Home
Tech
Las Vegas Sphere has 4000TB SSD storage delivering 400GB/s performance – the world's only 16K display requires exquisite technology to keep running

Las Vegas Sphere has 4000TB SSD storage delivering 400GB/s performance – the world's only 16K display requires exquisite technology to keep running

We've previously written about some of the technologies powering Las Vegas Sphere, including the 16K indoor LED display and ultra-high resolution 18K camera system. Now, details have emerged about the storage used by the massive music and entertainment arena located east of the Las Vegas Strip.

Everything about Sphere is cutting-edge, and Hitachi Vantara has detailed how its software technology processes Sphere's original, immersive content and helps deliver it to both the 160,000-square-foot indoor LED screen and the 580,000-square-foot Exosphere.

Hitachi Content Software for File, which Hitachi describes as a “high-performance, software-defined, distributed parallel file system storage solution,” is an integral part of it all. It consists of 27 nodes, with 4PB of flash storage for playback within Sphere.

Postcard from Earth

The system streams content in real time to 7thSense media servers, each of which streams 4K video at 60 frames per second. As expected, this is a world first in terms of technological capability at this scale.

“Sphere represents a new, completely immersive and visually powerful entertainment experience,” said Octavian Tanase, product manager at Hitachi Vantara. “To ensure the technology behind this was ready to meet the challenge, Hitachi Vantara worked closely with the Sphere team to test, measure and improve how data is processed, transmitted and projected. Regarding quality, resolution and color are second to none and this project has exceeded our already high expectations.

For Darren Aronofsky's original immersive film, Postcard from EarthThe system had to handle over 400 GB/s of throughput with less than 5 milliseconds of latency and a 12-bit color display with 444 subsampling.

“Sphere is home to many firsts, one of which is the delivery of immersive, high-resolution video content on a scale never seen before,” added Alex Luthwaite, senior vice president of entertainment systems technology at Sphere Entertainment. “Hitachi Vantara worked with our team to develop a fast, reliable and efficient solution.”