Sphere Entertainment to launch immersive content studio in Hollywood

(Corrects paragraph 7 to remove reference to Sphere being spun off from Madison Square Garden Entertainment)

(Reuters) -Sphere Entertainment said on Monday it was launching Sphere Studios in Hollywood to create immersive film content for its entertainment venue, Sphere, in Las Vegas.

The live entertainment and media firm said filmmakers would work with Hollywood directors and producers at Sphere Studios to create multi-sensory films that would appear exclusively in Sphere venues.

The first Sphere venue, which is a sphere-shaped music and entertainment arena, is located in Las Vegas and is scheduled to open this fall, with plans of building another one in London.

The new studio campus, to be situated in Burbank, California, will make multi-sensory films that will give audiences the experience of sound, haptics (a sense of being physically touched) and environmental elements including heat, wind and scent, apart from the usual visuals.

The company also said it would be using the Big Sky camera system created by Sphere Studios to capture images and videos for the high-resolution LED screen.

Big Sky is a custom ultra-high-resolution camera system and immersive custom content creation tool with sharp cinematic lenses capable of capturing detailed, large-format images.

Sphere Entertainment said the films would run during the day before live events and concerts in the evening.

In a bid to draw touring artists, Sphere Studios will also work with artists to create immersive visuals for Sphere’s 16K screen.