Sphere, Part 2

 

[Welcome to the second and concluding installment of my report on Sphere Las Vegas, the new high-tech performance venue conceived and built on the Strip by Madison Square Garden.  It took years in the planning and construction, including delays from the COVID shut-down, the supply disruptions, and the inflation surge.  It ended up costing $2.3 billion and opened with the début of a U2 residency on 29 September 2023. 

[Part 1 of “Sphere,” posted on 24 December, covered such topics as the business arrangements for the shifting partnerships that brought the venue to fruition, the architecture and construction of the world’s largest spherical edifice, the reception by Las Vegans and visitors to the city of the concept and the rising structure, and some details regarding visiting Sphere as an entertainment site.

[Part 2 below will cover the tech of Sphere, both exterior and interior, and some of the responses to the structure as a place to see concerts and other events.  As I’m not tech savvy—I can barely get my laptop to work the way I want it, and I still haven’t really mastered my cell phone—I found looking into that first topic particularly interesting.  I hope readers, including the many of you who are more advanced than I in this area, will find my efforts informative.

[One word of caution/recommendation: I haven’t repeated in Part 2 identifications, explanations, or definitions that I gave in Part 1.  If you haven’t read the first installment, it would be a good idea to go back and catch it before proceeding to avoid having to toggle back and forth to look up that information.]

Now I think it’s time to tackle the technology of Sphere—the aspect of the venue that, alongside its shape, distinguishes it from all other entertainment venues.  Whether that’s good, bad, or indifferent . . . well, I guess we’ll have to see.

Let’s start with the exterior of the globe, since that’s what people see first.  In fact, the 580,000 square feet/54,000 square meters of LED light panels covering the Exosphere make Sphere visible from several miles away.  According to the website Virtual Events Group, it can be seen from outer space—though the Washington Post reports only that it “seems like it could be seen from space.” 

The exterior screens are fully programmable to create a dynamic exterior display with almost limitless creative possibilities.  “The possibilities for artists, partners, and brands to create compelling and impactful stories to connect with audiences in new ways,” are compelling to Sphere’s senior VP of brand strategy and creative development.  Among other spectacles, Sphere can “look like a black hole has opened up or a Christmas snow globe has landed in Vegas.”

At the first illumination of the exterior LED panels, the Independence Day spectacle last July, along with “LED fireworks, American flag effects, nature scenes, and some sci-fi visuals, perhaps the most stunning use of the world's largest artificial spherical structure was projecting some other famous spheroids from around the solar system on its display, including the moon, Mars, and even Earth itself.”

“Sometimes it’s a gargantuan basketball,” reported New York’s Observer.  It can also do an emoji face, a gigantic jack-o’lantern, and a tennis ball.  “And recently,” added the Observer, “it loomed in the skyline in the guise of an anatomically correct eyeball keeping watch over the strip.  These and other vividly realistic illuminations are stopping traffic across the city as locals and tourists pause to take in Sphere . . . .”

Using cameras placed at strategic locations around Las Vegas which can live-stream images of the cityscape surrounding Sphere, the orb can even perform a neat trick.  When the pictures are displayed on the LED panels of the Exosphere, it seems to disappear as viewers “see through” it to the terrain in which Sphere stands.  It’s called “see-through” or “cloak” mode.

Not all Las Vegans have been pleased or amused.  The Washington Post asserts, “Some see a technological marvel, while some see a gigantic spherical billboard that’s a prime distraction for drivers.”

Speaking of that billboard: the website Boardroom reports that “a one-week advertising campaign [on the Exosphere] could set brands back $650,000.  For one day (four hours, really), expect to pay $450,000.”

One Las Vegan nevertheless told a local news outlet “that he thinks the glowing ball is ‘the most incredible thing ever built in the world. . . .  I’ll look at it every night.’”  Another wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “This is the future right here.  Vegas is doing it right.”

Others have had different reactions.  “I would not want to see some of that from my hotel window after a late night out Vegasing,” wrote a visitor, and another resident posted, “Who wants to do some mushrooms and watch this thing all night?”

Now, let’s move inside Sphere, arguably the region of greatest interest.  It measures out at 875,000 square feet (81,290 square meters) of floor space.  As I mentioned earlier, the globe has nine levels, counting the basement, with luxury suites—13 at Level 3 and 10 at Level 5—which are expected to be acquired by corporate sponsors.  

Sphere’s interior, largely column-free to preclude obstructions to sight or imagination, was designed by MSG Entertainment (before the spin-off) and hospitality specialists Icrave, a New York City-based firm that specializes in nightlife venues such as lounges and clubs. 

Icrave’s founder and CEO, Lionel Ohayon, proclaims, “The experience doesn’t begin at the theater.  As soon as you pass the threshold of the Sphere, you are in the show.”  That’s because every space at Sphere is designed to generate a similarly surreal frisson as the entertainment event.

