U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere: the story behind the show | Wallpaper

Background on how U2, and specifically Willie Williams, approached the experience for the U2 residency at The Sphere. The article stays pretty surface level. Mainly they got a ton of creative collaborators to engage. It is notable that the team creating the experiences needed to do it all on location. When you are designing for something that has never existed that makes sense.

Characterised by a 90m tall circular exterior, covered in an LED screen, the Sphere contains a steeply raked auditorium, with the focal stage enveloped with a wraparound screen. Billed as the largest LED screen in the world, it comprises 268,435,456 pixels, the equivalent of 72 HD televisions. As the press pack points out, 'every minute of content produced for Sphere is the equivalent of one hour of streaming television'.

I found this callout about the Sphere interesting.

akin to the whole audience having a VR experience

I saw some video of the experience in the Sphere and came to a similar conclusion. It really is an Augmented Reality (AR) experience. It does it by putting you in this giant sphere filled with screens, instead of putting a headset on. Why is this interesting? Is it possible that this kind of experience becomes more the norm for concert experiences? Sitting in your house with the Apple Vision Pro headset isn't going to be the same as being in the Sphere, but could it be a little like it? Maybe.

With the growing cost of tickets to experiences like this, how are we ever going to make it so more people can have these. A future where only people with a lot of disposable income can experience concert performances sounds terrible. But will immersive experiences like this bridge the in-person experience to a digital experience that can be transmitted around the world? Maybe.