The Sphere

 

In Las Vegas last week I caught “The Wizard of Oz” at The Sphere, a unique a music and entertainment arena featuring a high resolution wraparound interior LED screen..

I was not so much “watching a movie” as being gently abducted by it. The wraparound screen doesn’t sit politely in front of you; it rises up, stretches its arms, and pulls you straight into the story. Dorothy’s tornado doesn’t stay put on the screen ... augmented with huge wind fans, paper leaves, and shaking seats, it's an immersive experience. And Oz doesn’t appear; it engulfs.

And the place itself? Genius, in a loud, Vegas kind of way. That colossal exterior display is like an LED planet dropped in the middle of a neon desert. It might be Vegas's ultimate billboard.

In a city already saturated with spectacular lighting, the Sphere manages to stop traffic. It's a marketing opportunity that's as eye-catching as the technology inside, proving that even in a town built on ostentation, there's room to stand out.

But, as with all shiny new toys, there are seams.

The AI-enhanced imagery swings for the fences but doesn’t quite round the bases. You can feel the tech wobble, like it’s still figuring out which end of the wand does the magic. And then there’s the 30-minute chunk of the film that simply… vanished. Edited out. “The Wizard of Oz” didn’t need a haircut, but cutting out that ½ hour probably saved millions in production costs and lets them run more shows a day … for a venue that charges premium prices and promises the future, cutting up a classic feels like the wrong kind of bold. Really, you cut the Cowardly Lion's "If I Were King of the Forest" number? Not OK.

That being said, would I recommend it?

Absolutely. The Sphere is a postcard from the future of entertainment. Just walk in with your eyes wide and your expectations flexible … it's an extraordinary venue showcasing promising technology that still has room to grow.

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The Sphere stands 366 feet tall with an exterior sizing 580,000 square feet. To advertise on its expansive 1.2 million LED light screen costs $450,000 per day or $650,000 per week. It is estimated that that investment will deliver about 4.7 million daily impressions on a single day, 300,000 of which are offline impressions, with 4.4 million coming from social media.