Sam Lubell of Fast Company, a monthly print and online business magazine published in Washington, D.C., that spotlights technology and design, describes the visitor’s first encounter with the inside of the orb this way:

The Sphere is dominated by an eight-level atrium, ringed with rounded mezzanines and bisected by crisscrossed escalators and flying bridges.  It’s as immersive and otherworldly as the theater itself.  To increase reflectivity—and a sense of otherworldly limitlessness—the floor is made of shiny, highly polished black terrazzo.  There are virtually no straight lines anywhere.  The lighting system, says Ohayon, “has a personality that can speak to you,” with virtually every surface lit by indirect LED illumination that can be customized for intensity, temperature, or color to match the mood or theme of any show.  Entry and exit thresholds consist of low archways that compress you and then dramatically release you into taller spaces.

The whole experience—of the setting, if not the performances—seems to be intended to evoke space travel, as if you’re making a stop-over at a space station in the late 24th century.  London’s Daily Mail declares that Sphere “looks like it landed from outer space” and Journey, a business consulting and services company, whose website bills itself as the “Next-Gen Customer Experiences,” posts that “Sphere . . . catapults the stadium experience into the future.”

But what about the auditorium, the performance space itself? 

Well, to start off, it’s called the Bowl, with a volume of nearly 6 million cubic feet (169,901 cubic meters), seating 17,385 spectators.  (The Bowl can hold a 20,000-strong, all-standing audience.)  The interior is big enough, the owners say, to hold the Statue of Liberty, from torch to base (151 feet without the pedestal; 305 feet total [46 meters/93 meters]). 

The stage is portable and adjustable to any size; it can even be removed for films.  Seating covers approximately two-thirds of the interior, with the stage occupying the remainder of the space.  The general admission (GA) floor is right in front of the stage, and there are four different distinct seating levels: 100, 200, 300, and 400.

The primary floor setup features a GA pit/floor area right in front of the stage, offering an up-close experience.  In this area, seats are not assigned.  The seats in the 100 section are closest to the stage, which are great for viewing the stage and the live performers; they’re not so good, however, for watching the screen, which is so big that it’s impossible to see any detail.  By most spectators’ experience, the over-hang of the 200 tier blocks the view from many 100-level seats.

Most advisors say that the 200 level is the best area, especially for concerts.  (It’s also the most expensive.)  For movies like Postcard from Earth and other video presentations, the common advice is that seats in the 300 and 400 level are best because they afford the best view of the screen.  (The 400 level offers the least expensive seats available.)

The common wisdom, especially as promoted by Sphere Entertainment and the Venetian Resort, is that there are no bad seats at Sphere.  Many attendees who’ve posted comments online disagree.  The over-hang I already mentioned was a frequent complaint from unhappy visitors, and several commented on the steep incline of the stairs accessing the upper tiers.  At least one commenter said that “it felt like being in a cramped airplane seat.”

The screen at the Bowl is about 3⅓ football fields (American—without the end zones)—160 square feet (14,864.5 square meters).  It’s the world’s largest and best-resolution and the giant LED screen wraps over and behind the audience, delivering a totally immersive visual environment.

Variety’s Willman describes a couple of effects created in the Bowl during U2:UV:

There’s one segment where the video screen turns this cornerless room into a rectangularly shaped space, and you can only guess at how the designers had to bend the laws of physics to create that illusion on a circular screen.  The most jaw-dropping moment of the night, arguably, comes when you look straight up and see what appears to be an elevator made up of data descending down toward you.  It can only be described as a very slow-motion, more abstract version of the chandelier dropping in “Phantom of the Opera.”

All seats in the auditorium have high speed internet access.  Sphere’s engineers devised an ultra-fast wireless environment so that 10,000 people can interact with the venue’s LED screen simultaneously from any seat in the house.

Some seats are also equipped with an infrasound haptic system to vibrate to match whatever is being depicted on screen, such as a helicopter ride or an earthquake.  4D machines that create wind, temperature, and scent effects are also a part of the Sphere experience.  The system’s embedded in the flooring system, which utilizes technology to convey bass through the floor for guests to “feel” the experience.

“When you’re riding a Harley, you’ll feel the pistons pumping,” says James Dolan, MSG’s CEO.  “When lightning strikes, you’ll feel that, too.”  Sphere Entertainment asserts that it can program and control the infrasound seating and audio systems to simulate a range of amazing sensory effects from the swell of the tide to a total shift in gravity.

(4D, or 4-D, refers to an ordinary three-dimensional experience supplemented by synchronized physical effects.  Infrasound, or low-frequency sound, is sound under the lower limit of human audibility; however, at higher intensities it’s possible to feel infrasound vibrations in various parts of the body.  Haptic [of or relating to the sense of touch] technology targets users’ tactile sense.) 

Sphere’s effects units can technically achieve wind blasts of a slight breeze up to 140 mph, enough to blow the roof off a building.  The temperature regulators can create everything from the ideal setting of Sphere’s AC system to the degree drop it takes to make spectators feel as if they’re immersed in a 4D blizzard.

“The sound is a new technology,” said Nick Tomasino, MSG Entertainment’s construction VP, “never implemented before, using beam-forming technology, which allows you to have the same experience whether sitting in the back or the front.”  (Beamforming is a type of radio frequency management in which a wireless signal is directed toward a specific receiving device, rather than sending it from a broadcast antenna to be spread in all directions.) 

At Sphere, the acousticians have ensured that every seat in the house gets optimal audio reception.  Furthermore, according to Sphere Entertainment, the venue has the ability to direct sound like laser beams.  Sphere’s sound system can deliver unique audio experiences to different listening locations all across the orb.  

