Question of the Day - 24 June 2022

Yesterday, we covered the virtual, simulated, immersive, and holographic options in the Entertainment Capital of the Known Universe. In today's installment, we touch on a bit more high tech, some low tech, and what promises to be the highest-tech venue in the world. 

Anyone who's been on the Strip in the past few years has certainly seen the ultra-resolution LED marquees and screens. One of the largest is at the southwest corner of the Strip and Spring Mountain at Treasure Island. Another is on the northeast corner of Harmon and the Strip is a 20,000-square-foot billboard; on this one, the launch, reentry, and landing portions of the 11-minute flight by Jeff Bezos' historic flight into space was broadcast.

The south face of Resorts World's hotel tower is also a giant screen, this one 100,000 square feet. The videoboard at Las Vegas Ballpark, where the Minor League Baseball Aviators play, is one of the largest in professional sports. And then, of course, there's Viva Vision, the largest video screen in the world, which completed a $32 million upgrade a couple of years ago; the 16.4 million pixels make it seven times brighter with four times more resolution than the old screen over Fremont Street. It's so bright that the graphics can be on 24 hours a day, as opposed to just four or five hours per night. 

The video screens aren't just limited to outside, either. Exactly two years ago in mid-June 2020, the Westgate's SuperBook upgraded its video wall. At 18 feet tall and 240 feet wide, it's the world's largest indoor screen, but the five-year-old screens were replaced with new higher-resolution video, up to 30% brighter than the old ones. Clearly, video screens are getting bigger and higher-resolution and the sky's the limit for the kinds of content -- news, advertising, art, and the like -- that will continue to evolve for them.

Area15 is probably another clue about the future of entertainment, as anyone who's stepped foot inside can no doubt attest. The official description says it all: "Portals into otherworldly experiences, a multiverse of attractions, and a mélange of diversions --  at AREA15, too much is just right." If that's not enough, how about the names of some of the activities that entice mall-goers young and old from all over the world: Birdfly, Brainstorm, Haley's Comet, Museum Fiasco, Oz Immersive, Particle Quest, and Wink World, among others. Though personally, we can spend about 10 minutes in Area15 before we're searching desperately for an exit, it's still amazing that so much potential for the future is contained inside the place. 

The analog Liftoff, an actual seven-minute thrill ride that raises riders, drinks in hand, 130 feet high and revolves 360 degrees, is more our speed, though we suspect that such amusements might have hit a dead end for Vegas; Liftoff is the first new ride to debut in many many years and none are on the horizon that we know of. 

Las Vegas hosts so many music festivals that not only have we lost count, but we can't even cover them all in Vegas News. The two big ones, EDC and Life is Beautiful, completely take over the city while they're here, plus awhile before and after. EDC, in particular, is as high-tech, immersive, and futuristic as it gets around here and manages to deliver that experience to upwards of a half-million partiers over a three-day weekend. These, we believe, are also destined to get bigger (if that's even possible) and better.

And sports? We've got professional hockey, football (outdoor and indoor), women's basketball, soccer, rodeo, golf, UFC, and boxing; college sports; Formula 1 on the way; MLB and NBA teams just a matter of time; and e-sports. Allegiant Stadium is attracting the world's biggest sporting events and Las Vegas' eight major arenas as many smaller ones as can show up. Certainly, none is high-tech, but when it comes to the future of Las Vegas entertainment, these types of world-class events are a big part of it.

Which brings us to MSG Sphere. When it opens next year, this $1.9 billion 17,500-seat non-sports arena will be the highest-tech entertainment venue on the planet. It's being wrapped, as we type, by 600,000 square feet of programmable skin that, at 19,000 by 13,500 pixels, will be the world's highest-resolution screen (100 times brighter and clearer than the best HD TVs), with nearly 160,000 speakers equipped with haptic infrasound (which you can feel as well as hear). Inside, the LED display will cover four acres and completely surround the audience. And that's just the hardware. As for content, well, all eyes, including ours, will be on the latest cutting-edge entertainment Madison Square Garden Company has up its sleeve. 

If you want a single representation of the future of entertainment in Las Vegas, MSG Sphere, in our humble opinion, comes closest.

Finally, what about the traditional Las Vegas entertainment? Tune in tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion of our estimation of the future of entertainment in Sin City.