This futuristic entertainment venue in Las Vegas is the world’s largest spherical structure

(CNN) — It squats on the Las Vegas skyline like an enormous spaceship, black and mysterious – until night falls, when it will glow like the Earth from space.

The MSG Sphere won’t open to the public for almost three more months, when U2 christens the entertainment venue with a series of concerts. But anticipation is growing.

Cue the superlatives. At 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, it’s being billed as the world’s largest spherical structure. Its bowl-shaped theater reportedly contains the world’s highest-resolution wraparound LED screen. And its exterior is fitted with 1.2 million hockey puck-sized LEDs that can be programmed to flash dynamic imagery on a massive scale – again, reportedly the world’s largest. It was fully illuminated for the first time Tuesday night to celebrate the Fourth of July.

It’s not easy to move the needle in a city that boasts the Bellagio’s dancing fountains, a half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower, the second-tallest observation tower in the Western Hemisphere and a beam of light that can be seen for hundreds of miles.

But Sphere is inspiring rapturous reactions from those who have seen it.

“There’s nothing like it. It’s light years ahead of everything that’s out there,” says U2’s The Edge while touring the venue in a recent Apple Music video.

“It’s absolutely stunning to look up and see what’s in front of you,” says Rich Claffey, Sphere’s chief operations officer. “I’ve been in the entertainment business for almost 40 years. I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’m not exaggerating. It is off the charts.”

The Sphere’s exterior will be illuminated every day and night with animations and other imagery, sometimes tied to the season. For example, it could transform into a giant pumpkin at Halloween and a snow globe at Christmas.

Some people are already joking on Twitter that its enormous, swirling visuals will cause traffic accidents.

The venue will host music, film events and some sports

Sphere was designed by Populous, the global architecture firm behind many of the world’s top sports arenas. Construction costs, inflated by the pandemic, have climbed to $2.3 billion – more than Sphere’s glitziest Vegas neighbors, including the Bellagio and Allegiant Stadium.

The globe seats almost 18,000 people, sits one long block east of the fabled Las Vegas Strip and will be connected by a pedestrian walkway to the Venetian resort complex.

It’s scheduled to open September 29 with “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere,” a series of 25 concerts built around the Irish band’s landmark 1991 album “Achtung Baby” and running through mid-December. Ticket prices start at $140.

The venue also will host exclusive screenings of “Postcard From Earth,” a film by Darren Aronofsky that promises to take full advantage of Sphere’s vast screen by offering viewers an eye-popping tour of the planet.

“Most music venues are sports venues. They’re built for sports – they’re not built for music. They’re not built for art,” says U2’s Bono in the Apple Music interview.

“This building was built for immersive experiences in cinema and performance … you can’t come here and see an ice hockey game.”

In November the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix’s street circuit will pass through the Sphere property, and the arena eventually hopes to host boxing, mixed martial arts and other events as well.

But Sphere’s main draw may be as a venue for live music – especially the marquee residencies for which Vegas is known.

The acts onstage will be dwarfed by the towering 16K LED screen, which wraps over and around much of the audience and can augment the concert experience with trippy animations or close-ups of the performers.

“The screen goes from ground (level) to 250 feet high, all the way around…” says Claffey, the Sphere operations officer. “It keeps you fully immersed when you’re sitting in that bowl. I used to love IMAX in New York City, but this will blow that away.”

Sphere’s producers promise next-level audio as well. Claffey says that more than 160,000 speakers spread around the bowl will deliver the same pristine sound to every seat, whether someone is in the top row or down on the floor.

The venue also is equipped with haptic seats that can vibrate to match whatever is happening onscreen – an earthquake, for example – and 4D machines that can create wind, temperature and even scent effects.

“The way I describe it to my friends and family is, it’s the entertainment venue of the future,” Claffey says.

If it all sounds a little over the top, well – this is Vegas.

It remains to be seen whether Sphere can deliver on its extravagant promises. But if it works, the live-music experience may never be quite the same.

Three Important Services We Provide

by Kelsey Media Productions

These days, media is an enormous concern in advertising and marketing.

Companies know they have to innovate to reach new audiences. They are aware of the need for multichannel marketing that really puts their business in the right light, and gets them the visibility that they need.

But how do you go about doing that?

To a large extent, you need the right consulting firms and the right services to develop these new types of campaigns. Text, in many ways, isn’t enough anymore. You need visuals and multimedia components that you can stream in the right channels, put on the web, and generally use for engagement and branding power.

With that in mind, we offer these types of services to help clients to market themselves in this brave new world of digital media possibilities.

Video Production Services

Video is a large part of what we do. Our customized project management in this realm allows our clients to put together professional-looking footage that is useful in so many different ways. Some of this ends up getting streamed on places like YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu and other smart TV channels. Some of it ends up linked to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter posts. In other cases, people are tying it into their own websites.