According to Chris Willman of Variety, a demonstration for the press “showed how it is even possible to make it so that patrons sitting three seats apart could hear a lecture in different languages, with no bleed-over.”

Sound isn’t the only tech element Sphere’s techies can manipulate.  Visitors to the Vegas globe may be transported to an array of places, from far out in space to the bottom of the ocean.  The lighting system can simulate how light filters through different environments so Sphere can capture the effect as close to nature as possible.

As Caryn Rose of National Public Radio noted of the Bowl in its entirety, something’s “conspicuously absent”:

There are no speaker stacks, no carefully positioned hanging PA columns, no lighting rig.  As [U2’s] Bono and Edge gleefully told [New Zealand radio DJ] Zane Lowe and everyone else: "The entire building is a speaker."  What that means from a practical standpoint is not just immersive clarity, but also an incredible balance.  At the Sphere, Bono can speak in a normal, conversational tone into the microphone and everyone can hear it. 

Now, I want to have a look at what people who’ve experienced Sphere as an entertainment venue think of it.  Sphere “is living architecture,” says Guy Barnett, Sphere’s Senior VP of brand strategy and creative development, “and unlike anything that exists anywhere in the world.”

How does the first-person experience measure up?

Bono, U2’s lead vocalist and primary lyricist, said it himself: “This whole place feels like a distortion pedal for the mind.”

Actor and producer Aaron Paul, best known for Breaking Bad, was at the U2 première and averred that “U2 is arguably one of the biggest rock bands ever to exist, and this is arguably one of the greatest—if not the greatest—music venue on the planet.  We did a tour [inside Sphere] a couple of months ago.  Minds were blown.”

I’ve already quoted Chris Willman’s Variety review of U2’s opening performance at Sphere, so to narrow in on his opinion of how it fit into Sphere, let me return to his notice.  Of the rock band’s première, Willman wrote:

Not to take any credit away from U2, but the most impressive moment of the Sphere show may be when you first walk in the room.  And that happens on two levels, literally.  Above you, that massive domed ceiling has been made to look like you are in some industrial grain silo that has been constructed sky-high.  (One seatmate described the feeling of looking up at this while waiting for the show to begin as “terrifying . . . but not in a bad way.”)  It’s an immediate indication of some of the offbeat photorealism you will be in for.  But at the same time, if you’re on one of the lower levels of the multi-tiered auditorium, looking out over the general-admission SRO floor, and block out what’s hovering over you (which is surprisingly easy to do), you suddenly feel like you’re in the world’s coolest nightclub.  Or at least mega-club; at or slightly above floor level, it kinda just feels like the Hollywood Palladium, albeit with more of the audience wrapped around the sides of the stage.

The reviewer from arguably the entertainment industry’s premier journal also asserted that

it’s the audacious hugeness, not the Let’s Get Small interludes, that “U2:UV” will most be remembered for.  It is, at its giddy and delirious best, a slide down the surface of things, to recall a prophetic phrase that might have foretold the very existence of Sphere, a venue that invites you to spend a half-hour at a time thinking or talking just about its interior and exterior surfaces, including a ceiling that reaches to 366 feet tall.  These surfaces feels [sic] like they should be measured in square miles, not square feet, but U2 does not feel dwarfed in their glow.

He added that the show is accompanied by “a series of settings . . . that blow your mind, then give it a helpful rest, and then return for further sensory overload at the end.” 

Of the sound, which Willman dubs “phenomenal,” the Variety reviewer wrote that “it was more wonderful than anything we’ve ever heard in an 18,000-capacity venue.”  Reminding his readers of Sphere’s “system that micro-targets concertgoers wherever they’re sitting,” Willman reported that “the most basic goal, of offering studio-quality sound on a massive scale, seemed to have been met.”

Overall, Wilman concludes of Sphere as a performance venue:

“U2:UV” does come off managing to feel like actual rock ‘n’ roll.  It also feels like Circus Circus marrying some kind of foreign-film aesthetic.  With all the heart and soul and silliness and grandiosity appropriate to the host city, this might be the best shotgun wedding Las Vegas ever presided over.

(Circus Circus Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the northern Las Vegas Strip.  It features circus and trapeze acts, as well as carnival games, at its Carnival Midway, and an indoor amusement park, Adventuredome.

(I stripped out Willmer’s assessment of U2’s rock performance itself—and I’ll be doing the same for other evaluations.  As I suggested in Part 1, check out the review online for that.)

Another reviewer, Jackson Arn of the New Yorker, connected Sphere to “immersive” art experiences (like “van Gogh warehouses,” on one of which I reported on ROT on 10 and 13 January 2022):

Immersion bombards and overpowers; it commands the viewer to surrender.  At heart, it’s a prayer that we can spend a few moments in a state of pure attention, the sort once rumored to exist in monasteries.

All art makes some initial pitch for attention.  In immersive art, sustaining attention isn’t the means; it’s the point, the work’s way of justifying itself.  As such, the pitch is almost always the hard sell—intense, elemental sensation, immediately delivered.  Sometimes the method of immersion is scale; often, it’s eye-wrecking color, or some all-out assault on the visual field.  This sounds vaguely tyrannical, but immersion, as an ethos, is sweetly democratic.  It treats all of us the same and requires the same thing from each of us—usually, nothing.

