Arvest Ballpark in Springdale plans a three-day firework extravaganza. However, the large show will be tonight (July 4). Pyrotechnics are prepping for the 15 minute presentation, which starts after the 7 p.m. baseball game against Midland.
The Naturals announced its Fourth of July game is sold out. The last day for a firework show is Saturday.
Matt Tate is the lead shooter. He said they plan to shoot off about 500 shells and 45 cake boards. He said he uses Microsoft excel to write a script.
"I'll sit down at my computer and figure out, 'OK I want to shoot this shell here, I want to shoot this cake here' and I program it into what time it's going to shoot and program it into the remote," Tate said.
He said he has a central remote where he manages and programs each firework to synchronize to music.
"This is all wireless," Tate said. "This remote communicates with everything."
"There are no wires," he said. "We don’t have to close the street down except for when we are actually shooting so it makes it a lot better for the ballpark as well.”
Tate said they'll have 13 firing systems around the ballpark that he'll control with his remote.
"Think of it as a remote control car," Tate said. "This is the remote you hold in your hand, this (firing system) is the car." Whatever I tell this to do, it sends signals to each one of these boxes to tell it to fire a cue and when to fire a cue."
The ballpark has a contract with Firestorm PowerTecnics out of Wichita, Kansas.