The Sphere is a new $2.3 billion 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 disks spaced eight inches apart. Each of the discs contains 48 individual LED diodes, each of which is capable of displaying 256 million different colors that can create stunning, dynamic 360-degree image presentations. However, the interior is just as impressive and features the world's largest high-resolution LED screen that wraps, covers and surrounds the audience to create a fully immersive visual environment. It has an area of 160,000 square feet and has a resolution of 16K x 16K.
Sphere Studios, the immersive content studio dedicated to “creating multi-sensory live entertainment experiences” for the venue, joined forces with semiconductor giant STMicroelectronics to develop Big Sky, an ultra-high resolution camera system with the largest image sensor greatest ever created.
18K sensor
This 18K sensor is the largest found in any commercial film camera and is used in conjunction with the sharpest cinema lenses, allowing Sphere Studios filmmakers to capture incredibly detailed, large-format images from a single camera. , without having to join content from multiple sources. This avoids common problems when stitching, including close distance limitations and stitching between images.
Big Sky's 316-megapixel sensor is nearly 7 times larger and 40 times more resolution than full-frame sensors found in high-end commercial cameras. The die, measuring 9.92 cm x 8.31 cm (82.4 cm2), is twice as large as a wallet-sized photograph, and only four full dies fit on a 300 mm wafer.
The system is also capable of capturing images at 120 frames per second and transferring data at 60 gigabytes per second.
“Big Sky significantly advances motion picture camera technology, and each element represents a leap in innovation in design and manufacturing,” said Deanan DaSilva, lead architect for Big Sky at Sphere Studios.
“The sensor in 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 any existing capabilities. ST, in close collaboration with Sphere Studios, leveraged its extensive experience to manufacture an innovative sensor that not only expands the possibilities for immersive content in Sphere, but also across the entire entertainment industry.”
