You must have already seen images of the Las Vegas “Sphere”, this new kind of circular screen. Hitachi, one of the development partners, unveiled the technologies that make this great spectacle possible.
A 4 petabyte NAS, what do you think? If so, you’ll have to steal it from the depths of the Las Vegas Sphere. The huge Las Vegas concert hall/cinema hall uses a custom-made machine with crazy technological features to perform its decadent shows. In a press release, Hitachi Vantara detailed the technical specifications behind this impressive screen.
4 PB of storage and forty 4K streams
In addition to taking advantage of 4 PB flash storage media (the equivalent of 200 20 TB SSDs or 4 million gigabytes), the Sphere and its 16,000 pixel by 16,000 pixel screen uses multimedia servers dedicated devices capable of splicing around forty 4K streams end to end at 60 frames seconds with a color depth of 12 bits. A technological feat that is already crazy in itself, which becomes even more so when we know that all of this is distributed through an IP network capable of displaying all of this content with a lag of less than 5 milliseconds.
Taking into account the equally impressive audio requirements, with over 700 Holoplot MD-80/90 sound modules (each consisting of 80-90 speakers) spread across the concert hall, that’s over 400 GB per seconds of content passing through the computer system of this extraordinary room. All with negligible latency to ensure a consistent experience across all screens and speakers throughout the building.
$2.3 billion in total
Obviously, this riot of power, storage and bandwidth is also used to display content on the gigantic exterior screen of 54,000 square meters and 1.2 million LEDs. Enough to make the most technophiles drool who could see in this a small preview of the next technological developments to come, if indeed we find a concrete use in it.
As a reminder, the Vegas Sphere can accommodate 16,000 people and offers concerts and immersive films. Its construction will have cost more than 2.3 billion dollars, a good part of which was undoubtedly swallowed up by this technological orgy.
Source : NoteBookCheck
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