Shaun Hauter is an independent pyromusical designer based in the United States. From competition stages at PGI and SkyWars to a Back to the Future drone show with 12,240 cues, he's built a reputation for ambitious, crowd-pleasing shows. We spoke with Shaun about his creative process, what drives him, and why the industry needs new blood.
For the grand public display at the Western Winter Blast, Shaun designed a Back to the Future-themed show with drones, filling an entire Mongoose firing system to its maximum: 12,240 cues. The setup took a team of 25 people working for nearly a week.
"We filled the Mongoose up, which is 12,240 cues. That was a completely full system. We had like 25 people working on that for a week and we still almost didn't make it in time."
Shaun
The movie theme came together with voice clips and audio from scenes woven between songs. But looking back, Shaun admits the scale was more ambition than necessity.
"That show could have been phenomenal with 3,000 or 4,000 cues. But hindsight 20/20—we probably shouldn't have done 12,000 cues, but it was fun. It'd never been done, and we did it, so we have that feather in our cap, right?"
Shaun
For Shaun, designing a pyromusical is an intuitive process. Everything starts with the audio track—finding the right music, sound bites, or movie clips—and then matching the fireworks to the energy of each moment.
"If it's a slow part of the song, you want to use quiet, slow fireworks. If it's an intense part of the song, you speed up the pace, you add more stuff. If there's obviously great hit points or note beats, you match Mines and Comets and make it look well. You just go with the flow."
Shaun
A background in high school percussion gives him an edge. Beats, tempo, and song feel are deeply rooted in how he approaches a show.
"I have somewhat of a musical background. I played percussion in high school. Beats and notes and timing are kind of deeply rooted in me already. I feel like that's an advantage that a lot of other people don't have."
Shaun started scripting shows on a basic Excel-like sheet with no visualization at all. Moving to 3D software changed everything—but it was FWsim's approach that stuck.
"I played with both for about a week. I just did not like the other software's user interface, how everything worked. FWsim—I was like a fish in water. I felt comfortable. It was easy. It was intuitive."
Shaun
Over the years, his workflow evolved. At first, he dropped every cue individually - now he uses the FWsim "Sequences" feature to build Steppers quickly.
"At the beginning, I was dropping every single cue individually and didn't understand steppers. And now 99% of my show is steppers. I almost never use a single cue anymore unless there's a real need for it."
Shaun
He even uses FWsim to design custom comet shapes—hearts and stars fired from a single rack, with each cue timed down to 0.05 seconds to get the shape just right.
For setup, Shaun relies on FWsim's cue sheet exports. Each cue is checked off as it's wired, giving the crew a verified, clean setup.
"We love the FWsim exports. We only use the cue sheets. We mark it off as we go, and that verifies every single one is done correctly. Mistakes still are made—we're all human—but for the most part, most of our shows are pretty clean."
Shaun
At SkyWars, over 10,000 people watch the shows live. For Shaun, that crowd reaction is the whole point.
"It's pleasing a crowd with something you came up with on your own. That's the bread and butter for me. It's what I love about it—making the crowd excited with a fireworks display, something they'll never forget."
Shaun
He's won all three competition classes at PGI—small, large, and unlimited—and once came within half a point of sweeping all three in a single year. But what matters most to him is what happens after the show.
"It inspires people. They go, I want to get into this, and they find their way into the industry and start doing it themselves. And we need more of that. Because the industry will die if we don't have new people coming into it."
Shaun
"Follow your dreams and do it. Don't be scared. Start small and work your way up. Don't bite off more than you can chew. But anyone can do it. You just put your mind to it—like anything. Go for it if you've got the desire."
Shaun
FWsim Pro is used by pyrotechnicians and display companies in over 40 countries — from competition stages to shows with 12,240 cues.