Drones in Superbowl Halftime Show Were Pretaped

Lady Gaga nailed her half-time show performance at the Super Bowl Sunday night, but it was Intel’s drone display that got the tech world talking.

According to Wired, it may have been the first time you saw 300 drones flying in sync, but it most likely won’t be the last. The hundreds of drones that were part of Gaga’s show will soon change agriculture, the way search and rescue teams operate, and so much more.

The Shooting Star drone system is Intel’s brainchild and was the next-generation technology that made the pop star’s show come to life. The company took to Twitter to say how pleased they were with the performance:

If only our drones could drop the mic. #PepsiHalfTime #ExperienceMore #SB51 pic.twitter.com/VEVuNEe9Ex

— Intel (@intel) February 6, 2017

The drones in Sunday night’s show were about a foot long square and weighed approximately eight ounces. Their bodies were made of plastic and foam, in case of impact. The flying robots were equipped with LEDs and able to communicate wirelessly with a central computer. The stunning aerial acrobatics were choreographed with code, according to Wired.

The creators of this show starting prepping back in December and had an enormous amount of restrictions to contend with. For example, the FAA put a limit on how high drones are allowed to fly and how many people they are cleared to fly over. We’re pretty sure 80,000 people are too many, but Intel still managed to pull this off.

An exemption from the feds was necessary, and that wasn’t easy given that the NRG Stadium’s location falls under Houston Hobby Airport’s air traffic control jurisdiction.

So, how did they do it? According to Wired, they taped the show before the game.

“The whole halftime is a huge execution monster of an exercise,” Anil Nanduri, who leads Intel’s drone efforts, told Wired.

The drones and Gaga’s message of inclusion were definitely the highlights of this year’s halftime show.

300 Intel drones. One amazing light show. #PepsiHalfTime #ExperienceMore pic.twitter.com/eyruTyarXe

— Intel (@intel) February 6, 2017