I went to Las Vegas specifically to see the Sphere—the newest entertainment venue on the Strip. This place is unlike anything I have ever seen: massive beyond words, the ultimate in high-tech, and a perfect place to see a concert.
The Sphere has the largest screen in the world — 160,000 square feet, floor to ceiling, side to side, all at 16K resolution. It has 167,000 speakers, so advanced that they can focus different languages to different sections of the venue! The outside is a show in itself, with 1.2 million lights, continuously displaying different patterns and videos. (Even the Eagles commented on the quality of the venue, and if you know anything about bands, they are never happy with the facilities or sound.)
Because the scale is so massive, the visuals at the Sphere must be filmed with a special “Big Sky” camera to achieve crisp resolution on a screen that size. Consequently, they needed to build a smaller “Sphere Studio” in Burbank, one-quarter scale of the Sphere, to create and test videos before bringing them to the giant Sphere screen.
I like the idea of having a separate space for experimentation. There are organizations that have off-site innovation labs, test kitchens, theater workshops, or proving grounds that allow them to create outside the constraints of doing so in public. Like the Sphere, this freedom allows them to think bigger (literally) and produce outcomes that likely would not be possible otherwise.
What can you do to pilot new offerings offline, relieving some of the pressure of a “live” setting where the cost of failure is higher? The sphere of possibilities is limitless if you give your team freedom to dream big.
