Chinese drone display wasn’t flying on New Year’s Eve

While many countries celebrate New Year’s Eve with fireworks, a few are changing it up with drone light shows. Chinese broadcast company CCTV shared a video of what looked like drones on New Year’s Eve, displaying cool graphics and welcoming everyone into 2020. But there was a catch.

Chinese drone display wasn’t flying on New Year’s Eve

The catch was that the drones were prerecorded on December 28 during a practice run. This was verified when the company behind the drones told the BBC.

A commenter on YouTube shared their frustration, stating it was so magical that the drones weren’t visible on New Year’s Eve. They also went on to say that the video was originally posted on Weibo on December 30, just a little early.

What’s more impressive is that these drones were invisible to the naked eye, as no spectators were able to see them on NYE! Just fog and disappointment on the Bund. What’s more magical is that this video was originally posted on Weibo on Dec 30. Guess someone at CCTV who can’t read a calendar got fired for that one. At least the CGI tech is now able to show little floating lights fairly convincingly — just got a little too ambitious with the lies.

No doubt having 2,000 drones flying at once is very impressive to watch on the video, but there was no need to lie about the date the drones were flying.

Drones have a vast history of lighting up the sky. Take a look at the following articles:

• Drone light shows in China are showing what is possible
• Check out these amazing drone light shows from Firefly
• First-ever live drone light show during Super Bowl LIII
• Drone show lights up the sky during the Qatar National Day 2018

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Photo: CCTV