An Explosion of Color and Light: Capturing Intel's Record Breaking 50th Anniversary Drone Show

Colin RIch Capture's Intel's 50th Anniversary Drone Show

Ever wonder what 2,018 drones look like flying in unison? It's a very specific number, but if you said amazing, you're halfway there. Let's just say that if this event had happened over some town twenty years ago, most people would be looking to the sky and bracing themselves for the coming alien invasion.

As the drones took off, they buzzed overhead like a swarm of electric bees

The good folks in Folsom however, must be used to seeing strange floating lights in the night sky.

The LEDs flown on these drones are capable of creating over 4 billion different colors

Intel's Folsom Campus was lively this past weekend, as I ventured from Los Angeles, up I5 to shoot aerial drone footage for Intel of what turned out to be the Guinness World Record for the most amount of drones flying at once. And how did they pull it off? Basically magic.

The display was truly mind boggling. So many drones!

A single computer controlled operation is able to control the drones and alter their altitude, distance, and 4 billion LED colors to create mind-blowing morphing shapes, logos, and just about anything the mind could conceive. Think about a silent fireworks display but multiply that by a factor of 1000x.

I had planned on just shooting aerials when my better sense kicked in and last minute rigged up some timelapse cameras in what I hoped would be good vantage points to capture the show. The results are stunning.

I cut together this short video. Make sure to watch it in 4K. Enjoy!