theverge.com

The opening ceremony of the Olympics is always a huge extravaganza with tons of preparation and coordination involved before the whole world can witness it. This year was no different, and Intel played a major role in the record-setting light show performance using 1,218 drones simultaneously flying in patterns to illuminate the Olympic rings along with other images. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the flight set a record for “most unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously,” which shattered the previous record of 500 drones flying together in a performance in Germany in 2016 (also done by Intel).

This is a great example of how advanced computer software has become. The coordination of this many individual devices to basically communicate between each other and know exactly where the correct position they should be at is incredible. What’s even more impressive is that the images were not all static, at one point the drones imitated a large bird flapping its wings. They all would have to move up and down simultaneously at the same speed and direction in order to successfully execute the image how it was intended to look. The Olympics is such a large and popular event that the performances and events associated with it have to match up to the same caliber, and I’m sure that a platform of its magnitude will continue improving their performances to incorporate the most modern technology available.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/9/16994638/winter-olympics-2018-intel-drone-show-world-record