Posted on: August 14, 2024, 11:15h.
Last updated on: August 14, 2024, 11:41h.
On May 13, after Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan told analysts on a quarterly earnings call that the Sphere in Vegas would add audio to its external projections, we wrote that “neither Dolan, nor Sphere officials, are saying how the Sphere might solve the problem of projecting its audio without breaking Clark County noise ordinances.”
During a meeting on Tuesday, August 13, the Paradise Town Advisory Board answered that question by voting 3-1 to issue a waiver for the Sphere, located behind the Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip, to exceed Clark County’s noise limitations.
Hard of Sphering
The board, which provides community input to the Clark County Planning Commission, okayed noise from the Sphere’s “Exosphere” of up to 87 decibels. That’s 22 decibels higher than Clark County’s current limit of 65, and two decibels higher than the maximum number cited by the World Health Organization as safe for continuous exposure.
However, the Sphere can only be that loud 18 times per year and only until midnight.
The waiver passed despite protests from the residents of Park Towers, a neighboring high-rise apartment building where windows and nerves were rattled by the first tests of the Sphere’s external audio system on July 3 and 4.
At the meeting, Sphere representatives characterized those tests as a mistake that occurred at a higher decibel level than the board approved.
Originally, the waiver proposed by Sphere operator Madison Square Entertainment Corp. didn’t include any caps on noise levels or the number of times per year the noise ordinance could be violated. Concessions were made after board members themselves objected.
“That means you could make a jet engine, and I’m not going to go for that,” said board member Katlyn Cunningham.
Can You Sphere Me Now?
The Exosphere, the world’s largest digital display, has dramatically reshaped the Las Vegas skyline. It causes airline passengers to choose their seats based on viewing it from the correct position. It even helped spur a controversial ordinance that forbids stopping along pedestrian bridges spanning the Las Vegas Strip. (Here, tourists commonly wait, often for longer than 10 minutes, for the perfect Sphere graphic to snap a selfie, usually, with the yellow emoji.)
The main problem with external audio for the spherical concert venue is that hearing the Sphere requires proximity that would interfere with optimal viewing.
While the Exosphere, which is 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, can be seen up from more than a mile away, the images it projects cannot be seen from directly beneath the venue. That’s because the top half of the Sphere curves away from view and, more importantly, because the images appear only as single pixels of unrelated light.
The best Sphere viewing requires a distance of at least a quarter mile. This is why tens of thousands have so far paid between $11-$38.50 (plus fees and tax) to park at the LAZ Parking structure, at 3763 Howard Hughes Parkway, just to enjoy the Sphere from its top floor.
Before the Sphere can officially crank up the volume, approval is still required from the Clark County Planning Commission. That government body is expected also to sign off on the waiver at its next meeting on September 4.
