To ensure this part of the show crackles with precision, software-aided choreography is a must. "You can be more creative and accurate," he said.

But software helps pyrotechnics pros get the most bang out of high-altitude fireworks as well, according to Kepley.

"If a firework needs to burst at a specific time to align with the music, it must be fired several seconds prior to that time," he said. "It would be very difficult to manually fire a show that needed to be synched with other events without very noticeable timing errors."

Not every fireworks show uses software like ShowSim, however.

"Your typical small-town 4th of July show is not choreographed to music or even pre-planned as to which shells are going off at what time, so there is no need for the design and planning that goes into a higher-budget show," Kepley said.