Exploration of Space – Behind the Scenes of a Cinematic Drone Experience at the Manitoba Planetarium

Eric Peters
Dec 1, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Dec 1, 2025

This weekend's Exploration of Space event at the Manitoba Museum Planetarium was everything its name promised — immersive visuals, timeless electronic anthems, and a journey that blended music, atmosphere, and motion.

Our team at DIRXECP x FPV Manitoba had the privilege of capturing this experience with a full mix of FPV cinematography and on-the-ground filmmaking, all produced for Together Again Winnipeg.

This event wasn’t just a show — it was a visual universe waiting to be explored.

A Venue Built for Immersion

The Planetarium is one of Winnipeg’s most distinctive event spaces. The dome, the lighting, the architecture — everything invites creativity. For an EDM experience inspired by classic trance and golden-era electronic music, the venue set the perfect stage.

Our goal for this project was simple: Capture the energy, the movement, and the feeling of being inside a space-themed audio-visual journey.

Our Custom Drone & Camera Workflow

To bring this event to life, we used a hybrid rig approach — combining micro FPV drones, cinematic quad builds, and traditional cameras to create dynamic footage from every angle.

🚁 FPV Fly-Through Shots

We deployed two custom-built O4 platforms specifically tuned for tight indoor environments:

Meteor 75 Pro (O4 Air Unit) – perfect for crowd-safe, micro-precision flying with stabilized low-light capabilities
Itsy Spydr Pro (O4 Air Unit) – agile, powerful, and ideal for fast sweeps, reveals, and immersive fly-throughs

These drones allowed us to capture:

Fast transitions between rooms
Orbit shots around décor and installations
Smooth passes over lighting setups
Immersive movement through crowd and space

🎥 Ground Cinematography

To complete the look, we combined the FPV footage with professional on-the-ground visuals:

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K – for crisp, film-level detail, slow-motion crowd moments, and performance shots
iPhone 16 Pro Max – for quick pickups, real-time reactions, and mobile-style social-ready captures

The mix of high-end cameras and agile FPV systems gave us a layered cinematic style — floating through rooms one moment, grounded in detailed crowd reactions the next.

Flying Indoors with Intention

Drone operations at a public, late-night, high-energy event come with responsibility. All FPV flights were:

Conducted under Transport Canada’s RPAS rules
Flown with Advanced Certified Pilots
Supported with a dedicated Visual Observer
Pre-planned with safe routes, crowd separation, and emergency landing points
Backed by insurance, operations documentation, and a full safety plan

Every flight was coordinated to ensure smooth operation without disrupting guests or production.

Capturing the Energy of the Night

Classic trance, laser beams, spinning lights, and a venue that felt like deep space — visually, this event had everything. We focused on:

crowd energy as the music built
movement of lights and shadows across the dome
artist shots, transitions, and atmosphere
immersive FPV sweeps tying each scene together

The final look is a seamless blend of fluid FPV motion and cinematic, grounded footage — a visual journey that matches the music and theme of the night.

A Night of Classic Trance, Techno & Golden-Era EDM

On top of the atmosphere and visuals, Exploration of Space delivered a lineup that fully embraced the nostalgia and energy of classic electronic music. Both rooms inside the Manitoba Museum were transformed into their own unique sonic worlds.

🌌 Planetarium Stage

Inside the dome, the music took on a cinematic quality of its own:

Dezner (9:00–11:00 PM)Classic Trance — warm pads, rolling basslines, and that unmistakable late-90s emotional uplift.
Fahjah (11:00 PM–12:00 AM)Trance / Techno / Euro Dance — high-energy transitions with a modern twist, stacked with nostalgia and big-room emotion.
Running with Scissors (12:00–2:00 AM)House / Golden Era EDM — groove-heavy, vibrant, and perfectly matched for a late-night Planetarium experience.

🧬 Science Gallery Stage

In the next room over, the tempo picked up with a blend of melodic and driving electronic genres:

Headrush + Sang Money (9:00–2:00 AM)Electro House / Trance / Golden Era EDM — a fully immersive set that kept the gallery moving until close.

Together, these artists created the perfect soundtrack for a night built around movement, exploration, and atmosphere — and capturing that synergy between sound and space was a major focus of our cinematography.

Massive Thanks to Together Again Winnipeg & Stephen Hua

A huge thank you to Stephen Hua and the Together Again team for bringing us into this project. Events like this are the reason we love what we do — creative vision paired with trust in our aerial and cinematography abilities.

Exploration of Space is exactly the type of event that FPV and cinematic drone work elevate to an entirely new level, and we’re grateful to help capture it.