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Hacker News Comments on
2,000 drones light up night sky in Shanghai to welcome new year

CGTN America · Youtube · 29 HN points · 0 HN comments
HN Theater has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention CGTN America's video "2,000 drones light up night sky in Shanghai to welcome new year".
Youtube Summary
Nearly 2,000 drones took to the night sky and illuminated the Huangpu River in Shanghai to welcome in the new year.

They formed various patterns ranging from the Earth to a dragon.

At around midnight, the drones gathered to form a running man. It moved forward, showing the changes and achievements Shanghai has made in the past 40 years.

The show ended with drones forming the Chinese characters of "Zhui Meng" (Dream pursuit).
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Jan 03, 2020 · 27 points, 13 comments · submitted by tartoran
todotask
Singapore has 500 drones too! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zmpB3SEZ2Rk
rytill
Does anyone know what kind of tech is used for this and the original content?

All radio frequency communication?

What drones are used?

How do the drones learn about one another's position mid-flight?

Looks like Intel has an offering from $150k to $350k+: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/technology-innovatio...

pg_is_a_butt
> Does anyone know what kind of tech is used for this

Imagination and lies.

orev
There are many reports coming out that this was faked. People who were there posting videos of waiting for the show, and then nothing happening. I believe it as some of the animations look a bit too fast or precise to be done by real drones.
tartoran
It doesn’t seem too impressive to be fake to be honest. I mean it is impressive with respect to the size but with enough care it is definitely doable.
DarthGhandi
> many reports

The only thing I can find is a Reddit post saying it's fake. Got something substantial instead?

Given the Chinese previously broke the record 2 years ago with 1300 and Intel broke it again just recently with over 2000 why exactly do you think it's fake?

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/commercial/2018/5/...

lakisy

   They admitted it that it was fake. 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50979557
robomartin
I thought about doing this about ten years ago when our town decided to discontinue fireworks shows due to fire risk. At the time it would have been too expensive to attempt. It’s really neat to finally see this happen.
datashow
Maybe I am the only one feeling this way? These drone shows are just silly elementary level computer visual arts with a huge size.

Fireworks are visually way way better than these, and more creative, more exciting and holiday-ish.

rytill
There's definitely something to it existing at scale, in the real world, but I mostly agree.

I'd be interested to see what visuals can happen if the drones had additional props, like fog and directable light beams.

n_t
I wonder if sound from these 2k drones was deafening.
tartoran
Curious too. If they’re nearby maybe so but high up in the air they may not be too loud.
lvturner
I -used- to love fireworks, but over the years it dawned on me the huge negative impacts that they have have (pollution, terrifying wildlife and pets, etc) and I'm now unable to see them as much other than an extravagant, arrogant, complete waste.

While I'm aware that there are a lot of eco-costs involved in building drones, it's nice to see alternatives to fireworks - that are at the very least are reusable.

tartoran
I was thinking the same thing as well. It’s very interesting that fireworks originated in china and in a way it’s now full circle
Jan 02, 2020 · 2 points, 0 comments · submitted by dawkins
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