity, but on the low end shows start at $20,000-$40,000.

Once a client is onboarded, the pre-production process begins with two steps happening in parallel. The pilot performs an inspection of the site and the client begins storyboarding with designers. The pilot then approves the story based on the capabilities of the site and then creates a path file that the drones will use in flight. Tests are carried out the day of the event.

The success of the event is weather dependent. The drones are water resistant to some degree, but the real struggle is wind. Day to day weather conditions are not the only villain. “Canada already is a challenging market in the summer already, and going into the winter season, it's just not favorable for us,” Ilumin says, referring to the -20 degree weather endured in Canadian winters.

The frigid temperatures are what brought Ilumin to Tampa in the first place. “For us Canadians, going to Florida is a thing,” Ilumin says, citing a storied tradition of snowbirds flocking to the warmer climate, including his parents, in Dunedin. 

Although Tampa is not free from wind gusts, the generally favorable weather the majority of the year allows Illumin to operate year-round without worries of having to cut staff in the off season. 

The open season on the drone market, meanwhile, has proven to be a bit of a blessing and a curse. 

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“I would say being a new technology in Canada and in the marketplace where it's rather limited, it makes it very tough for us to really get people buying it and then believing in us to do it,” Ilumin says “It's not normal, not many people believe you’ve done it, and now you're going out and trying to sell it to them, right?”

Once the brand has established a presence in Tampa, the plan is to pursue larger scale events for quintessentially Floridian companies like theme parks and cruise lines. So far, the largest show has been 600 drones, which broke the record for largest drone show in Canada. Ilumin is looking to move that number into the thousands.

“I just want to keep on, no matter how many drones we have, pushing our creative limits and continue to do that,” Ilumin says, “I think that will always make it fresh, that will always make it new for our team. Them walking in and knowing that's kind of where we want to push the company, not only with design, but with technology. We want to obviously stay current with what's going on and the newest and innovative technology and incorporate [that] into our work and into our design.”