Why did Shenzhen’s National Day drone show go ahead but not Hong Kong’s?
Drone operator behind both events says flexible schedule for show in Shenzhen allowed it to wait for better atmospheric conditions
Flexible timing allowed Shenzhen to press ahead with its National Day drone show despite atmospheric interference, but the performance in Hong Kong was called off because it was followed by a fireworks display, the tech team behind both events has said.
Hong Kong was forced to cancel its drone show on Tuesday and another one the previous day, with organisers citing poor GPS signals caused by solar activity. But displays across the border went ahead with intermittent delays.
Justin Yeung Chun-yu, the director of the Board Office of Shenzhen Damoda Intelligent Control Technology, said on Wednesday: “The drone show was only the appetiser for the fireworks display [in Hong Kong]. So the time for it is fixed and we had to decide 15 minutes ahead if we wanted to carry out the initial plan.
“As for the Shenzhen show, we were allowed to bring it forward or delay it. So we could decide according to real-time meteorological data when it was safe for us to fly the drones.”
The company handled Tuesday’s Hong Kong drone show, while the event at the West Kowloon Cultural District on Monday was overseen by another operator.
The National Day show was cancelled minutes before it was due to start, with the organiser saying the devices could not receive strong satellite positioning signals due to “ionospheric scintillations” over Victoria Harbour.
