Dazzling visual display
“We started a small team to try it out — but it was really only when we flew the first flight in Germany did we see the huge opportunity we had just created.”
By choreographing drones to music and lights, Intel is changing entertainment.
“That was when we truly started to venture out to see how we could showcase more of this idea. All it took was a hallway conversation on ‘what if we could do something like this?”
Known as Intel Shooting Star Drones, the project has awed thousands of spectators around the world.
Cheung became involved in drones when she was working in the CEO office as a research analyst.
“I still remember the first time I flew a drone — there was a lot of excitement and I still feel the same level of excitement when I see hundreds, even thousands of drones fly in a show as well as the reactions from the audiences,” she says.
“I can’t wait to share how this new technology can really change the art and entertainment space,” she adds.
The initial Intel drone light shows took five to seven months with 20 people working with 100 drones.
“We realised that we needed to redesign the system from the ground up to optimise the process — from hardware, software, logistics and operations to animation. We created the Intel Shooting Star System, where only a couple months and five to six people on site are needed to fly 300 drones.”
A drone light show is a new form of night time entertainment — it’s a vehicle to display multiple drones, controlled by one pilot and have the fleet create images and animation in the sky synchronised to music and lighting effects. It can be used for entertainment, art, branding in the sky, marketing, events and more. There are many moving parts involved in a light show.
They include development of the animation in a 3D space, software-based control system for hundreds of GPS-equipped drones, working with local aviation regulatory bodies on permits and exemptions while also helping ensure a safe show, and building and maintaining hundreds of drones.
A typical show runs between five and eight minutes based on battery life of the drone, environment, and aviation regulations.
“Our focus is quality shows with 3D points of lights that wow any audience.”
These drone light shows are a full end to end service provided by Intel, which has built and designed these lightweight drones from scratch.
The Intel Shooting Star drone features built-in LED lights that can create volumetric 3D images and animations in the sky with over four billion colour combinations based on red, green, blue and white LED, synchronised to music and lighting effects.
Intel’s proprietary algorithms along with talented graphic designers and animators can automate the creation process for any image, by quickly calculating the number of drones needed, determining the position of the drones and formulate the fastest path to create the image.
“Intel has a proprietary software that runs a complete fleet check prior to each flight and can select the most optimised drones for each flight based on battery life, GPS reception and more. Moreover, one computer can easily control the entire fleet of hundreds of drones.”
I can’t wait to share how this new technology can really change the art and entertainment space. Natalie Cheung