Located at The Venetian in Las Vegas, the eagerly awaited, state-of-the-art Madison Square Garden (MSG) Sphere will open next year. Featuring a 160,000-square-foot display plane that surrounds the audience, including the world’s highest resolution LED screen with over 170 million pixels and a resolution of 16K x 16K, the ambitious $1.865 billion venue is scheduled to open in the second half of 2023.
When completed, the MSG Sphere is expected to become the largest spherical structure in the world, at 336 feet tall and 516 feet wide. A disruptive and unique entertainment venue, it will accommodate up to 20,000 spectators, with 23 VIP suites, and will be used for immersive, custom-made attractions, live performances, sports, gaming, and corporate events.
The exterior features a record 580,000-square-foot exterior LED display, which, like the wraparound display inside, is fully programmable. It will show live content as well as being utilised for advertising. The Sphere will showcase a Holoplot sound system and 4D elements including wind and scent.
To perfect the content for MSG Sphere, the MSG Sphere Studios in Burbank, California, was opened. This facility, which features a quarter-scale version of the Sphere’s curved screen, is a space for the creation of original content and immersive experiences for the attraction.
Multi-award-winning media solutions specialist 7thSense is working with MSG Entertainment as a technology partner to ensure the speed, image quality, and integrity needed to render content for MSG Sphere.
A unique project
As construction continues, blooloop caught up with Alex Luthwaite, VP of show systems technology at Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. and Rich Brown, owner/CTO at 7thSense Design, to hear about the project.
“It’s a unique project, in a lot of ways, for a combination of reasons,” says Luthwaite. “Scale is the first thing. It’s a very large venue, and it’s a large venue that houses all these different technologies that have been put together for the first time.”
What differentiates MSG Sphere from other experiences, he contends, is the fact that it’s a shared experience:
“You can put VR goggles on, and be transported to all these different places, but as you do that, firstly, you have no peripheral vision, and secondly, it isolates you. When you’re looking at a phone screen, you’re looking down, isolated. You’re not interacting with other people or with the shows that are happening. That’s where this is going to be very different.
“The nature of the screen in this venue is that it redefines the term ‘immersive’. It reimagines how we use a venue; how creatives build a show. We just have so much screen, so much technology, and so much scale. We can really wow audiences and take them to different places.”
Original content at MSG Sphere
In terms of content, he adds:
“MSG will create original content. Those will be the primary shows; there will be cinematic experiences to the next scale. We are also going to have performances, of course; there will be artists that come through residencies, concerts, and so on, as well as marquee events: one-off sports events, corporate events, award shows, and that sort of thing. Esports and gaming events are going to be another big aspect.”
The team have been using the quarter-scale dome in Burbank to trial elements:
“It’s next to our post-production facilities, and it allows us to test the processing and editing of the content we’re creating. It allows us to bring creatives in and show people what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, but also details like how quickly that camera can be moved, and, if you change the horizon in the venue, what it does to people.
“The dome allows us to test all these things when we’re making the original content. It’s also our production and engineering workflows; all our teams are based there, like a traditional post-production house. It allows us to be the content house for Sphere.”
Taking things to a whole new scale
The MSG Sphere project’s uniqueness lies in its scale, and in the combination of technology, he says
“Lots of people have built big screens or a very impressive audio system, but nobody’s done it on this scale, all together, all at the same time. The process of having all those elements working together, which is difficult and challenging for us, is really where the pointy end of the Sphere technology lies.”
“Then there is the immersive sound suite, the 4D scent and air systems, the infrasound haptic vibrating seats. This is about putting all those pieces together and having it queued and timed properly to immerse people compellingly in the story, without the tech ever taking centre stage. We don’t want people going home singing the praises of the lighting sequence.
“The idea is to immerse people in that environment. We want to take people somewhere else.”
Commenting on immersive entertainment trends, Luthwaite says:
“I see a trend of popups. I’m thinking of a handful of examples that are in Vegas, and there are a couple in New York. They’ve taken over a corner of a warehouse, or an old industrial building. They tend to combine live interaction and a bit of a show, but it doesn’t transport you places. You know you’re in a warehouse. Being live doesn’t necessarily make it immersive, in my experience. If you project onto a huge screen, is that immersive, or is it just a screen in a room? That’s how we differ.”
Immersive technology at MSG Sphere
The Sphere’s fusion of technologies with the space itself and the content is what makes it unique – and uniquely immersive. While the Sphere is primarily a cinematic experience, it is also a shared one.
“We want you to interact with the people around you. Obviously, it’s a cinematic environment: there’s a big screen. But one of the things we’re trying to do is change what we call the Z axis.”
Part of this involves the curved screen, which draws viewers into the content:
“We want you to feel like you’re at the place, but we’re also doing things that are between the screen and yourself; different scenic pieces and technologies which I can’t disclose too much about. The 4D scent and the way the seats interact with what you’re watching are examples. We’re working against that passive nature of just sitting there watching something.”
There is a subtle art to getting all the elements exactly right:
“It’s quite easy to blast wind in somebody’s face. But does that add to what you are doing or seeing, or is it just a gag? The creative difficulty lies in trying to make it feel natural, trying to make it feel relevant to the show, rather than letting it stand out. People are quick to perceive wind, scent and those other elements as false or gimmicky. We’re very conscious of that. Our systems are designed to allow us to have a huge amount of control, and we’ve been doing a lot of testing.”
