Everyone was anticipating how the Super Bowl Halftime Show would go after it was announced that Lady Gaga will be the featured artist this year. Well, because it is Lady Gaga. The performance was expected to be fantastic. And she did not disappoint.
After the sports event ended, perhaps her performance was even more highlighted in social media and television news over the result of the game itself. Again, because it is Lady Gaga. She could easily overshadow any performance.
But what’s worth noting about the spectacular act other than the award-winning singer herself is the wonderfully coordinated drones coloring the midnight sky at the beginning and the end of the performance. It made the Halftime Show more astounding.
As jaws were dropped by the 300 drones flying in formation, others can’t help but think, “Woah, how did that happen?”
To which Intel, the brains behind the technology, did not hide the real score about that incredible show of drones: it wasn’t done live.
According to Wired, the display was actually filmed earlier in the week to ensure the safety of the live audience. It was also mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration to prohibit any live display. It has a high risk of failure and injury once the drones mess up.
Other than that, it was done to guarantee the entertainment value of the drones show.
Regardless, it was still awesome. It is now considered as the most successful delivery of Intel’s “Shooting Star” program, which is designed to choreograph the drones. One computer and operator controls the whole show, but Intel keeps a backup pilot in case something goes wrong.
Each Shooting Star drone is built with a soft frame made of flexible plastics and foam and contain no screws, says Intel. There may be no screws, but it compensates with built-in LED lights to create over 4 billion color combinations in the sky.
It only weighs about 280 grams or 0.6 pounds, making it vulnerable to winds stronger than 10 meters per second.
That is another reason why it was preferred to be filmed than showed live: the unpredictability of the weather in the actual show. Natalie Cheung, Intel’s general manager in Houston, says through USA Today that there is a lot of weather and environment issues.
“In February, you don’t know what it will be like during Super Bowl day,” she says. “We’d hate to plan all this and, if the wind speeds are too high or if it’s raining and the roof is closed, no one can see this spectacular show. So our creative team as well as the Super Bowl creative team felt this would be best to be filmed.”
About 160 million people around the world enjoyed the show anyway so this is not so much big of a deal. Many of us are looking forward to this kind of technology replacing fireworks.
Source: Popular Mechanics
