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Live From...
Interview With Brian Hill
Aired July 04, 2003 - 14:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, holiday celebrations from a different angle, specifically the firing line of the fireworks. Daniel Sieberg has a closer look from Atlanta's Centennial Park.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: You might be wondering why I'm wearing this particular helmet right now, and that's because coming up, we're going to do a demonstration of lighting off some fireworks. We are at Centennial Olympic Park, where one of the biggest fireworks shows (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is going to happen tonight, and we are going to give you a kind of behind the scenes look at what goes on here.
I am joined right now by Brian Hill, the assistant general manager at Centennial Olympic Park. Brian, first of all, we are very close to downtown. We are pretty much in the center of downtown. A lot of considerations go into the safety and sort of the close proximity to these buildings.
BRIAN HILL, ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER, CENTENNIAL OLYMPIC PARK: Right. Well, we are actually in the heart of downtown, and this park was carved out from the city's center. So, we have special things to consider, the closeness of the buildings, not only do we have to look at the vertical rise on the rockets, but we also have to look at the horizontal rise. So, what we do is use different types of shells. We use close proximity fireworks.
SIEBERG: When you are talking about shells, they're going to going into these canisters, right, that are behind you?
HILL: Yes. What happens is that each shell is loaded into one of the individual tubes. And it gets wired in to this electronic detonator that comes back into the equipment here.
SIEBERG: OK.
HILL: And then each of the wires are placed into the numbers and sequence according to the choreography of the show.
SIEBERG: It's timed down to the exact second, right?
HILL: Yes.
SIEBERG: A 20 plus minute show, you've got the exact second. HILL: Oh, yes, I can't give all the secrets, but then they are released according to the show, and this is state of the art electronic firing systems. I want to mention, obviously, that this isn't the type of thing that people would want to try at home, as much as it seems like a tempting thing.
SIEBERG: Absolutely. Thus, the hard hats and the safety goggles. So, speaking of which, we're going to do a demonstration now of one of these fireworks. I'm going to put on my safety goggles, and we have it all set up here. Again, done by professionals, and we have the box here. Now, what am I going it be using here? This is the ignition box, essentially?
HILL: Right. That's an electronic ignition system. This is going to be a three-inch titanium shell.
SIEBERG: OK, and I am going to turn it to on position. We've got everything set up over there, and I am going to push the arm button, and then the fire button. We're going to hope this goes off the way we planned it. Well, that's the desired effect!
HILL: There you go!
SIEBERG: Now, tonight, of course, there's going to be many more of those, all going off at almost at the same time, right?
HILL: Right. That is going to be the very minuscule part. Our show runs for nearly 24 minutes, one of the longest in the whole area, and there's shots that go on from within the park, from outside the park, from the buildings surrounding us, and all of that process that you saw, that was just a single firing, and there will be thousands of shells in the air tonight at our show.
SIEBERG: All timed perfectly.
HILL: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
SIEBERG: All right, well, Brian Hill, the assistant general manager at Centennial Olympic Park, thanks so much for joining us to talk about this.
HILL: All right, thanks for coming down.
SIEBERG: An inside look at behind the scenes look and a fairly exciting and visual look at the fireworks show here in Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That's our Daniel Sieberg, who still has all ten of his fingers.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 4, 2003 - 14:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, holiday celebrations from a different angle, specifically the firing line of the fireworks. Daniel Sieberg has a closer look from Atlanta's Centennial Park.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: You might be wondering why I'm wearing this particular helmet right now, and that's because coming up, we're going to do a demonstration of lighting off some fireworks. We are at Centennial Olympic Park, where one of the biggest fireworks shows (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is going to happen tonight, and we are going to give you a kind of behind the scenes look at what goes on here.
I am joined right now by Brian Hill, the assistant general manager at Centennial Olympic Park. Brian, first of all, we are very close to downtown. We are pretty much in the center of downtown. A lot of considerations go into the safety and sort of the close proximity to these buildings.
BRIAN HILL, ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER, CENTENNIAL OLYMPIC PARK: Right. Well, we are actually in the heart of downtown, and this park was carved out from the city's center. So, we have special things to consider, the closeness of the buildings, not only do we have to look at the vertical rise on the rockets, but we also have to look at the horizontal rise. So, what we do is use different types of shells. We use close proximity fireworks.
SIEBERG: When you are talking about shells, they're going to going into these canisters, right, that are behind you?
HILL: Yes. What happens is that each shell is loaded into one of the individual tubes. And it gets wired in to this electronic detonator that comes back into the equipment here.
SIEBERG: OK.
HILL: And then each of the wires are placed into the numbers and sequence according to the choreography of the show.
SIEBERG: It's timed down to the exact second, right?
HILL: Yes.
SIEBERG: A 20 plus minute show, you've got the exact second. HILL: Oh, yes, I can't give all the secrets, but then they are released according to the show, and this is state of the art electronic firing systems. I want to mention, obviously, that this isn't the type of thing that people would want to try at home, as much as it seems like a tempting thing.
SIEBERG: Absolutely. Thus, the hard hats and the safety goggles. So, speaking of which, we're going to do a demonstration now of one of these fireworks. I'm going to put on my safety goggles, and we have it all set up here. Again, done by professionals, and we have the box here. Now, what am I going it be using here? This is the ignition box, essentially?
HILL: Right. That's an electronic ignition system. This is going to be a three-inch titanium shell.
SIEBERG: OK, and I am going to turn it to on position. We've got everything set up over there, and I am going to push the arm button, and then the fire button. We're going to hope this goes off the way we planned it. Well, that's the desired effect!
HILL: There you go!
SIEBERG: Now, tonight, of course, there's going to be many more of those, all going off at almost at the same time, right?
HILL: Right. That is going to be the very minuscule part. Our show runs for nearly 24 minutes, one of the longest in the whole area, and there's shots that go on from within the park, from outside the park, from the buildings surrounding us, and all of that process that you saw, that was just a single firing, and there will be thousands of shells in the air tonight at our show.
SIEBERG: All timed perfectly.
HILL: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
SIEBERG: All right, well, Brian Hill, the assistant general manager at Centennial Olympic Park, thanks so much for joining us to talk about this.
HILL: All right, thanks for coming down.
SIEBERG: An inside look at behind the scenes look and a fairly exciting and visual look at the fireworks show here in Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That's our Daniel Sieberg, who still has all ten of his fingers.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
