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With 270-degree video immersion, real wind and sound you can \u201cfeel\u201d, the Las Vegas venue Sphere takes you from the inside of a kaleidoscope to the middle of the desert in the blink of an eye. Toto, I\u2019ve a feeling we\u2019re not in Kansas any more.<\/p>\n
The $US2.3 billion ($3.6 billion) Sphere is not a big venue by any measure. It\u2019s smaller than you expect, particularly compared to the world\u2019s largest concert arenas. AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, Texas, holds 105,000 people. And London\u2019s Wembley some 90,000. In comparison, the Sphere holds a modest 18,600, a few thousand more than Melbourne\u2019s Rod Laver Arena, and about the size of Sydney\u2019s Brookvale Oval.<\/p>\n
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The Sphere opens … U2 on stage in Las Vegas.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Rich Fury<\/cite><\/p>\n But in technological terms, Sphere is an entirely new ball game for the music industry. It was the brainchild of James Dolan, the American entrepreneur (and son of cable television czar Charles Dolan) who now runs the iconic New York sporting arena Madison Square Garden, and owns the New York Knicks basketball team and the New York Rangers ice hockey team.<\/p>\n It houses a real stage in a quasi-virtual environment that is posed to transform how live music (and indeed, movies) are experienced by their audience. And it delivers unprecedented scale in a fairly modest package: it is just 157.2 metres wide and 111.5 metres tall.<\/p>\n Until now, it has been largely used as a so-bright-you-cannot-miss-it billboard, either displaying brands or, at times, an eyeball which is, frankly, a little creepy. The official website says it can be seen from space, though the claim is untested.<\/p>\n The venue opened earlier this month with U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere<\/em>, but like the immersive virtual ABBA Arena in London, it is a technological genie-in-a-bottle greater than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n Achtung Baby Live<\/em> production designer Willie Williams, who has been responsible for the design of U2\u2019s tours since 1983, says he had some hesitation about the concept because it felt \u201cthe wrong way around\u201d to build a show out of a piece of tech, when for the duration of his collaborations with U2 and other artists such as David Bowie, George Michael and The Rolling Stones, he\u2019s always done it the other way around.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we progressed, when we started to understand what this show could be, we really started to get excited about it,\u201d Williams says. \u201cOnce I began to understand what was possible, that this was a tool I could really take apart. I\u2019m roughly paraphrasing Truman Capote saying, when I think about how good the show can be, I can barely breathe, but actually, it\u2019s true. It\u2019s breathtaking.\u201d<\/p>\n Breathtaking is fair. Like the ABBA Voyage show in London, it is hard to capture in words. In many ways, it\u2019s a conventional space: there is tiered seating inside, and wallet-bruising bar snacks and merchandise for sale outside. Some parts of the rock concert experience will never change. But when the lights go down, everything changes.<\/p>\n Around you, Sphere splits open to reveal a succession of environments, each more stunning than the one before. Though the structure is familiar – the audience seated in rows, the band on a single, central stage – the effect is overwhelming. In U2\u2019s show, we journey through a succession of environments referencing the band\u2019s creative history. For other projects, such as Darren Aronofsky\u2019s Postcard From Earth<\/em>, the Sphere\u2019s sound system uses \u201chaptics\u201d to make the audience feel the sounds.<\/p>\n U2 perform at the Sphere in Las Vegas.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Stufish Entertainment Architects<\/cite><\/p>\n These are the technical specs: an interior 16K x 16K spherical video surface, the highest-resolution LED screen ever made with 268,435,456 pixels, and an exterior covered by 1.2 million hockey-puck-sized LEDs. There are 157,000 ultra-directional speakers \u2013 the boffins call it \u201cbeam-forming acoustics\u201d \u2013 and there are \u201cinfrasound haptics\u201d, which means the soundwaves are shaped to create both vibrations and waves of air pressure.<\/p>\n The comparison to ABBA\u2019s show in London is perhaps the only approximate one: both are wholly enveloping experiences where the lights, sound and special effects are blended to push the audience\u2019s senses to the limit. They differ in one key way; ABBA pushes its effects out toward you, largely to play smoke and mirrors with the on-stage simulacrums. Sphere, in contrast, more wholly and subtly envelops you.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are both legacy projects made by artists who have the career and track record to be able to look at these things objectively in a way that a younger performer perhaps wouldn\u2019t because it takes an entire lifetime of experience to make those kinds of choices and make it work,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n The two shows also share stage architect Ric Lipson, who works with the British music stage architecture firm Stufish. Lipson\u2019s work ranges from the Queen\u2019s Platinum Jubilee, and tours for Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z, Michael Bubl\u00e9, Elton John and Madonna. Stufish (along with light artist Es Devlin and producer Brian Eno) collaborated on the U2 project for Sphere. They also designed ABBA Arena in London.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the ABBA Arena, it\u2019s absolutely designed for that show, but you could also imagine that building having another avatar show in there, or indeed a live performance where people would use the technology that\u2019s in the building as an immersive environment,\u201d Lipson says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sphere does a similar thing, [in that] you have a fully immersive space, the video screen in the Sphere is vast, it has a huge number of pixels, and you can immerse the audience within this environment.