Original source: metaverse metaverse
Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI
Recently, you must have seen this cute ball on social platforms:
**This ball is not a synthesis, not a fiction, but the closest place on the surface to the metaverse right now: MSG Sphere. **
The most expensive landmark in Las Vegas, built in partnership between Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG) and Las Vegas Sands, is currently the world’s largest spherical immersive experience center.
Passing through MSG Sphere’s ever-changing exterior and interior is at the heart of creating immersive experiences, and its near-perfect experience doesn’t just rely on hardware.
1 Top hardware, start to win big
Designed by high-profile star architectural firm Populous, MSG Sphere is a futuristic mega-building project that features a total of 31,351 square metres of fixed aluminium profiles and 2,647 square metres of pre-perforated aluminium profiles.
In addition, the building has adopted 4,900 conical and 1,075 conical perforated special-shaped panels to ensure the long-lasting durability of the panels, all in mottled gray to avoid reflecting LED light.
As the most direct impact of the immersive experience, MSG Sphere is equipped with a total area of 15,793 square meters of wrap-around LED screens, a total of more than 268 displays. This forms a huge inner spherical screen with an area more than 40 times larger than IMAX and is currently the highest resolution LED screen in the world.
To provide content that matched the screen, multiple 8K cameras were used to capture 360-degree video, providing viewers with an immersive experience that was 100 times clearer than today’s best HDTVs.
In the end, people can enjoy an immersive virtual reality experience without wearing professional VR glasses - and this screen is also the source of most of the shock we can experience in front of the screen, but the shock we can get on the spot is much more than that.
On the auditory level, MSG Sphere also offers an unprecedented experience:
MSG Sphere has the world’s largest concert-grade audio system, consisting of approximately 1,600 permanently installed loudspeakers and 300 HOLOPLOT X1 matrix array speaker modules, including a total of 167,000 individually amplified speaker drivers.
LEVERAGE HOLOPLOT’S 3D AUDIO BEAMFORMING AND WAVE FIELD SYNTHESIS TECHNOLOGY TO DELIVER CONTROLLED, CONSISTENT, AND CLEAR CONCERT-QUALITY AUDIO TO UP TO 20,000 VIEWERS. But on a unified basis, the system can provide each viewer with a clear and personalized sound experience according to different positions, and even highlight the sound of different instruments or make the audience feel someone whispering in their ears.
In addition, MSG Sphere uses HOLOPLOTt’s unique Wave Field Synthesis technology, a spatial audio rendering technology that enables sound designers to create virtual sound origins at precise spatial locations, allowing audio to be directed to listeners, even if the sound sources are far away.
But that’s still not the limit of what MSG Sphere can offer: the sense of touch and smell are equally integrated. **
The theater is equipped with a custom tactile floor, which will produce vibration or different physical feedback according to different notes, such as up and down vibration when simulating riding a motorcycle, or feeling the cold in a cold polar scene, so that the body feels real feedback and enhances the immersion of the sound effect.
When the characters experience an earthquake in the movie, the seats and floor shake with them, making the audience immersed. When the scene switches to a windy day, the 4D device will also create the effect of blowing wind and cooling.
In addition, MSG Sphere will also create scents through an intelligent olfactory system to further enhance the viewing experience of viewers.
The combination of advanced technologies makes MSG Sphere a multi-sensory marvel, bringing audiences an unprecedented all-round, immersive sensory feast, and most importantly, the content presented above has already had a real landing case.
2 Ultimate production, debut is the pinnacle
The first event held in MSG Sphere was a performance by the U2 rock band, a visual feast that directly contributed to the global spread of MSG Sphere’s influence.
**It can be said that without the support of such high-quality content, MSG Sphere may be just a flower shelf for nothing. **
Throughout the five-year development process, the MSG Sports team conducted an extensive search for content creators who could showcase the scale and quality of MSG Sphere’s audiovisuals. Ultimately, U2 took on the task of pioneering this technological marvel – an Irish band with unparalleled experience in setting the stage to match its epic soundscape.
