If you logged on to social media in the last week, there’s a good chance you saw footage of a massive ball of light shining through Las Vegas. The source of illumination is a 366-foot-tall and 516-foot-wide venue called Sphere, and it cost $2.3 billion to make.
Sphere Entertainment Company debuted Sphere’s capabilities on the Fourth of July and showcased its 580,000-square-foot fully-programmable LED exterior known as Exosphere.
The show began with text that read “hello world,” followed by animations of fireworks, underwater scenes and lunar surfaces.
The Exosphere, located near the Venetian resort complex, features some 1.2 million LED pucks spaced eight inches apart. According to Sphere Entertainment, each puck includes 48 individual LED diodes that can each display 256 million different colors.
A team of technology, software, and production experts from Sphere Studios developed the Exosphere. Its LED display was designed and manufactured by a partnership between Sphere Studios and solid-state LED lighting company SACO Technologies.
Software and technology company 7thSense also collaborated with Sphere Studios to provide programming onto the Exosphere through advanced media server, pixel processing and show control technologies.
While the Exosphere has been the talk of the internet since it debuted, the spherical sight isn’t just for looking at from the exterior. It also features an interior theater that is expected to host various events called “Sphere Experiences.”
The theater features a 250-foot tall, 16K LED screen, more than 160,000 speakers, haptic seats and 4D machines that can create temperature, wind and scent effects for crowds of about 18,000.
Planned events include a U2 concert in September and a film by Hollywood director Darren Aronofsky in October.
Sphere Entertainment has also announced plans for a second location in London, which is awaiting necessary approvals before it can begin construction.
