With 270-degree video immersion, real wind and sound you can “feel”, 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’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more.
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., but like the immersive virtual ABBA Arena in London, it is a technological genie-in-a-bottle greater than the sum of its parts.
The comparison to ABBA’s 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’s 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.
“With the ABBA Arena, it’s 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’s in the building as an immersive environment,” Lipson says. “It 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 ,” Lipson says.“We have Adele in Caesar’s 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,” Lipson adds.