The skyline of Las Vegas – a city known for its casinos – has been dominated by the world’s largest sphere-shaped LED screen. The novelty is overshadowing the surrounding skyscrapers after going into operation with a 91-meter ‘eye’ looking out over the city.
The show started with a welcome message, “Hello world”, followed by fireworks and animations of stars and stripes, a moon in a night sky and a towering Halloween pumpkin. Videos showed the screen overtaking cars – tiny by comparison – on a nearby road.
Built to host concert events, the Las Vegas structure will seat tens of thousands of people and is estimated to have cost $2 billion to build. It was built by Sphere Entertainment Co in partnership with sports giant Madison Square Garden Entertainment.
“The Exosphere is more than a canvas or a billboard – it’s living architecture unlike anything else in the world,” said Guy Barnett, senior vice president of brand strategy and creative development at MSG Sphere. The exterior is comprised of approximately 1.2 million LED “pucks”, each containing 48 individual LED diodes capable of displaying 256 million different colors.
MSG Sphere will officially open on September 29th with U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere.
Check out more details of the Las Vegas Sphere
The Las Vegas sphere has a height of 111.5 meters and a width of 157.2 meters, it is not only the largest LED screen in the world, but also the largest spherical structure ever built. Its exterior is made up of 1.2 million LEDs, each the size of an ice hockey puck, which are also the largest in the world.
These LEDs are programmed to display dynamic images on a grand scale. The sphere was illuminated for the first time last Tuesday, the 4th, in a celebration marking the independence of the United States.
