I don’t often buy into the cringe-worthy hyperbole you often get from press releases, but the opening of The Sphere in Las Vegas might not be exaggerating (much). The Sphere is a huge dome structure covered by LED lights and large enough to fit the Statue of Liberty inside. The opening show is a new live set from rock band U2 and the ambition among those involved is to reinvent live entertainment itself.
The venue cost more than $2B to build and features a “3D Audio-Beamforming technology to ensure that listeners anywhere in the venue hear identical mixes at identical volumes.” On the visual side, the in-house creative and production unit created a new high-resolution cinema camera system called Big Sky specifically for the massive screens. The most interesting aspect, though, is the business model they are using for what experiences they offer.
Instead of adopting the usual practice of treating their venue as space for rent to shows or artists who then take up residences, they are commissioning and running their own exclusive content – which offers a higher margin. The early success of U2’s opening show (with tickets averaging more than $1000 per seat) is a good sign – as is the band’s quote suggesting that they “would not have played Vegas if it weren’t for the Sphere.” While they haven’t announced the rest of their 2024 calendar, lots of people will be watching and waiting to see what comes there next.
