If you haven’t seen the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, you can probably picture the iconic line of dancers kicking in unison, like a salute to American entertainment from a century ago. Well, this year the show got a surprising update: drones.
Dozens of tiny autonomous quadcopters built by Intel float over the Rockettes during the finale of the new show, and the effect is almost magical. Each little drone is essentially an airborne LED light that, from the audience’s perspective, seems to blend in with the set before bursting out over the dancers. In the final minutes of thenear century-old show in Radio City Music Hall, the stage seems to come alive with flying robots. This sort of thing would have melted the brains of the folks who saw the first holiday show with the Rockettes back in 1933. Yet, here we are.
Advertisement
This is hardly the first time drones have been used as entertainment. Intel itself has been pioneering the technology in outdoor light sh..