BURBANK, CA--Sphere Studios, the in-house production and technology arm of Sphere Entertainment Co., is dedicated to producing innovations for immersive entertainment and the investment is already paying off.
Located in a 68,000-square-foot campus in Burbank, California, the site includes production, editing and post-production suites; sound stages for mixing spatial audio; and camera and 3D printing labs. The campus also includes Big Dome, a 28,000-square-foot, 100-foot high custom geodesic dome with a quarter-sized version of the screen at Sphere in Las Vegas. Big Dome serves as a specialized screening, production facility and lab for content at Sphere, including Sphere Immersive Sound, haptic seats, and more that will be featured at Sphere.
Home to an interdisciplinary team of creative, production, technology, and software experts, Sphere Studios provides creative and production services, including strategy and concept, capture, post-production and show production.
The latest innovation, Big Sky, is a groundbreaking ultra-high-resolution camera system and custom content creation tool. Designed to capture the images and video required for the world's highest resolution LED screen at Sphere, every aspect of Big Sky represents a significant advancement on current state-of-the-art cinema camera systems, including the largest single sensor in commercial use capable of capturing incredibly detailed, large-format images.
"Big Sky is a giant leap forward for imaging and a testament to the innovative teams at Sphere Studios who made this technology a reality," said Deanan DaSilva, the lead architect of Big Sky at Sphere Studios. "Big Sky allows us to capture cinematic content at a level of detail never before possible, opening up extraordinary possibilities and pushing immersive imaging technology forward in a way that will resonate throughout the entertainment industry."
Big Sky technical achievements
The Big Sky system boasts the world's sharpest cinematic lenses capable of delivering the unparalleled edge-to-edge optical requirements for Sphere's 16K x 16K immersive display plane. That allows Sphere Studios filmmakers to capture incredibly detailed, large-format images from a single camera, without having to stitch content together from multiple cameras – avoiding issues common to stitching including near distance limitations and seams between images.
Sphere Studios began developing Big Sky in early 2021, with the camera system's first shoot taking place in October 2022 – progressing from concept to reality at an unprecedented pace of innovation. SphereLab, an internally developed image processing software, was also created specifically for Big Sky. Prior to Big Sky, image capture for Sphere's ultra-high-resolution screen required large camera arrays of 10 to 15 commercially available cinematic cameras. To date, the team has filed eight patents – and counting – associated with Big Sky technology.
Postcard From Earth, the first Sphere Experience to harness the full array of Sphere's technological capabilities, is currently in production, with Sphere Studios film crews traveling the world to film scenes with Big Sky camera systems. Postcard from Earth will provide an unparalleled storytelling journey and offer a unique perspective on the magnificent beauty of life on our planet.
- Big Sky’s single-lens system boasts the world’s sharpest cinematic lenses and achieves the extreme optical requirements necessary to match Sphere’s 16K x 16K immersive display plane from edge to edge.
- With underwater and other lenses currently in development, Sphere Studios is giving immersive content creators all the tools necessary to create extraordinary content for Sphere.
- Big Sky’s single sensor is a 316-megapixel, 3” x 3” HDR image sensor capable of a 40X resolution increase over 4K cameras.
- Big Sky can capture content up to 120 frames per second at the 18K square format and higher speed frame rates at lower resolutions.
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About Sphere Entertainment Co.
Sphere Entertainment Co. is a premier live entertainment and media company. The Company includes Sphere, a next-generation entertainment medium powered by cutting-edge technologies to redefine the future of entertainment. The first Sphere venue is currently under construction in Las Vegas. In addition, the Company includes MSG Networks, which operates two regional sports and entertainment networks, MSG Network and MSG Sportsnet, as well as a companion streaming service, MSG GO, delivering a wide range of live sports content and other programming. More information is available at www.sphereentertainmentco.com.