Double Win for Sphere Las Vegas at TheStadiumBusiness Design & Development Summit Awards 2024 – including AV Fan Experience of the Year Title with 7thSense.
Sphere Las Vegas has scooped 2 awards at the TheStadiumBusiness Design & Development Awards 2024. The ceremony took place during TheStadiumBusiness Design & Development Summit 2024 at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, on Tuesday 3rd December in front of an audience of senior industry figures.
Sphere Las Vegas was named as a double award-winner as the venue picked up the top prizes through Sphere and 7thSense, in the ‘AV Fan Experience’ category, as well as in the ‘Destination’ category as Sphere.
Ian Nuttall, Founder, TheStadiumBusiness, said: “The Awards are about celebrating the professionals involved in the delivery of the next generation of stadia. Since 2017, these Awards have recognised the best in venue design, development, construction and refurbishment across the global sports and entertainment sector. “Congratulations to everyone who reached the podium. Winners included our industry’s leaders, achievers and stand-out venues, who should all be very proud of their achievements.”
With a 16K x 16K resolution, the Sphere’s 15,000 sq metre interior LED display plane is the highest-resolution LED screen in the world. It soars to a height of more than 70 metres, and has more than 12,000 sq metres of immersive display surface, warping up, over and around the audience. Meanwhile, the 54,000 sq metre exterior Exosphere is the largest LED screen in the world.
The size and scale of Sphere requires a playback engine like no other system in the world, based on 7thSense’s Performer Range of products.
Richard Brown, CTO, 7thSense said, “With the opening of Sphere in Las Vegas, we are excited to introduce our new Performer range, including Actor media server, Juggler pixel processor, and Conjurer - our generative media solution. Developed over several years with a focus on the evolving landscape of video technology, and the challenging workflow requirements associated with a media storage and playback system needed for a project the size of Sphere, these products are intricately designed to leverage SMPTE ST 2110 IP video streaming.
The pre-rendered content at Sphere is stored on a network-attached storage (NAS) solution and streamed in real-time to dozens of media servers, which each output 4K video at 60 frames per second over an ST 2110 distribution network – a world-first in terms of technology capability at this scale for a live entertainment venue.
7thSense’s Juggler pixel processors handle combining playback media with other video sources, such as cameras, to create overall compositions that tell larger-than-life immersive stories. The integration of these products into Sphere isn’t just a step, but a leap forward in our journey of innovation. I am immensely proud of our team and everything we have accomplished to help bring Sphere to life.”
7thSense has worked with the team at MSG since 2011, when the company’s award-winning technologies were used as part of the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes in New York. Since then, 7thSense and MSG have collaborated on several other project installations.
Bryan Hinckley, CEO of 7thSense, added, "Since 2004, 7thSense has been at the forefront of identifying and addressing inefficiencies and challenges in managing very large video systems, consistently raising the bar in user interaction, both for technical experts and creative minds. We firmly believe that our team and our technologies have now crafted a solution that will forever redefine the landscape of live performances and immersive experiences."