The highlight of the two full days at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was the 10 PM Wednesday night drone performance by Intel. I was not aware Intel was building their own drones. They do not offer them for sale, but are using them for marketing purposes. My son and I stood on the Bellagio terrace when the performance began with more than a thousand fountains dancing in front of the hotel, enhanced by music and light. The display spans more than 1,000 feet horizontally with water soaring as high as 460 feet into the air. 

Off to the far left, dots of light began to appear (see the video). As the dots got closer, they began to change colors and form patterns in the sky as the music began. The music was loud and clear, and Intel’s 250 drones were choreographed to synchronize with the music. The drones weighed next to nothing, and they were roughly a foot in diameter. The video does not do justice to the spectacular performance. You had to see it in person to believe it. 

The most amazing thing to me was none of the 250 drones bumped into each other. After the 5 minutes or so of music, the drones turned around and headed back to somewhere near the Las Vegas Convention Center to land. All the drones were controlled by one Intel person using one computer (no doubt with “Intel inside”).