A new high-tech Vegas arena planned by Madison Square Garden Co. and Las Vegas Sands Corp. would provide an advanced, immersive experiences for concerts, events and more, as more details on the facility were released yesterday.
The 18,500-seat arena will sit behind the Venetian and Palazzo resorts, just off the Strip. It’s not designed for sports, but rather for concerts and other immersive experiences. And as such, it’s being designed with the advanced tech needed to provide these immersive experiences, including future augmented reality offerings. The unique sphere design is really just a frame for LED panels both inside and out. The 580,000-square-foot exterior will feature 190,000 linear feet of fully programmable LED panels, and given it’s location, it will be a powerful billboard for upcoming attractions. Inside, the arena will feature a 170,000-square-foot display, providing great views for fans anywhere in the seating bowl.
The high-tech features extend to the sound system, according to the Las Vegas Sun:
[A] state-of-the-art beamforming sound technology will allow audience members to experience dedicated audio, similar to wearing headphones but without the headset.
“Instead of coming out as an ever-expanding wave, it comes out just as it sounds, in a beam,” said Jim Dolan, Madison Square Garden chief executive officer. “There are … thousands and thousands of beams that come out and reach the audience. If you’re sitting in the sphere and we have a comet come fly over you, you’ll hear it coming first, and it goes louder as it reaches its apex over you, then it diminishes and disappears off to the other side.”
Touch will also be incorporated in the arena with an infrasound haptic flooring system, which utilizes technology to convey bass through the floor for guests to “feel” the experience.
Programming will include an original MSG “experience” running between concerts and other events. That show will be shot with a specially designed 10-camera rig with 8K resolution and 360-degree video. And the current plan is for 20 megabits per second WiFi access for every fan–but we suspect that may change by the time the facility opens.
The planned opening is New Year’s Eve 2020.
Renderings courtesy MSG.
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