Given the time difference between South Africa and South Korea, most of what you see from the Winter Olympics will be in the form of highlights.

The second highlight you should take a look at (after the Triple Axel marvel we showed you earlier today) comes from the Opening Ceremony, and involves a quite staggering 1 218 drones working together in perfect harmony.

Before we deal with any of the mechanics and logistics, let’s just take in what went down on Friday over in Pyeongchang.

I reckon you should watch the entire highlights reel from the Opening Ceremony, but if you’re after that drone action then skip to five minutes in:

Not too shabby.

Eagle-eyed viewers might have picked up on one thing, though, with this info from Engadget:

The display was created with Intel’s Shooting Star drones, the same ones used in Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show last year and Intel’s CES keynote in January, and featured drone murmurations that depicted images like a snowboarder and the interlocking Olympic rings.

The Shooting Star light show was pre-recorded, just like Lady Gaga’s American flag, but that’s because Pyeongchang can get very cold and very windy. Neither of those conditions are great for drone performance. Further, while Intel initially planned to also put on a live performance during the ceremony, on-the-ground logistical issues forced the company to cancel the show. However, the company is planning on doing smaller-scale, 300-drone shows during the medal ceremonies and it has tweaked the Shooting Star’s design a little in order to accommodate South Korea’s weather conditions.

The Intel team also put together a little video to celebrate the occasion, which shows the moving snowboarder in all its glory.

Pay special attention from 1:50 onward:

Feeling inspired? I doubt you’ll be pulling off something similar, but if you’re keen to get into the drone game then weFix is the place to get cracking.

Drones start off from just R2 000, so now you really have no excuse.

[source:engagdget]