(I feel the need to mention that, as an antidote to Sphere, Arn gives a marvelous review and description of an artwork near Las Vegas called City (1972) by Michael Heizer.  It’s a kind of gigantic earthen installation that took 50 years to complete, measuring 1¼ miles long and more than a quarter of a mile wide – 2 kilometers by 0.4 kilometers; 200 acres or 80 hectares. 

(Arn’s review of Heizer’s installation is too long, and too much about City and not enough about Sphere, to reproduce here—but I heartily recommend reading it at The Sphere and Michael Heizer’s “City,” Reviewed: Two Paths for Immersion | The New Yorker or in the issue of 20 November 2023.)

In Billboard, Katie Atkinson declared, “Nothing can prepare you for the magnitude of experiencing a concert in this venue.”  (Earlier, Atkinson expressed the opinion that “U2 was exactly the right band to welcome the mind-blowing space.”) 

Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene determined:

By any measurement, it was a stunning success.  The Sphere somehow managed to live up to years of hype with its dazzling 16K resolution screen that transported 18,600 fans from the stars in the night sky to a surreal collage of Vegas images, the arid deserts of Nevada, and the information overload of Zoo TV [a worldwide concert tour by U2 in support of their album Achtung Baby in 1992-93].  And the sound wasn’t the sludgy, sonic assault you typically get at an arena or stadium concert.  It is clear, crisp, and pristine, making earplugs completely unnecessary.  As advertised, this was a quantum leap forward for concerts.

Before the show starts, upon first entering Sphere, Greene observed, “With the screens off, it felt like you were walking into the world’s largest IMAX theater.”  But when things get going following a sort of warm-up, “the ludicrous scope of the place became apparent.  It’s impossible to even take in everything at once since the screen stretches far beyond anyone’s scope of vision.  All you can do is take the ride and absorb as much as possible.

As for Sphere’s impact on the pop music scene in the future, Greene predicted: “Whatever happens going forward, it’s hard to imagine a better proof of concept for Sphere than this U2 show.  It’s almost painful to imagine going back to a dumpy sports arena for a show after experiencing something like this.”

In contrast, however, Steven Hyden on UPROXX objected that “I’m having trouble imagining a band that isn’t U2 in that space.” He expanded his thought: “Is this extremely expensive bowling ball at all practical for non-Irish stadium acts who don’t have 18 months to prepare a two-hour spectacle?  Plenty of artists could play at this venue.  But who should?”  And he explained:

The Sphere is overpowering and ridiculous, technologically advanced and rooted in an old-time “more is more” show-business sensibility, and supported by some of the industry’s most powerful players even though it’s possibly unsustainable.

I read many professional reviews of both U2:UV and Sphere Experience/Postcard and a lot of the online remarks from ordinary entertainment-seekers.  My impression is that the overall response leans toward the positive, with a good number of really enthusiastic reactions to the experience.  There was a substantial representation from visitors who ranged from disappointed to angry, however, usually for one or another specific complaint.  (The ticket price was a big issue, and the seating, as I noted above.)

The majority seem to have been impressed with the various tech accomplishments—videos, sound; very few mentioned the haptic embellishments—and the response to the events themselves was pretty evenly split.  Except for the U2 concert—that got universal raves from both concertgoers and journalists. 

A fair number of commenters had complaints about something at Sphere but wrote them off as glitches one should expect from a new and innovative venue on its shake-down outing.  More than a few seemed concerned, as Steven Hyden of UPROXX posted, that Sphere would have trouble finding appropriate talent to fill its schedule and make successful use of its special features. 

Bono was the only artist I found who said anything about Sphere as a place to perform—but, then, his band are so far the only performers to occupy the place.  Darren Aronofsky spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about making Postcard from Earth, and he described a lot of the tech that went into shooting the film, but he didn’t say anything about displaying the movie at Sphere.  (For those interested in the cinematography largely newly invented for creating Postcard, read “Darren Aronofsky Describes His Journey to Creating the First Movie for the Las Vegas Sphere” by Carolyn Giardina at Sphere Las Vegas: Darren Aronofsky on ‘Postcard from Earth’ Film – The Hollywood Reporter.)

As for Sphere’s impact on concertizing in the future, I guess we’ll just have to wait for a few more performances and let the artists and managers determine where this new platform will take them and their audiences.

As for those who insist that only U2 is capable of fully making use of Sphere as a performance space . . . well, maybe if the London Sphere and any others still in the conception stage actually get built, more artists—even in other forms besides music—will reimagine what they do and create new work for a Sphere’s attributes. 

That’s what happened with film and television, isn’t it?  Even the legendary stage musical team of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II, often labeled the greatest of the 20th century, pivoted to film for State Fair (1945, 1962) and then TV for Cinderella (1957, 1965, 1997).

In the end, at least for Sphere’s inaugural outing, the general response seems to be what a friend of mine quoted a neighbor who went there as saying: “It was fantastic.  We loved it.  Everywhere you looked, there was something to see.”

 

Sphere, Part 1

 

[When the new Las Vegas entertainment venue Sphere opened on 29 September, I’d never even heard of it.  I obviously missed the memo.  I had a look on the ’Net and saw that there’d been major coverage in the press, both online and in print, for several years, since before ground was broken almost exactly five years earlier. 