Choosing the right partner
The choice to work with 7thSense was, Luthwaite says, simple:
“They’re the best in the world at what they do. We have a long collaborative relationship with them. They are fantastic partners. We do a lot of development, and they are very open with their technology roadmaps. When we approached them with this project, there was a specific list of technology ideas that we wanted to use to unlock the potential of this venue. Rich and his team at 7thSense said, ‘Yes, this is on our roadmap. This is already in development.’
“It couldn’t have been a better partnership for us. They are great; we love working with them. It lined up well.”
Not compromising on anything
The MSG Sphere is scheduled to open in the second half of 2023:
“No pressure,” he jokes.
“There’s an awful lot of connectivity and hardware and things that have to go into this building to make it all work. That’s the crux of it – it’s about not only each of these individual pieces but having them work seamlessly together. What you’re seeing, hearing, and feeling all must be perfectly integrated, so it all aligns.”
In short, he adds:
“I’m very excited about it, honestly. I’ve spent a large proportion of my career working in the entertainment industry, and nothing has quite been like this. It’s the scale, the fact it has all this new technology, and the fact MSG controls the whole pipeline.
“It’s very unusual for a company to create the show, the technology, and the building. It doesn’t happen very often. Usually, you must compromise on one of those. Here, we’re not compromising on anything. We want to wow people and change the entertainment industry.”
7thSense joins the project
Rich Brown of 7thSense explains:
“Our top-level brief is content management and the video platform for both the interior and the exterior; essentially, presenting the visuals that you will see on the interior or the exterior of the MSG Sphere.”
Outlining the tech that is being used and combined for the project, he says:
“We are using a combination of many technologies. Sphere is a multipurpose venue, and we have many of our products in use in the system. We have our 7thSense Media Server platform presenting any pre-rendered, and live content and effects. It’s super high quality to meet the resolutions required for the Sphere.”
All pre-rendered content is being streamed from a centralised storage system, which, he explains, has been a big technical challenge for the system:
“All of the media comes from one central place on the network. It is streamed through to all of our Media Servers, which is unlike most of the venues I’ve ever seen. That was one of the challenges we’ve had, but we’ve got that all ready to go.”
Systems need to be bulletproof
This aspect, he explains, must be unassailable.
“It has to be bulletproof, and it has to be low latency, as well. It’s a fast-reacting system. There are generative aspects to the show; there are pre-rendered aspects to the show, along with live feeds, all depending on what the show is. There’s a huge network behind this whole thing.”
“The video distribution system for the whole venue, again, is network-based, using SMPTE ST 2110. This is a network-based video protocol that people are starting to adopt, especially in the broadcast industry. We’ve taken that and, with MSG’s vision, have created a massive network for Sphere. The data rates that we are driving to be able to get all the pixels to the LED are massive. It’s an exciting challenge.
“The SMPTE ST 2110 aspect is very important. It’s such a large part of the system.”
MSG Sphere is like nothing before it
MSG Sphere, he feels, is genuinely unprecedented:
“I can’t think of anything like it. It’s a truly immersive experience. ‘Immersive’ is an overused word, but in this case, it really is appropriate. It’s not just the technologies we’re using, it’s the scale and the quality. Our focus is to ensure that the experience is the best that it can be.”
The whole system is, he explains, fully redundant:
“You’ve got a huge amount of equipment, which you then multiply by two. We have our product, Juggler, which is our FPGA-based pixel processor. Juggler acts as the backbone of the video system in Sphere, compositing and managing all the different sources.
“We have our Media Servers; our Conjurer generative content management machines – our game engines, for live, generative content, along with the live feeds. All can be used depending on the needs of the show. Juggler allows us to real-time composite the sources and map them onto the spherical surfaces. It’s going to be amazing!”
Providing the right tools
In terms of the process, MSG had a clear vision from the start:
“We have worked with MSG for a long time and have a great relationship with the team; we’ve been involved with the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show for many years. We reviewed our existing products, and then what MSG needed for Sphere, and have spent over two years growing feature sets and adapting and improving the bandwidths of our products.”
“At the end of the day, we need to be able to say to creative teams that come in, ‘Here are all the capabilities of Sphere; what would you like to do with it?’ We’re essentially providing a toolkit of features and capabilities – and that’s really what 7thSense is all about: providing all the hooks and capabilities required to make the show as imagined by the creative teams.”
Just the beginning for MSG Sphere
The MSG sphere is a unique showcase for the 7thSense systems. In fact, Brown adds:
“It’s a showcase, really, of where 7thSense is going. Everything we’ve been focused on for the last few years is about creating new workflows for much larger-scale systems. The core of it is combining our Media Servers, Jugglers, and Conjurers, together in one big workflow with Media Distribution, advanced Metadata and Content Management.
“Our ecosystem can be manipulated by any of the other systems in Sphere through our various APIs, and control mechanisms. We are very excited to be releasing a lot of these capabilities to the market over the next year.
“This project presented the opportunity to progress what we were intending to do anyway, but at a much faster pace, and to do it on a giant scale, which is just fantastic.”
The MSG Sphere in Las Vegas is the start of a broader intent to build spheres around the world. MSG Entertainment has already announced plans for a London site, with more locations expected to follow.
