The long-awaited Sphere made its debut in Las Vegas on Independence Day, and locals are still trying to figure out how to feel about the $2.3billion light-up ball.
“The Sphere” In Las Vegas
Home to the tallest Ferris wheel in the US and the strongest light beam on earth, Las Vegas loves to break records. The MSG sphere at the Ventian is just the latest light pollution generating attraction for Sin City to flex.
The MSG Sphere at The Venetian Resort is a spherical music and entertainment arena located one block east of the Las Vegas Strip.
The MSG Sphere won’t open to the public for almost three more months, when U2 christens the entertainment venue with a series of concerts.
Watch The Sphere
As part of a July Fourth special event, the giant ball displayed a multitude of displays including the American flag, an eyeball, a basketball and even Earth itself. The Jack-o-lantern image for Halloween and a snow globe for Christmas shows how much fun the LED orb will bring to the city.
The Sphere Details
‘The Exosphere is more than a screen or a billboard – it is living architecture, and unlike anything that exists anywhere in the world,’ said Guy Barnett, Sphere’s SVP of brand strategy and creative development.
The 18,600-seat orb features an exterior covered in 580,000 square feet of programmable LED lighting.
At 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, it’s being billed as the world’s largest spherical structure. Its bowl-shaped theater reportedly contains the world’s highest-resolution wraparound LED screen.
And its exterior is fitted with 1.2 million hockey puck-sized LEDs that can be programmed to flash dynamic imagery on a massive scale – again, reportedly the world’s largest.
The eye-catching venue will host live music, film and sporting events including boxing and mixed martial arts. It is set to be a 20,000-capacity venue that was initially budgeted at $1.2billion, but ended up with a price tag that passed the $2billion threshold.
Concert goers will be able to see their artists perform live alongside the appeal of being surrounded by a 16K LED screen displaying augmented animations and also serve as a 360 JumboTron showing close-ups of performers.
Rich Claffey, the Sphere operations officer, compared the experience to watching a movie on IMAX.
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