[There was talk about the plans for the structure, its design and construction, the technology that would be incorporated, and every other aspect of the future spherical building.  I decided to do a post like the ones I did for Arena Stage’s and MoMA’s remodeling (26 November 2011 and 1 January 2020, respectively) and the Signature Center’s and Blackfriars’ construction (18 February 2012 and 18 November 2009)—a description of the architecture/construction and the tech as well as its function as a performance venue. 

[I’m not a techie—in fact, I’m half a luddite—so this assignment necessitated a lot of online research.  I started writing the report, the first part (of two) of which is below, on 12 October, and I hope ROTters find it interesting and informative.  Maybe it’ll even answer some questions you may have.

[Let me make one thing clear at the outset: this won’t be a review of U2:UV, the rock concert that initiated Sphere, or any other performance or event that’s taken place at the venue.  It’s strictly about the performance and event space itself.]

This is pretty much the antithesis of any accepted, traditional rock ‘n’ roll orthodoxy.  It is also the natural human reaction to just about any or all of “U2:UV Live at Sphere Las Vegas,” the greatest-show-on-earth that opened Friday night in an enormous dome just off the Strip.  The just-over-two-hour show marks the apotheosis of a bigger-is-better ethos that has regularly occurred throughout the band’s career, and which they are not about to give up now that they’re in their 60s for any back-to-basics false modesty.  The group that has spent so much of its recording output urging you to think about God, and other only slightly less weighty matters, is in Sin City mostly to make you say: “Oh my God.”  And we can vouch that we were hearing that utterance, from people above, below and around us, in a kind of reactive, quadrophonic effect that nearly matched Sphere’s vaunted 22nd-century sound system.

That’s what Chris Willman of Variety said in the opening of his review of U2’s concert at Sphere in Las Vegas on Friday, last 29 September.  U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere was the inaugural show at the new performance venue at the Venetian resort, just off the Las Vegas Strip.  The opening performance was witnessed by the likes of LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey, Andre Agassi, Jeff Bezos, Bryan Cranston, Snoop Dogg, and Paul McCartney.

Now, I’m not going to report on the Irish rock band’s performance—I’m not qualified to do that, even if I’d been there—but I’ll try to document what Sphere is: its architecture and construction, its technology, its impact on Vegas, its effectiveness as a performance space, and its influence on the entertainment scene at large. 

(For readers interested in the reviews of U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, which focuses on the band’s album Achtung Baby [Island Records, 1991], there are plenty published by qualified music writers available online.  You can start with Willman’s Variety review, “U2 Takes to Playing in the Round (the Very, Very Round) at Las Vegas’ Sphere With Spectacular Results,” at U2's Sphere Opening Night Lives Up to the Hyperbole: Concert Review (variety.com).)

So, then: what precisely is Sphere?  Why’s it noteworthy?

Sphere’s a project of the live entertainment and media company Sphere Entertainment Co., formerly Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.  In addition to the entertainment venue, Sphere Entertainment operates MSG Networks, regional (chiefly the Mid-Atlantic states) cable TV sports and entertainment channels, as well as a companion streaming service; MSG GO, producer of live sports content and other programming; and Tao Group Hospitality, a global entertainment, dining, and nightlife company.

First, let’s tackle the name.  (If Sphere Entertainment is successful in Vegas, this could be significant as they’re planning more of these structures around the world, starting with London.  It may, thus, become a brand name.)  Is it “The Sphere” or just “Sphere”?

Well, it looks to me like it’s the latter.  While Wikipedia and several press outlets (see the Washington Post, 9 July 2023) call the structure “The Sphere” or “the Sphere,” the venue’s own website and the New York Times consistently call it “Sphere”—without an article (except in phrases like “the Sphere experience” or “the Sphere show”).  That seems definitive to me, supported by Variety, which more often than not calls the structure “Sphere.”  I’ll go with that.

One contrarian online writer, Steven Hyden of UPROXX, an entertainment and popular culture news website, proclaims, “I understand that the ‘correct’ way to refer to the Sphere is simply ‘Sphere.’  But I am going to continue with ‘the Sphere,’ because 1) it just feels better and 2) it seems way less Orwellian.  Or should I say Bradbury-ian?”

Hyden is, I presume, referring, first, to George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel, 1984.  His second reference is to Ray Bradbury’s short story originally published as “The World the Children Made” in the 23 September 1950 issue of the Saturday Evening Post and then republished under its current name, “The Veldt,” in the 1951 anthology The Illustrated Man.  Hyden reports that James Dolan, the CEO of Madison Square Garden Entertainment and executive chairman of MSG Networks who conceived Sphere, has said he was inspired by the story.

(Because the structure’s name isn’t securely established yet in people’s or journalists’ minds, many media outlets are calling it “the Sphere.”  So, readers, in quotations in this article, you’ll see both “Sphere and “the Sphere” interchangeably.  I can’t avoid that, but don’t get confused.

(For instance, in addition to Hyden, the New Yorker’s Jackson Arn, the magazine’s art critic, introduces the structure as “The Sphere, a.k.a. Sphere, a.k.a. the Sphere at the Venetian,” and then proceeds to call it “the Sphere” throughout his critique.

