The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games 2018 kick started with a spectacular show of drones. The ceremony witnessed a record-setting show of 1,218 drones, flying in absolute sync to produce huge formations of various Olympic sports and the iconic Olympic rings.

The drones set a world record for the 'most unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously'. The record was previously held by 500 drones during a 2016 performance in Germany.

Known as the Shooting Star Mini, these drones are made by Intel especially for indoor light shows.

Though the show put up at the opening ceremony was pre-recorded, a live appearance was also made by a smaller group of about 300 drones.

Intel will also be displaying a live performance of 300 drones every night at the Olympic Games during the medal ceremonies.

These mini-drones can be operated from a central computer system all at once, and be coordinated on the fly in accordance with their individual battery lives and GPS signals.

Usually, Intel pre-programs a path into the central computer system to control the entire swarm of drones simultaneously in the air, in place of interacting with each drone directly.