(If the video above doesn’t automatically start at the drone light show, it begins at the 30-minute mark)
There are only 360 days left until the best athletes from around the region converge on Jakarta and Palembang for the 18th Asian Games. While some are worried about whether the Indonesian government will be able to pull off all the required preparations for the games on time, none of those worries were on display Friday night at Jakarta’s National Monument, where an elaborate televised celebration to kick off the one year countdown until the opening of the games took place, including the amazing cutting edge drone light show seen above.
The light show was performed by a swarm of 300 specialized drones made by Intel that use proprietary software to coordinate the flight paths of each individual drone to so they can form elaborate configurations (like the word Asian, a man lighting a torch, and the Indonesian State Emblem) without running into each other. This video from Intel explains how their “shooting star” drones work in greater detail (apparently it only takes 2 people to control the entire swarm).
You can also watch the rest of the Asian Games Countdown ceremony program in the video at the top of the page. Some other highlights from the show include President Joko Widodo shooting an arrow at an electronic target to officially start the countdown as well as performances by the likes of Far East Movement and Girl’s Generation (who came with some controversy).
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