(Keep in mind, too, that ‘sphere,’ with a small s, is still the common name for a round, three-dimensional, generic object such as a ball or globe.  The word will show up frequently in this report because, as the entertainment structure’s name implies, its shape is a sphere.)

Sphere is, in fact, currently the largest sphere-shaped building in the world at 516 feet or 157 meters in diameter.

(For the curious, the Avicii Arena in Stockholm, at 362.2 feet/110.4 meters is the second largest spherical structure, but if the London Sphere meets its planned specifications when completed, at 393.7 feet/120 meters, would surpass it.  For U.S. chauvinists, Spaceship Earth at Epcot in Walt Disney World in Florida, with a diameter of 165 feet/50 meters, is currently the sixth largest and the Perisphere, of the Trylon and Perisphere at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair, dismantled in 1941, is fifth at 180 feet/55 meters in diameter.

(If you’re wondering about the Unisphere, with a diameter of 120 feet/37 meters, the symbol of the 1964 New York World’s Fair and a permanent feature of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York, it isn’t a building, but a giant sculpture.  See my post on Rick On Theater, “A Helluva Town, Part 2,” 18 August 2011)

Sphere’s also, as one website declares, “one of the world’s unique structures.  It’s also a perfect fit—and an up-the-ante—for the restless, nonstop, glittering shit show that is Vegas.”

To be precise, the Vegas “pleasure dome,” as the New Yorker’s Arn dubs it, “is not, technically speaking, a sphere but a spherical cap, a ball with the bottom sliced off.”  For the sake of convenience and verbal simplicity, I’ll just call it a sphere or a globe.

To be more accurate, Sphere isn’t just a spherical building, it’s a geodesic, constructed on the same principals as geodesic domes.  (Most of the large sphere-shaped structures extant around the world are geodesics, I believe.)  The spherical shape is formed by tessellating triangles (obscured now by the overlay of the LED screens, but clearly visible as Sphere was going up).

If you look at the many early photos of the construction in progress—they’re all over the ’Net—you’ll see that the exoskeleton is made up of hundreds of interlocking triangles to create the 360° shape and structure of Sphere. 

The triangular elements of a geodesic are architecturally rigid and distribute the stress throughout the structure, making geodesics capable of supporting very heavy loads for their size.  In essence, a geodesic structure is extremely strong and stable compared to other kinds of curved edifices.

(Geodesic is both a noun and an adjective—there’s also a synonymous adjective, geodetic—which is derived from geodesy, the science concerned with determining the shape and size of the earth and the exact position of points on its surface.  The term has since been generalized to the geometry of any curved surface.)

As long as we’ve started with metrics, lets go ahead. 

As I noted, Sphere measures 516 feet (157 meters) across at its widest point and 366 feet (112 meters) high, and the exterior, called the Exosphere, is 580,000 square feet (54,000 square meters), covered in LED displays.  (According to the creators, that can be seen from space—but I don’t know if anyone’s actually checked that out.)  Sphere stands on an 18-acre (784,080-square foot or 72,843-square meter) site contributed by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation.

The Sphere project was announced on or about 14 February 2018.  At that time, the structure was known as the MSG Sphere because Madison Square Garden was originally the partner of Las Vegas Sands.  The site is east of the Venetian Las Vegas resort, an 8-minute, mile-and-a-half drive by a tortuous route.  There’s a pedestrian walkway directly from the Venetian Convention and Expo Center, associated with the resort, though reports are that it’s very slow and crowded after an event.

There’s limited parking at Sphere itself, about 300 vehicles, so visitors are expected to park at the garages of the Venetian, the Pallazzo (part of the Venetian complex), or the Venetian Expo.  The construction of a new Las Vegas Monorail station for Sphere and the Venetian was approved in 2018, but the Coronavirus shutdown halted the plans and no schedule for restarting the project has been announced.

From the announcement on, the control of the project got complicated to follow, as businesses and properties kept changing hands.  In 2022, Apollo Global Management purchased the Venetian, opened by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (to replace the demolished Sands Hotel and Casino) in 1999, and became MSG's new partner on the Sphere project, replacing Las Vegas Sands.  As part of the sale, the land beneath the Venetian and the Sphere was purchased by yet another company.

Then on 20 April 2023, Sphere Entertainment Co. spun off from Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. and took its new name.  (MSG Entertainment continues to operate, though Sphere Entertainment owns approximately 33% of its outstanding shares.)

Sphere was designed by Populous Holdings, Inc., a global architectural and design practice specializing in sports facilities, arenas, entertainment venues, and convention centers.  MSG initially estimated the project cost at $1.2 billion.  

Two years later, the company said the price tag had gone up to $1.66 billion because of design changes.  The expense continued to increase, eventually passing $2 billion due to the COVID-generated worldwide supply-chain disruptions and the accompanying inflation surge.  

With a final price tag of $2.3 billion, it’s the most expensive entertainment venue in Las Vegas history, beating out the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium, a domed football arena in Paradise, Nevada, which opened in 2020. 

(Paradise is an unincorporated township of Clark County, Nevada.  It’s adjacent to, but not part of, the city of Las Vegas, also in Clark County.  Most people who visit the Las Vegas Strip—where Sphere is located, along with the Venetian—don't realize that they are technically not within the Las Vegas city limits at all.)

