Tethered to its power cable, a batteryless drone swings in the space.
Visitors on the Frank Areal could start it remotely via a button.
For the installation, an F450 drone was modified by removing its onboard battery and connecting it to a continuous power supply. Its live video signal was transmitted via cable and distributed across six surrounding screens.
A custom-built control system enabled visitors to remotely initiate the drone’s programmed flight sequence at the push of a button. The system allowed the drone to take off, perform a predefined flight, and land autonomously.
The installation connected two locations: the exhibition space window on Gärtnerstrasse and the exhibition space on the festival grounds. Visitors at either location could remotely trigger the drone’s launch.
At the gallery space, the drone’s live video feed was distributed across six surrounding screens, creating a fragmented visual feedback of the drone’s perspective. At the remote location, the same live feed was presented as a single projection, providing a direct view into the drone’s flight.
Project Page | Martin Fuchs | CollectiveMedia
Ausstellungsraum Bollag and Frank Areal.
An installation for the Live Video Fest in Basel.
24–26 September 2026.
| Hardware | One Arduino Nano ESP32 on the drone, sending PPM signals to the DJI remote controller (thinks it’s receiving signals from a regular remote controller). |
| Software | Arduino creates a WLAN and a network interface with a start button as an HTML page. That site is forwarded to a custom server via a reverse proxy and opened the page in the exhibition kiosk browser on a touchscreen. |
| Video Signal | Camera signal directly with a cable, treat it as an S-Video signal, convert it to HDMI, and distribute it to the screens. Also routed via HDMI → USB webcam → OBS Studio → video livestream. |
