Friday, October 13, 2023
U2 At Sphere Las Vegas: Alex Murphy Brings Up The Lights
Live Design Online: Friday, September 29, 2023 saw the debut of the impressive 2.3 billion-dollar Sphere that dominates the Las Vegas skyline and the opening night of U2:UV Achtung Baby Live in a 25-night residency that leapfrogs into December dates. With a massive spherical LED screen lining the interior of the venue, how can the lighting even begin to compete? "It's custom rig put in over the top of the Sphere house rig," explains lighting director Alex Murphy, who worked alongside creative director Willie Williams.
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Finally! The article about lighting the sphere I’ve been waiting for! When I saw the first images from the U2 concert emerge on the internet, I was curious as to how they set up the lighting rig. Any huge lights or trusses would interfere with the screen viewing experience, defeating the point of the immersive environment. Another very interesting constraint they have to work around when designing for the sphere is the light of the video wall itself. Being the size of a skyscraper, it casts a ton of light onto the performance area, requiring even bigger lights to overcome. They had 4 huge cranes behind the stage, each of which had adjustable height for maximum versatility. The designer described them as “The 12 hardest working lights in Vegas.” The main front lighting was giant strobes with an absolutely massive lumen output. The hardest part of designing for the sphere was apparently the house lights. The article doesn’t mention what challenges had to be overcome for the house lights to properly function, but I’m guessing one can safely blame the screen again.
Ever since the sphere has opened we have heard a lot about the video equipment that makes this venue unique, but I have heard almost nothing about the lighting system. Lighting a space like this is very difficult because you could put lights in an audience member's view of the video wall. I am so grateful for this article that makes the plots for this show publicly available. The right consists of various strobes on the ground and behind the stage, with profiles and UV lights on the balcony rail and sides of the screen. There are also 4 posts surrounding the stage which have a handful of profiles.
One thing that is very interesting is how they are achieving key light for the space. Half of their profiles are Robe FORTE FSs which have cameras and other equipment designed for followspot use. 4 of these are being controlled manually, but the rest are using automated tracking of the performers.
One of the designers' last comments in the article was about frustrations with house lights, and thinking about it I cannot figure out how you would do house lights for a venue like this.
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