The Incredible Technology Behind Las Vegas' Mind-Blowing MSG Sphere Explained
If you find yourself wandering the streets of Las Vegas today, chances are high that you see a gigantic lit-up dome on the horizon. It is definitely a dazzling sight to behold and completely hard to miss when you are in its vicinity. Is it a building? An art installation? An enormous screen? As it turns out, it's all of the above, but a scientific and architectural masterpiece on top of it all.
The Sphere at The Venetian— currently colloquially known as the MSG Sphere — is mainly an entertainment and music performance venue located in Paradise, Nevada, near the Las Vegas Strip. It is currently the world's largest spherical building, standing 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide. The house has a total of 17,600 seats and a standing capacity of 20,000 people. While the structure's enormousness is enough to make it highly anticipated and talked about by architecture lovers and Vegas visitors alike, the science behind its creation is what makes it technologically impressive.
What makes the MSG Sphere mathematically breathtaking?
According to the Sphere website, several parts of the entire space were modeled after centuries-old mathematical equations, which were initially generated by the building's architects and engineers via virtual reality prior to construction. The idea that every corner and archway has a little bit of math reasoning behind its existence somehow amplifies the structure's awesomeness.
The result is nothing to balk at. For starters, the dome's exterior is enveloped in 580,000 square feet worth of programmable LEDs that can display 256 million colors on the skyline, making the building bright enough to be seen from outer space. The exoskeleton is comprised of hundreds of triangles that interlock to create the 360-degree shape of the venue. To build the dome alone — which is said to weigh about 13,000 tons and has a surface area of 220,000 square feet — it allegedly took six million pounds of steel carted by a massive crane that took 18 days to construct.
What is it like inside the MSG Sphere?
The interior has a tall enough space to fit the Statue of Liberty in its entirety. Its focal point is a high-resolution media screen that's curved planetarium-style — spanning a size comparable to around four football fields — and is comprised of 160,000 square feet of even more programmable LEDs, set at 16K by 16K resolution. It's a far cry from today's TVs — the highest you can currently get commercially is one with 8K resolution.
Primarily a concert venue, music lovers can rest assured that the acoustic and sound quality to be had within the MSG Sphere will certainly be top-notch as well. Hidden behind the massive media plane are 168,000 speakers that produce realistic and immersive surround sound. Thanks to the space's spheric shape, sound scattering becomes less of a problem and almost every seat in the house should experience the same audio quality. In addition, the venue apparently has 10,000 immersive seats rigged with an infrasound haptic system that transmits the lowest bass levels through your chair or feet, allowing you to actually feel sound just as much as you hear it. Environmental effects like scents, changing temperatures, and blowing wind are also at play to enhance your viewing experience.
When can people start enjoying the MSG Sphere?
The inaugural performance slated to celebrate the MSG Sphere's official opening to the public goes to the band U2, who will be performing in the highly anticipated show, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere. The string of concerts — which will mark the group's first live showing after a four-year hiatus— will run from September 29 through December 16, 2023. To date, a total of 25 shows have been announced, with the first two now understandably sold out.
Also debuting in October 2023 is Postcard from Earth, a one-of-a-kind show spearheaded by renowned director Darren Aronofsky, which will highlight the best things about life on the planet. Bolstered by the full breadth of MSG Sphere's various technological and immersive features, this would certainly be a show both locals and visitors alike shouldn't miss.
Apart from booking tickets for these two upcoming shows, spectators can simply walk past the venue and be enthralled by the light show already happening on the outside surface of the dome. The MSG Sphere recently transformed into a colossal basketball in an effort to promote the 2023 NBA Summer League.