Sphere Debuts 24-Hour Livestream, Exterior Sound and Drones to Celebrate Illumination Anniversary

You can now hear and see Sphere Las Vegas in person or at home. 

To commemorate one year since the Sphere’s exterior “Exosphere” — the largest LED screen in the world at 580,000 square feet with 1.2 million LED pucks — switched on, the landmark entertainment venue revealed three new features on Thursday (July 4): audio, a 24-hour livestream and a fleet of 500 drones.

Sphere launched the technology with Verizon during its Fourth of July Celebration this past week. The 24-hour livestream, known as the XO Stream, can be viewed on both YouTube and Sphere’s website. (XO plays on the term Exosphere, as the Sphere’s exterior surface is known.)

Sphere guests, hundreds of onlookers and thousands more online gathered to see the customized Exosphere show, themed “America in six acts.” The presentation featured both Independence Day content and a retrospective of visuals from Sphere’s first year, including an animated emoji face and U2, Dead & Company, and Phish concert graphics. For the first time, the visuals were synched to music, with Odesza’s “A Moment Apart” serving as the debut track. 

Sphere Studios, which produces multi-sensory live entertainment experiences for Sphere, created all of the content.

“People want to know what’s happening on Sphere,” says Jennifer Koester, president/COO of Sphere Las Vegas. “Inside the building, the multi-sensory experience blows people away. How do we bring that to the exterior? That’s why we are now introducing audio synched with the visuals.”

“The Sphere is a model of innovation and ingenuity,” adds Jim Dolan, executive chairman/CEO of Sphere Entertainment. “It was a year ago that we watched the Exosphere get turned on, and we didn’t know how the public would receive it. That night, all the traffic stopped, and we got the idea that the Exosphere would be important.”

Through the livestream, Sphere extends its canvas beyond Las Vegas, allowing people worldwide to experience its marvels. XO Audio features sound created by Sphere Studios or from outside artists, synched to the movement of the imagery on the Exosphere. Audio accompanies Exosphere visuals onsite and via the XO Stream. 

“There are speakers around the exterior designed to have the sound cover the campus,” says Koester, noting that they are not HOLOPLOT, which powers Sphere Immersive Sound inside the venue. 

XO Audio is specific to the Exosphere and will be separate from what is happening inside. However, Koester doesn’t rule out future extensions as innovations are forever evolving.

“During the NHL Draft in June, we were able to show on the Exosphere what was happening in the interior for the first time,” she says. Also for the first time, Sphere Studios led the design and creation of content for the interior display plane and the Exosphere. 

To further amplify the experience, a fleet of 500 drones is now available to synch to the Exosphere. During the launch, these drones took the shape of fireworks, stars and phrases like “Year of Sphere.”

“When an image appears [on the Exosphere], it will shoot right out of the Sphere in the form of drones,” Dolan says.

“Drones will be going into all of the toolkits that we bring to our artists and brands and will enhance that storytelling,” adds Koester.

The Exosphere is estimated to garner more than 300,000 in-person views per day and more than 4 million digital views thanks to XO Stream.

During the July 4 event, another XO show made its debut: the inaugural Sphere XO Student Design Challenge. Launched in March in partnership with Sphere, Clark County School District and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, invited more than 100,000 students to enter a competition exploring the intersection between art and science.

Eight Clark County-based students from elementary to graduate school were ultimately chosen both by the general public (more than 75,000 votes were cast) and a panel of judges — including professional artists Refik Anadol and Michela Picchi, both of whom have previously designed for the Exosphere — to have their work appear on the Sphere on July 4. They were also awarded scholarships. This marked the first time members of the general public had their visual creations displayed on the venue’s exterior.

With a slew of year-one advancements now on view, what could be next? For one thing, Dolan hopes to turn the Sphere inside out. “One of the things that we’ve been working on which we haven’t been able to do yet is make the outside of Sphere disappear — make it transparent, so you can see into it [see what’s happening inside from the Exosphere],” he says.

He is also excited to see what the Eagles will bring to Sphere when they debut there in September. 

“They’re building on each other,” Dolan says of the musical acts who have had residencies at the venue, including U2, Phish and Dead & Company. “Each one pushes the medium further and learns from the one before. We show them the canvas. We have brushes and paints. Our people say, ‘Here’s how you use these brushes,’ but we don’t tell them what to put on the canvas.”