Around 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs are being used to provide extravagant displays on the world’s largest LED screen. The Las Vegas Sphere’s interior and exterior surface is roughly 750,000 square feet. Its exterior surface is covered by 1.23 million programmable LED pucks that are controlled by around 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs which also power interior displays as well.
“This would not be possible without the expertise and innovation of companies such as NVIDIA that are critical to helping power our vision, working closely with our team to redefine what is possible with cutting-edge display technology.”
Alex Luthwaite – senior vice president of show systems technology at Sphere Entertainment
Content for the venue is created at Sphere Studios location in Burbank, CA, and then digitally transferred to the venue where it is streamed in real-time via rack-mounted workstations featuring the NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs. A suite of NVIDIA technology comprising NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Dx NICs, NVIDIA DOCA Firefly Service, and NVIDIA Rivermax software are then used to control the Sphere’s entire display surface area including inner displays featuring three layers of 16K displays steaming at 60 FPS that, per TechPowerUp, have a total of 2.1 billion pixels. Each GPU has 48 GB of GDDR6 ECC memory for a grand total of 7.2 TB of VRAM.
Per NVIDIA:
“The integration of NVIDIA RTX GPUs, BlueField DPUs and Rivermax software creates a powerful trifecta of advantages for modern accelerated computing, supporting the unique high-resolution video streams and strict timing requirements needed at Sphere and setting a new standard for media processing capabilities,” said Nir Nitzani, senior product director for networking software at NVIDIA.
“This collaboration results in remarkable performance gains, culminating in the extraordinary experiences guests have at Sphere.”
The Sphere was named one of Time’s “Best Inventions of 2023” and cost approximately $2.3 billion to build. Not long after its July 4, 2023 debut, U2 began a 40-show residency which ended in March 2024. Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky was also tapped to showcase the Sphere’s artistic potential with the multisensory sci-fi film “Postcard from Earth“.