The Sphere is a brand new, spherical entertainment venue in Las Vegas that hosts shows, concerts and other events.
The 580,000 square foot exterior is covered with 1.2 million fully programmable LED pucks spaced 8 inches apart. Each of the pucks contains 48 individual LED diodes, with each diode capable of displaying 256 million different colors, creating stunning, dynamic 360-degree image displays. However, the inside is just as impressive and features the world’s largest high-resolution LED screen that wraps around the audience, creating a completely immersive visual environment. It covers 160,000 square meters and features a 16K x 16K resolution.
Sphere Studios, the immersive content studio dedicated to “creating multi-sensory live entertainment experiences” for the venue, has joined forces with semiconductor giant STMicroelectronics to develop the Big Sky, an ultra-high resolution camera system with the largest image sensor ever created.
18K sensor
This 18K sensor is the largest found in any commercial cinema camera and, combined with the sharpest cinema lenses, allows Sphere Studios filmmakers to capture incredibly detailed, large-format images with a single camera, without having to copy content from multiple having to piece sources together. This avoids problems common in sewing, such as short distance restrictions and seams between images.
Big Sky’s 316 megapixel sensor is nearly 7x larger and 40x higher resolution than the full-frame sensors in high-end commercial cameras. The die, which measures 9.92 cm x 8.31 cm (82.4 cm2), is twice the size of a wallet-sized photo, and only four full dies fit on a 300 mm wafer.
The system can also capture images at a rate of 120 frames per second and transfer data at a rate of 60 gigabytes per second.
“Big Sky significantly advances motion picture camera technology, with each element representing a leap in design and manufacturing innovation,” said Deanan DaSilva, Big Sky chief architect at Sphere Studios.
“The sensor on any camera is critical to image quality, but given the size and resolution of Sphere’s screen, Big Sky’s sensor had to go beyond all existing capabilities. ST has worked closely with Sphere Studios to leverage their extensive expertise to craft a groundbreaking sensor that will expand the possibilities for immersive content not only at Sphere, but across the entertainment industry.”