Ground was broken for Sphere on 27 September 2018.  Excavation began in March 2019 and the 21-foot-deep (6.4 meters) basement, where a VIP club, as well as back-stage facilities, are located, was started around May.  There are eight above-ground floors. 

Perhaps the most spectacular construction feat of the project was creating the framework for the dome of Sphere.  In order to achieve full coverage of the LED panels on the Exosphere, the engineers had to create precise contact between the panels and Sphere’s exoskeleton.  That necessitated a steel compression ring that forms the spherical shape of the building.

The compression ring sits at the top of the sphere and holds the structure in place so that all the component parts remain in the exact relation to one another without deviation.  As I understand it, this is necessary both so that the LED panels fit precisely onto the framework so that the Exosphere gives the impression of a seamless skin, and that the many parts of Sphere’s frame form the spherical shape. 

This maneuver was an amazingly complex operation taking many months of planning, preparation, and execution.  The compression ring itself was a monumental assemblage: a 170-ton steel ring—more than two Boeing 757’s (that’s what Air Force One is)—with a diameter of 136 feet (41½ meters). 

Because of its size and weight, the compression ring had to be assembled on the construction site.  It took crews three weeks to assemble it and weld and bolt the prefabricated pieces together on the ground.  Then it had to be hoisted into place atop a temporary 285-foot-tall tower at the center of the structure.  (Once construction of Sphere’s roof started, crews disassembled the tower.)

The prodigious lift was accomplished with the use of the world’s fourth-largest crawler crane, a huge crane mounted on caterpillar tracks, like a bulldozer.  This piece of equipment had its own saga.

In February 2020, the crane arrived on the construction site, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean from Belgium.  It weighs 869 tons and the boom can extend 580 feet high and has a load capacity of up to 1,760 tons.

When the crane was delivered by ship to southern California in January, it was broken apart and loaded onto 120 semis for the 340-mile journey to Las Vegas.  A separate crane was needed to reassemble it, a job that took 18 days.

The crane lifted the compression ring onto its temporary perch in February 2021.  Construction workers used a hydraulic lift on top of the tower to calibrate the steel ring’s exact position before emplacing the roof trusses, dividing the dome undercarriage into 32 pie slices, which serve as the skeletal support for Sphere’s steel dome—which weighs 13,000 tons.

This record illustrates vice president of construction for MSG Entertainment (now Sphere Entertainment) Nick Tomasino’s assertion that the building of Sphere “has every engineering and construction challenge that one venue could have . . . .”

The dome was “topped off” on 18 June 2021 and on 21 August, the company announced that work on the globe’s interior had begun.  Construction of the concrete-and-steel dome was finished in late October and work on the interior framework continued into 2022.

On 24 May 2022, “the last piece of the gigantic three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle” that is Sphere was fitted into its Exosphere.  Crews raised an evergreen tree and an American flag, the traditional symbols of the “topping off” celebration at a construction project when the last and highest section is completed, on the summit of the globe while more than 1,000 Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. employees and construction workers cheered the milestone event.

Sphere was slated to open in 2021, but construction was suspended between March and August 2020 due to supply disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic.  The venue opened on 29 September 2023 with the U2 show.  (The band’s residency is scheduled to consist of 47 appearances between the première show and 18 February 2024.)

The project began with 400 construction workers and eventually grew to employ an estimated 3,500 local workers.  Sphere Entertainment projected that the facility will provide 4,400 permanent jobs.  The estimated annual infusion by Sphere into the local economy is $730 million, generating in the range of $48 million a year in tax revenue for the State of Nevada and the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

Now, let’s talk about amenities.  It seems that Sphere isn’t brimming with them. 

There are 23 luxury suites, but Sphere Entertainment hasn’t released the prices for the suites, so I haven’t been able to pin down their cost.  I don’t even know if Sphere will be leasing the suites on a yearly basis, selling them like condominiums, or renting them per event—or some combination of all three.

(Why Sphere Entertainment is keeping prices and costs so sub rosa—even the drink price list is only known because it was leaked on Reddit—I don’t know.  Maybe they haven’t settled on what the market will bear, or maybe they’re just trying to generate mystery and buzz.)

If the suites are leased or sold, the costs will certainly be in the mid- and high six figures.  Las Vegas is generally an expensive city to play in.  If they’re rented by the event, the prices would probably be in the five-figure range, however.  (Suites, for example, at Madison Square Garden, the New York City arena of the original parent company of Sphere, rent for $8,000-60,000, depending on the game.)

In addition to the various prices of the luxury accommodations, I wasn’t able to track down any concrete information on what they offer.  Neither the luxury suites nor the so-called VIP club are described by either Sphere Entertainment or any press outlets I could find.  (There are photos of MSG’s club seating areas, but none of Sphere’s.)

I assume that they offer waiter service for food and drinks, possibly complimentary non-alcoholic beverages, private bathrooms, and comfortable surroundings, based on what other venues’ provide for the extra cost—but I don’t know that for sure and I don’t know what Sphere’s luxury accommodations may have that varies from the standard offerings.

