We’ve previously written about some of the technology powering the Las Vegas Sphere, including its 16K LED interior screen and ultra-high-resolution 18K camera system. Now details have emerged about the storage space used by the massive music and entertainment arena east of the Las Vegas Strip.
Everything about the Sphere is groundbreaking, and Hitachi Vantara has detailed how the software technology processes Sphere’s original and immersive content and helps stream it to both the 160,000-square-foot interior LED display and the 580,000-square-foot Exosphere.
Hitachi Content Software for File, which Hitachi describes as a “high-performance, software-defined, distributed storage solution for parallel file systems,” is an integral part of this. It consists of 27 nodes, with 4 PB of flash storage for playback within Sphere.
Postcard of the Earth
The system streams content in real time to 7thSense media servers, each streaming 4K video at 60 frames per second. As you would expect, this is a world first in terms of technological capabilities on this scale.
“Sphere represents a new, fully immersive and visually powerful entertainment experience,” said Octavian Tanase, Chief Product Officer of Hitachi Vantara. “To ensure the technology behind it was ready to meet the challenge, Hitachi Vantara worked closely with the Sphere team to test, measure and improve the way the data is processed, streamed and projected. are second to none, and this project has exceeded our already high expectations.”
For Darren Aronofsky’s original compelling film: Postcard of the Earththe system had to handle a throughput of over 400 GB/s with a latency of less than 5 milliseconds and a 12-bit color display with a subsampling of 444.
“Sphere is home to many firsts, including streaming immersive, high-resolution video content at a scale never done before,” said Alex Luthwaite, SVP, Show Systems Technology, Sphere Entertainment. “Hitachi Vantara worked with our team to develop a solution that is fast, reliable and efficient.”