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If you find yourself driving down the Las Vegas strip, passing the towering neon-ornamented casinos, you’re likely to notice the Sphere. The brand-new state-of-the art structure, which officially opened last month and cost an estimated $2.3 billion to construct, is so groundbreaking that some would rightly call it out of this world. The one of a kind living, breathing billboard boasts 16k resolution LED panels that wrap around it’s orb-like exoskeleton, flashing visuals of an eyeball, planet earth, an actively winking smiley emoji, and even ads for the upcoming Trolls movie sequel, rivaling the bright lights of the resorts that surround it. If the constantly shifting graphics displayed on the venue are enough to cause traffic blocks from wonderstruck onlookers, the technology, design, and enormous screens inside Sphere transform the typical live-music experience into a multidimensional, immersive trip. Here’s everything you need to know about this first of its kind and best in class entertainment venue.The exterior of Sphere with an image of an eyeball on it.Courtesy of Sphere EntertainmentWhere is Sphere located?Sphere is located right off of the Las Vegas strip in Paradise, Nevada. It’s next to the Venetian resort, with a pedestrian walkway connecting the resort to the venue.At 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, it’s the largest spherical structure in the world.Photo: © Weldon Brewster Photography / Courtesy of Sphere EntertainmentWho owns Sphere?Sphere Entertainment Co. owns Sphere. The venue was originally called the MSG Sphere when it was announced by the Madison Square Garden Company back in 2018. However, the venue’s owner, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, split into two separate companies in April 2023, with Sphere Entertainment Company taking ownership of the new venue.The audience is fully immersed in the imagery projected on the curved LED screen inside the venue.Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty ImagesWhat makes Sphere’s design so unique?The overarching objective was to create immersive experiences that engage the senses and transport fans and attendees to a new world. The spherical structure facilitates this. Without any columns inside, everyone in the audience enjoys “an uninterrupted vantage point,” explains Paul Westbury, EVP of development and construction of Sphere Entertainment Co., who worked to execute the vision of Jim Dolan, executive chairman and CEO of Sphere.The interior of SpherePhoto: Rich FuryWhat does it look like inside?The inside of the performance area is alight with a curving 270-degree screen that regales showgoers in its more than 18,000 seats with quick shifting digital trompe-l’oeils, and every aspect of the venue, from the VIP areas to entry bridges, is intentionally designed with performance and future experiences in mind. Global architecture firm Populous was behind the overall design of Sphere, and ICRAVE, led by founder and CEO Lionel Ohayon, was commissioned by MSG to design its interiors and lighting with the goal of creating a one of a kind visitor experience.“This project proposed that entertainment was going to change forever,” Ohayon tells AD. “We looked at everything as a performance space, for the whole thing to be an activation, and we started imagining

Diameter.Just like the interior, the exterior screen is also the world’s largest of its kind. At 53,883 square metres, it is certainly a gigantic electronic billboard, a cinematic screen or even an art canvas — whichever way it is to be presented.For instance, generative artificial intelligence (AI) artist Refik Anadol became the first artist to “paint” his digital artwork Machine Hallucinations: Sphere on the massive titantron of the spherical exterior. The entire lighting system is programmable to show on a very wide scale whatever the artist, advertiser, sponsor or performer wants to. Its scale makes the visuals on the screen incredibly captivating, creating the perfect science fiction moment.‘U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere’ and other events at SphereThe inaugural event at Sphere will be U2’s UV Achtung Baby concert on 29 September. The first show will also act as the opening of the venue itself to the public. The concert, which revolves around the group’s acclaimed 1991 album Achtung Baby, will see a series of 25 shows staged at the same venue through December.“Most music venues are sports venues. They’re built for sports – they’re not built for music. They’re not built for art,” U2’s Bono in an interview for Apple Music, adding, “This building was built for immersive experiences in cinema and performance … you can’t come here and see an ice hockey game.”U2’s The Edge said in the same interview that Sphere is “light years ahead of everything that’s out there.”Besides U2’s shows, the venue will play host to exclusive screenings of Darren Aronofsky’s film Postcard From Earth, visuals of which will be shown on the vast screen of the globe starting 6 October.Sphere is on the street circuit for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix from 16 to 18 November, one of the most expensive races of 2023. Motorsport fans will get to see their favourite drivers, such as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, zip past the massive structure.According to reports, the arena will primarily host live concerts and indoor sports events such as boxing and mixed martial arts.Who built Sphere and how much did it cost?Sphere at The Venetian Resort was formerly known as MSG Sphere after its builder, Madison Square Garden Company. Reports suggest that DEMAG CC-8800, the world’s fourth-largest crawler crane, was used in its construction. Assembling the crane alone took 18 days.The weight of the dome, constructed using 2,700 tonnes of steel,

Doherty/Getty ImagesThe fulldome community was full of excitement about the opening of Las Vegas’ Sphere, and its potential to make people aware of fulldome through its huge marketing campaigns. The outside of Sphere, with its dome-shaped LED screen measuring 112m high and 157m wide, has provided an ever-changing light show to passers-by, whether they’re on foot or in a plane. We’ve seen the Sphere’s exterior as a giant emoji watching people fly in and out of Vegas, as a huge basketball, a pumpkin, a monstrous eyeball, a cat playing with lasers, the list goes on.But it was for this reason that Sadiq Khan just shot down the idea that London will have its own Sphere. Light pollution might be a non-issue in Vegas, but it doesn’t work so well in residential cities. Without the glowing exterior, Sphere can’t charge advertisers, and the Vegas model may not work. This hasn’t deterred the Mayor of Tees Valley from reaching out to Sphere operators the Madison Square Garden Entertainment Company (MSG) to start the massive ball rolling on a Sphere in Teesside.Regardless of whether we see a Sphere venue open in the UK, we can expect fulldome in general to grow as more people realise its potential for all kinds of performance. Planetariums, temporary domes and new fulldome venues are all still available, and there’s a global network of fulldome obsessives ready to ride the wave Sphere has set in motion.*[Editor’s note: Alongside being a contributor to MusicTech, Kate Wellham is also the immersive coordinator at Live Cinema UK]