Las Vegas Sphere dazzles with Spaceship Earth-esque LED display

Jul 06, 2023 in "Spaceship Earth"

Posted: Thursday July 6, 2023 9:43am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Las Vegas has debuted its latest visual spectacle, drawing comparisons to EPCOT's iconic Spaceship Earth at Walt Disney World.

The 366ft tall Sphere is wrapped in 1.2 million LED pucks to make a 580,000 square-foot fully-programmable LED exterior – the largest LED screen on Earth. Each puck contains 48 individual LED diodes, with each diode capable of displaying 256 million different colors.

Spaceship Earth debuted an all-new LED lighting design in 2021 featuring 2000 LED pucks and performs synchronized lighting displays each evening.

The Sphere in Las Vegas powered up for the first time on July 4, opening with "Hello World" and moving on to display images of Earth, fireworks, stars and stripes animations, and underwater scenes. One scene even resembled Spaceship Earth's triangles.

Watch the video below for a look at the Sphere in action.

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donaldtooJul 08, 2023

Son of a glitch…?!!!!! 🤔:hilarious:

WondersOfLifeJul 08, 2023

ToTBellHopJul 08, 2023

I was never sticky in Vegas.

ChrisFLJul 07, 2023

Agreed, but I think they could sell some really expensive advertisements on it

donaldtooJul 07, 2023

Well, the next few decades may be possible, as I’m 60 and my Pop is 90 (Mom is 84). But, we can’t afford that many vacations in a row, so we’ll see, but, LV is definitely not on our bucket list. And again, I stand on the fact that a sphere is a sphere, and a dome is a dome…there is a clear difference…!!! ;)

AylaJul 07, 2023

Mitchell Park Domes! We were just there a couple weeks ago. lol Funny to see it show up on a Disney fan site. :)

Club CooloholicJul 07, 2023

oh I just liked the gif. Obviously you aren't my boss. Let us know if you find time in the next few decades to make it back to sin city. In fact you can do Disney and Vegas in the same year, heck some people even do it in the same month! And again, I stand by the Sphere not wanting to be confused with the Silver Dome.

TrainsOfDisneyJul 07, 2023

that’s kinda like saying “Disney world isn’t my thing” - there are certainly parts of Las Vegas that would appeal to you. There is an over all vibe at Vegas that I don’t enjoy (probably what you are referring to so I get it) but I love the monorail, the Cirque shows, magic shows, belagio fountains and the ultra-themed areas of some of the properties like Paris, Venetian, etc. I was just there and had a good time, although Vegas does make Disney look like an insanely good value. There aren’t as many deals as there used to be out there.

donaldtooJul 07, 2023

Joke…?!

Vegas Disney FanJul 07, 2023

It’ll be interesting to see if it can turn a profit, it was originally supposed to cost $1.8 billion so they must have forecast it would make about a million a day on average, assuming a 7 year return on investment. I work for a smaller property and we frequently do multi million dollar events so it’s possible, it may be the biggest gamble in Vegas though.

Club CooloholicJul 07, 2023

Richie248Jul 07, 2023

Yup, but still a crazy price tag considering Resorts World cost $4.3 billion and that is a full on resort.... $2.3B for a concert venue is insane IMO.

donaldtooJul 07, 2023

Yes, it is indeed spherical. But, it is not a complete sphere, so therefore it is a dome. See the article below. https://theconstructor.org/structures/types-domes/567426/?amp=1 Architecture wise ;), I landed my first job in architecture in the spring of 1980, 3 months before I graduated from high school (3-hr.-long vocational architectural drafting and design class every morning my junior and senior years). It was part time, obviously, but, as soon as I graduated they brought me on full time. I’ve been a designer for the firm I’m currently with for over 30 years. As far as Vegas goes, the last time we were there was the summer of 1987, during a road trip to Disneyland and then on to No Cal. I know it’s vastly different now and we would like to return someday, but, it won’t be anytime soon, as we have a family WDW trip coming up in Oct. and then a family cruise in Dec….! :)

Buried20KLeagueJul 07, 2023

LOVE Vegas. Been watching this project through construction. U2 is doing the first shows there. The interior is covered by an 8K screen that will be more impressive than the outside. It’s gonna be insane. This is gonna change how concerts are done. They’re building one in London too.