\u201d<\/p>\n So what does all this mean for the concert industry, which has historically built its lucrative concert spin-off industry on the conversion of sports venues to rock concert stages? It certainly means the future is looking a little more … spherical? And, from a technological perspective, a little more plug-and-play.<\/p>\n \u201cIt opens you up to thinking about performances in different ways, both from a creative point of view, from a business point of view, from a sustainability point of view, and the ability to not have to bring your own structure and screen and [sound system],\u201d Lipson says.<\/p>\n ABBA\u2019s simulacrums on stage at ABBA Arena in London.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Johan Persson<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cWe have Adele in Caesar\u2019s Palace right now, which again is another large show that immerses the audience, but we bring everything in and every time we load that show out, it takes a week or so,\u201d Lipson adds. \u201cWhat\u2019s interesting about the Sphere idea is that they are planning multiple spheres, and then you can think about shows being able to move from sphere to sphere.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth [the U2 and ABBA] shows are taking a bold stab at the next-generation way of doing shows,\u201d Lipson says, but notes that the traditional blueprint of iconic artist and audience remains key. \u201cI\u2019m sitting in a regular arena right now with Madonna, we are doing a very exciting show that pushes the limits of a pop show balancing staging and audience, and we are doing things that will feel fresh for her audience and for the show.\u201d<\/p>\n Critically, says Lipson, the staging for the U2 show is elementary in real terms, despite its technological complexity. \u201cAnd what\u2019s interesting is that the Sphere, like ABBA Arena, is only touching the sides of what you can do,\u201d he says. \u201cIn five years\u2019 time and 10 years\u2019 time, two years\u2019 time, whenever the technology shifts, you\u2019ll be able to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n By the numbers … U2 perform at the Sphere in Las Vegas.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Stufish Entertainment Architects<\/cite><\/p>\n The screens, for example, are a bespoke assembly of state-of-the-art screens. But behind those screens are \u201ca whole new kind of speaker,\u201d Lipson says. \u201cIn a regular show, the speakers are at one end pushing the sound down the room, so it\u2019s louder at the stage end and quieter further away. [But here] because everybody\u2019s sort of getting their own feed, everybody\u2019s getting an equal volume. So hearing the show in there, sonically, may be better than anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n When the Sphere venue is in cinema mode, it utilises the full range of haptics, that is its ability to shape sound into both vibrations that will literally shake your seat, but also waves of pressure that can be felt. To those, the haptic systems add both artificial wind and a range of scents, paired to key moments, such as scenes of rocket launches or wild storms. Scratch \u2019n sniff, anyone?<\/p>\n As far back as the 1950s, Hollywood used three synchronised 35mm projectors to send a single image into a huge, deeply curved screen and called it Cinerama. It clocked in at just 146-degrees, well short of the Sphere\u2019s 270-degree view. Another 1950s technology, Circle-Vision 360, essentially nine cameras positioned in an outward-facing circle, was used to create 360-degree film images, the most famous of which was Disneyland\u2019s America the Beautiful<\/em> film.<\/p>\n Drawing a little less fanfare than U2\u2019s debut on the Sphere stage was the premiere of Darren Aronofsky\u2019s Postcard From Earth<\/em>, a 50-minute 18K resolution film shot to fit the 270-degree wraparound screen, using an 18K Big Sky camera, and featuring sequences shot in Greece, India, Mexico and the USA. The Big Sky, in layman\u2019s terms, delivers an image that is about 40 times greater in resolution than a 4K television screen.<\/p>\n From Vegas to the desert … U2 perform at the Sphere.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Stufish Entertainment Architects<\/cite><\/p>\n Like Lipson, Williams is cautious about becoming lost in the dramatic differences of scale, particularly when it is the storytelling of the bands and their discographies that are the key draw for the audience. The same principles apply, Williams says, whether the show is U2 at Sphere or, in another of his shows, Australian playwright Suzie Miller\u2019s Prima Facie<\/em>, starring Jodie Comer, on the substantially smaller stages of London\u2019s Harold Pinter Theatre and Broadway\u2019s John Golden Theatre.<\/p>\n The Sphere on the Las Vegas skyline.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP<\/cite><\/p>\n They all have one thing in common, Williams says: an artist or artists confined to a small stage in the centre of the venue. \u201cOn the small stage, you have to make all these places to go and that helps to be bold about the Sphere stage, which is very minimal by U2\u2019s standards. But in terms of the visuals, however, it\u2019s the same task.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the time, you want to be supportive, you want to enhance what you are seeing and hearing,\u201d Williams says. \u201cMost of the time my job is to hide and just present the artist in a way that supports them and just gives them a great environment in which they can utterly flourish. But if there are moments where you can sprinkle a bit of magic, then that\u2019s a wonderful thing to do regardless of the scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. <\/i><\/b>Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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