The Sphere in Las Vegas put the Times Square ball drop to shame during its first New Year’s Eve in existence. Its visual display throughout the 31st night of December into the first of January was epic.
On the outside of the Sphere is the exosphere. It is a fully-programmable 580,000-square-foot display that lights up the night sky in a manner so bright that it can literally be seen from outer space.
Covering the exosphere is 1.2 million LED pucks. Each puck is spaced nine inches apart and contains 48 individual diodes. Each diode can display 256 million (!!) different colors.
Needless to say, the Sphere can do pretty much anything it wants with its exosphere. And fortunately, a minor glitch that created a white spot on the exosphere was fixed in time for New Year’s Eve!
As midnight approached on the final day of the year, the Sphere did something really cool. It turned the exosphere into a globe and as the night went on, a vertical line traveled across the exosphere and represented the metaphorical turn of the calendar.
Whenever the line hit a new time zone at midnight, the Sphere wished said country a Happy New Year!
Videos of the display were awesome. The line very slowly inched its way across the world.
As the Las Vegas time zone got closer and closer to Jan. 1, the Sphere ditched its line for a countdown that put Times Square to shame. It was big, bold and beautiful!
The party was on at midnight! Fireworks exploded all over the city and the Sphere got in on the action with a festive display. Of course, it was also rocking its 2024 glasses.
The whole New Year’s in New York thing is played out. The Sphere is here!