THE SHOW’S CREATIVE DIRECTOR, WILLIE WILLIAMS, HAS BEEN WORKING WITH U2 FOR A LONG TIME, AND HE OVERSAW 11 MAJOR GLOBAL TOURS AT U2. At the last minute of the opening night, he said: “There has never been anything like this before, this event requires a lot of human and mechanical parts, it is a fusion of art, science and diplomacy.” ”
And to achieve this complete performance, the challenge is far greater than expected:**
Although the whole space is creative, it also has certain limitations, such as no corners, which is a real blank canvas. But they wanted to paint an unprecedented spectacle of the show on this blank canvas.
THE DESIGN OF THE STAGE WAS UNDERTAKEN BY STUFISH, WHO WANTED TO CREATE A PURELY SCULPTURAL STAGE, PLACED IN FRONT OF A SPHERICAL VIDEO CANVAS OF SPHERES, WITH A STRIKING SQUARE MONOLITHIC STAGE PLATFORM THAT APPEARED TO LEVITATE ABOVE THE AUDIENCE. The design of the stage is inspired by the luminous record player inside, and the form is both a stage and a mesmerizing work of art.
The surface and sides of the stage are an expansive custom video screen that emits light, color, and imagery that envelops the entire space of the performance. The raised circular center is placed horizontally within the larger square video stage, creating a visually striking stage layout.
Fortunately, U2’s performance history has also been characterized by the screen as both the background and the structure, which has led U2 to forge long-term partnerships with many well-known visual designers and teams, who ultimately gave shape, structure and color to this spectacular building.
I think everyone has experienced a lot of scenes and shots about the performance, but the most shocking thing for me is the scene where the screen shows the real scene of outdoor Dath Vegas, at this moment, the wall seems to disappear, and the boundary between real and virtual is broken.
** The virtual contains the real, the real and the virtual symbiosis, and the perfect experience of the metaverse seems to be really realized in MSG Sphere. **
3 Finding a different way to point out the metaverse path
In the current metaverse start-up, there is limited value for money to achieve high-quality immersive experiences at such a high cost. However, the significance of MSG Sphere may be that it can stimulate people’s discussion of immersive experience on a larger scale, and at the same time let people truly experience the charm of immersive experience - which is also a good thing for the development of the metaverse.
And when we return to MSG Sphere itself, the code of success is actually connected to other metaverse immersive experiences.
First of all, the high level of hardware facilities is the key to its success, and its building structure uses a large number of high-quality aluminum profiles and steel trusses to form a strong support system, so that the entire sphere can carry a huge LED screen, this display system is an excellent stage for immersive experience.
The advanced architectural design ultimately enables the sphere to achieve unprecedented visual and sound effects, bringing the audience an immersive experience of the highest quality.
Second, high-quality content is at the heart of immersive experiences. MSG Sphere has attracted many top content creators, including the famous band U2. By carefully designing the stage, lighting and sound effects, they brought a powerful performance to the audience. These contents are not just performances, but also a real dream that blends art, science and imagination.
Finally, the password to success also lies in the alignment of cost and return. Despite the huge cost of building the Vegas Sphere, both the Las Vegas city government and developers believe that the project will bring huge economic benefits to Las Vegas: more than 100 million tourists are expected to visit and shop each year, which will create a large number of jobs and economic benefits for Las Vegas.
Of course, the success of MSG Sphere also has a direct role in promoting the development of the current metaverse industry in China:**
According to public reports, Zhouming Technology participated in the control system of the Las Vegas MSG Sphere façade dome system, and the internal display driver and control chip also used the ICND2200 chip designed by Beijing Jichuang North Technology.
New Asion Optoelectronics is one of the LED screen suppliers in the venue, responsible for the construction of the creative circular stacked center stage of the main stage of MSG Sphere, the upper 10m diameter circular screen, and the lower 14mx14m square stereoscopic screen.
The high standard of facilities and content investment makes MSG Sphere a model of qualified metaverse immersive experience.
Replicating an MSG Sphere may not be realistic, but the path to achieving the metaverse has been pointed out again: how to perfectly combine technology and content, scene and art to achieve a truly high-quality metaverse immersive experience is a challenge for all practitioners.
