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Working with such a large volume of content was a challenge, especially as it had to be in sync with the music, in real time”
show equivalent to an entire hour of streaming television. Upon the completion of the roof’s steel frame, 6000 cubic yards of concrete were then pumped onto the roof, forming a ten-inch layer in thickness and weighing 10,000 tonnes. With the roof finally completed in 2021, crews then turned their attention to the 730-tonne steel interior frame supporting the LED screens and audio system. A second topping, for the exosphere, took place on 24 May 2022, followed by the installation of the interior and exterior LED screens. The latter were illuminated for the first time ever on 4 July 2023 during the Independence Day celebrations, and once again went viral. It astonished onlookers, lighting up the sky with a display of dazzling fireworks, patriotic stars-and-stripes animations and a message that simply said: ‘Hello world’. For U2’s residency, creatives from the content agency Treatment Studio leveraged Disguise’s Designer software to previsualise and refine visual content on their computers using a digital twin of the Sphere stage. “Both our software and hardware were used to power the content on Sphere’s wraparound interior LED screen,” Kirkup continues, “which lined 15,000 sq m of the dome’s interior. “Designer helped sequence the visuals into a timeline of beats and bars, before importing audio to lock visuals to the beat. 16K content was then split and distributed across the 23 Disguise GX 3 media servers used for the show.” It didn't take long for the team at Disguise to discover that, when it came to a project like Sphere, they needed to enhance their already top-of-the-line media servers. This meant each one was upgraded with a 30TB hard drive. BUMPS IN THE ROAD This project, in all its extravagance and technical prowess, became problematic. Aside from Sphere’s pricey construction, it’s quite unsurprising that installing the world’s largest LED screens wasn’t the easiest of tasks. “Working with such a large volume of content was a huge challenge,” Kirkup continues. “Especially as it needed to be in sync with the music, in real time.
venue like no other, Sphere started life as a drawing: a circle with a stick man inside. Over the course of seven years, that drawing gradually, and expensively, transformed into a colossal venue at a towering 366ft, making it the largest spherical building in the world. Designed by Populous, construction for Sphere commenced in 2019, with the opening initially targeted for 2021. The project couldn’t have started at a worse time, with Covid-19 and its resulting supply-chain crisis causing major disruption and costly delays to its construction and opening date. At last, $2.1 billion later, Sphere opened its curved doors in September 2023, with Irish rock band U2 beginning a 36-show residency, titled U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere. This is almost $1 billion more than initially forecasted by MSG at the start of the project. And, among the many technical partners involved was Disguise. “Many don’t know this, but Disguise has worked with U2 since their Vertigo tour in 2005,” introduces Peter Kirkup, solutions and innovation director at Disguise. “We collaborated with Fuse, the production company that works with U2 on their shows, who installed our servers into the show venues.” Back then, it was challenging for the band to envisage how low-resolution content would look on big LED video screens. That’s when Disguise founder Ash Nehru wrote code to help them previsualise that content. This originated Disguise’s flagship Designer software, used on shows together with Disguise servers ever since. U2’s debut Sphere show quickly went viral. Reels, TikToks and posts circulated the internet demonstrating dazzling footage from inside the 18,000-seat venue, which displayed ethereal clouds of fluttering birds and rolling landscapes. Clearly, this inaugural residency served a purpose: to boast every lavish bell and whistle used to create this landmark experiential venue. THE STORY BEHIND THE SCREEN Sphere features the world’s largest LED screen, built with 268,435,456 pixels – equating to 72 vast televisions. That makes every minute of content in the
IMMERSIVE ALL OVER Out of the 18,000 total seating options available at the Sphere, 10,000 can provide an immersive experience, using a specialised sound system that’s capable of making guests ‘feel’ sound vibrations.
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