Sometimes a giant moon, sometimes a gigantic ball of fire: in the US metropolis of Las Vegas, the Sphere construction by the company Sphere Entertainment thanks to 1.2 million LED elements with spectacular images and - combined with the most advanced audio technology and 4D entertainment - with immersive events from September 2023.
"Hello world". This is how Sphere impressively introduced itself to the world to celebrate July 4, 2023:
Events that Inspire Music Stars
The high-tech entertainment sphere is the most expensive building in the history of Las Vegas with an estimated final construction cost of 2.3 billion US dollars. WWhile the focus will be on music events, it will also be possible to hold other events such as product launches, e-sports tournaments or boxing and mixed martial arts matches. The 112m high and 157m wide spherical building, the largest in the world, consists of 9 levels with 23 VIP suites and offers space for up to 20,000 people.
The singer Bono from the band U2 is impressed by "Sphere" during a tour: "Most music venues are sports venues," he said. "They are built for sport - not for music." This building, on the other hand, is for art. U2 will play the arena on September 29, 2023 with the first of 25 concert spectacles. The concert series "U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere" celebrates the U2 album "Achtung Baby" from 1991. Four to six such concert series by global superstars are planned per year.
World's Largest LED Surface
A total of 1.2 million triangular LED units were installed. Each unit consists of 48 LED diodes and was produced by the company Saco . The surface area of the exosphere is around 54,000 square meters, which corresponds to approximately 8 football pitches. Added to this is the area inside, which measures around 15,000 square meters and has a resolution of 16K.
Content Production
For content production, Sphere Entertainment founded its own content team, Sphere Studios. The studio campus in Burbank/Los Angeles has a 28,000 square meter, 30 meter high geodesic dome with a quarter-sized version of the screen at Sphere in Las Vegas. This is used as a screening environment, production facility and laboratory for Sphere content. In total, the Burbank campus comprises 68,000 square meters of development facilities as well as production and post-production rooms. To film content, the studio has developed Big Sky a customized single-lens camera system with a 316 megapixel HDR image sensor that can capture images with a resolution of up to 18K x 18K and 120 frames per second.
Most Advanced Concert Audio System in the World
Sphere Entertainment presents in cooperation with HOLOPLOT the most advanced concert audio system in the world: Sphere Immersive Sound. The next-generation audio technology uses 3D audio beamforming and wave field synthesis to deliver crystal-clear, concert-quality sound to every seat in the Sphere.
This results in controlled, consistent and crystal-clear concert-quality sound for audiences of up to 20,000 people, providing a truly exceptional and personalized listening experience for each audience member.
Sphere Immersive Sound is the world's largest concert-quality audio system and was specially developed for Sphere's unique curved interior. The system consists of around 1,600 permanently installed and 300 mobile HOLOPLOT X1 Matrix Array loudspeaker modules and comprises a total of 167,000 individually amplified loudspeaker drivers.
The entire sound system is completely concealed behind the 15,000 square meter LED display area inside Sphere. Any audio transmission loss is fully compensated for by HOLOPLOT's algorithms in the optimization engine, resulting in clear, comprehensive sound with virtually no coloration and a completely unobstructed visual LED surface.
Immersive Experience
10,000 of the chairs are equipped with an infrasonic haptic system so that sound vibrations can be triggered and amplified when the venue is in Immersive Coverage mode.Sphere will use temperature changes, wind effects and smells together with Sphere Immersive Sound to create a fully immersive experience for the audience.
Further Spheres are Planned
The Sphere in Las Vegas will not remain a one-off: The next Sphere is planned for London . Sphere Entertainment is already looking for suitable locations for further arenas.