Aside from the luxury suites, a minimum of food and drink is about all the venue offers outside of the entertainment for which it was built.  (I don’t see the tech that supports the entertainment function of Sphere as “amenities,” but I’ll be getting to that soon enough.)

Ticket prices for Sphere vary widely depending on how close you sit (or stand) to the stage, when you go, what the event is, and where you buy them.  U2 tix start in the low three figures and can go up to the mid-four figures.  Other events start as low as about $50 and can range up to a little under $500.  According to reports, Sphere’s admission prices aren’t out of line with other premier venues across the country.

(There are other events at Sphere at the same time as the series of U2 concerts are being performed.  One is The Sphere Experience, an interactive encounter with holographic art installations, a chat with interactive robots, and “22nd century technology.” 

(This is a two-part program that begins when you enter the venue.  The first hour begins in the Atrium, where, through immersive technology created specifically for Sphere, visitors are intended to gain a better understanding of how technology amplifies our human potential.

(The Sphere Experience then continues in the main performance venue, known as the Bowl, for a multi-sensory cinematic experience, Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth [débuted 6 October 2023].  This a 2023 film directed by Aronofsky, a filmmaker whose work is noted for being surreal and often disturbing, created expressly for Sphere.  Aronofsky says of his film: “Postcard from Earth is a sci-fi journey deep into our future as our descendants reflect on our shared home.”

(The film is an immersive exploration of planet Earth through the eyes of two human beings played by Brandon Santana and Zaya [Ribeiro].  It was designed and shot specifically for Sphere.  The 4D film features 270 degrees of viewing experience, climate control, shaking seats, and scents to create an immersive environment that tells the story of life on Earth.)

Once you’re inside the building—and by the way, once in you can’t leave and come back: reentry isn’t permitted—there are some rules of behavior; check the “Code of Conduct” list on Sphere’s FAQ page: FAQs | Policies & Ticketing | Sphere (thespherevegas.com).  Here are some other factoids regarding the “Sphere experience”:

There’s food and drink (including alcohol and sodas) available for sale on the Concourse, but it’s “food court” service.  There are counters for ordering and paying and there are self-service concessions for those who don’t want to stand on line, but there are no seats.  Prices are high, but not more than other sites similar to Sphere.  Quality is debatable: some visitors have shrugged it off, others have registered complaints online.

There are many eateries of various types in the immediate area of Sphere, but you can’t bring outside food or beverages into the venue.  If you want a real meal when you go to an event at Sphere, you should probably plan to eat either before or after the show and rely on the in-house food selections for snacks to hold off the munchies (if you’re ready to pay $7 for a Coke).

The only food-related items you may bring into Sphere is an empty soft plastic bottle.  (Glass and metal containers are not allowed.)  You can fill it with cold water from the drinking fountains around the facility and bring it into the auditorium.  No other food or beverage is permitted in the auditorium.

As far as I can tell, Sphere doesn’t, at least as yet, have merchandise for sale.  Some performers, such as U2, will have merch on display, but that’s on them.  Sphere just provides the space on the Concourse for the display and sales.  (I lie: Sphere does offer a “Souvenir Soda”—whatever that turns out to be—but it’ll cost you $14.  A “fountain” soda is half that.  So’s Path Water.)

Those seven-buck drinks are the cheapest things on the Sphere drink menu.  It was posted on the social media website Reddit.  A single drink of “Premium” liquor will cost you $15, “Deluxe” is advertised for $16, and “Ultra” is $19.  (You can get a “double,” but it’ll cost you . . . well, double.)  Domestic beer goes for $18, and premium lists for $19.  Wine, margaritas, and palomas (tequila, lime juice, and a grapefruit-flavored soda) are priced at $20, while the “Specialty Cocktail” costs $30.

As reported in Parade, the nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, many visitors agreed that "this is price gouging at its finest . . . but it’s exactly in line with how every other venue gouges you," while others pointed out that Sphere’s prices are similar to venues in other cities, noting that the beers offered at entertainment facilities like Sphere are usually larger than normal (12 ounces), like 20 or 24 ounces.

One Reddit comment responded to the revelations that Sphere’s in an exceptional position as a new and advanced site and “is unique and can do whatever they want.”

Here’s an important tip: Sphere is entirely cashless.  You can’t pay for anything with money.  The venue takes credit cards (I assume all of them, but I don’t know that for sure), debit cards, or “mobile” (by which I presume they mean, your phone).  There are cell-phone chargers around the building and “reverse ATM’s” that will convert cash to debit cards.  I don’t know what happens to excess cash left on these cards when the show’s over.

(There are “trained” staff personnel in the facility who can assist visitors, and I assume they can answer questions about all this stuff—but don’t be surprised if the answer is “I don’t know”!  Upon entering Sphere’s grand atrium, visitors will encounter five lifelike, AI-equipped humanoid robots—all named Aura—that are programmed to interact with guests and reveal the marvels of Sphere to them.  I don’t know how extensive the programming is—human techies are standing by—but it might be fun to find out.)

[This concludes Part 1 of my report on Sphere.  Part 2 will be posted on Wednesday, 27 December.  I hope you will all come back then for my coverage of the technology of Sphere and some of the assessments, both from professional reviewers and from ordinary entertainment-seekers, of how well the Las Vegas event space stood up to its hype.]