No matter where it goes, companies need the help of third-party services with excellent production capabilities and more to deliver the results that are going to provide needed returns.

Music Soundtrack Production

Here’s another part of what we offer to media clients.

Sometimes, what you need is a jingle or an audio piece that will help represent your business well.

Not all video companies do this kind of audio, but we do; we’re active in helping companies to come up with auditory taglines and rhythms that will attract the right attention. We are also one of the few production houses locally who can provide you with a 5.1 surround production.

3D Animated Logo/Products

Another type of visual service that we do goes all of the way back to those ancient types of graphic projects that we saw with things like Flash 5 animation years ago.

Fast-forward to the present, and companies are using much different tools for 3D and animated visuals.

One of the things we do is take the company’s existing logo or product and make it three-dimensional object we can then animate it, in order to show off the brand directly in a more compelling way.

Think about all of these services and what they bring to your business model. Then get connected to a firm like Kelsey Media Productions that knows how to get your brand and message in front of the right people, with competitive video and more. Have more questions or looking to be more noticed give us a call at 781-365-4800!

Kelsey Media Productions Receives 2022 Best of Burlington “Media Services” Award.

Burlington Award Program Honors the Achievement BURLINGTON February 10, 2022 — Kelsey Media Productions has been selected for the 2022 Best of Burlington Award in the Media Services category by the Burlington Award Program.

Each year, the Burlington Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Burlington area a great place to live, work and play.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2022 Burlington Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Burlington Award Program and data provided by third parties.

About Burlington Award ProgramThe Burlington Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Burlington area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Burlington Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.

SOURCE: Burlington Award Program

CONTACT:Burlington Award ProgramEmail: PublicRelations@selectionstown.com

Visit company website at KELSEY MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

How Long Does It Take To Make An Animated Video?

February 10, 2022 /by Karolina Szot

Each stage of the production process takes a different amount of time. The length of your video and complexity of the illustrations and motion design also factors in. This outline presents a breakdown of what to expect during the explainer video production process. You’ll also learn how long each stage of the production process takes.

Explainer Video Production Process Timeline:

1). Pre-Production

2). Script

3). Storyboard

4). Voiceover + Auditions

5). Concept Art

6). Illustrations

7). 3D Animation

Pre-Production

Before you start looking for an animation studio or freelancer to make your custom animated video, spend some time getting clear about what kind of animation you want to create. Once you’ve spent some time identifying the important criteria, you’ll be better prepared to pick out an animator that can produce the video you want, within your desired budget and timeline.

While you’re in the pre-production stage, you should also spend some time organizing files like fonts, logos, icons, branding documents and more.

Not sure which animation style is right for your video? Read out our pros and cons list to learn what’s involved with producing different styles of animated videos:

Script

Under a normal production timeline, the script writing phase takes about 1 week for an animated video that’s 1 minute long. After the animator learns about your video idea, they will take 1-3 days to create the first draft of the script. Take a day or two to review the script and organize your feedback for the production team. Once the writer receives your feedback, they can typically turn around a revised script in 24 hrs or less. Scripts typically take 1-3 rounds of edits to get to the final draft.

If you are writing the script yourself, allow 1-2 weeks for your team to review it and contribute their feedback. Ensure everyone has approved the script before you share it with your production team.

Storyboard

The next step of the explainer video production process is to turn the script into a storyboard. A storyboard is a document that explains what visuals and what motion design needs to happen during every sentence of your script. It’s essentially a blueprint for the design and animation teams so that they know what to create.

A storyboard for a 1-2 minute video typically takes 1-4 days to produce. Then, it takes about 2-3 days to review the storyboard with the client and incorporate their edits.

You can save money on your production budget by creating your own storyboard. We also have a free storyboard template and storyboard creation guide which you can download by clicking on the image below:

Voiceover + Auditions

Once your storyboard is approved, the next step of the explainer video production process is to get voiceover auditions for you to review. It takes about 1-3 business days to get voiceover auditions recorded and delivered from multiple artists. You should take a day or two to review the options with your team. Then, notify your animator about which audition is your favorite option. Tell your animation team if you want the voiceover artist to modify their tone when recording the full voiceover.

Your animation team will then get the full voiceover recorded in 1-3 business days. When the VO is ready to review, give it a detailed listen with your team. If you love the voiceover as is, let your animation team know. Otherwise, send them detailed feedback so that the voiceover artist will know which parts to rerecord. Provide specific instructions about how you want them to change the timing, energy or inflection used. It is also helpful to list what time in the recording the changes need to be made

Concept Art

After your storyboard is approved, the next phase of the explainer video production process is to create the concept art for your video. Depending on the size of your budget, you can expect to receive 1-5 different visual concepts showing how one scene of your animated video can be designed. This typically takes 2-5 days depending on the # of samples being created and the level of detail used in your animation.

Once you receive your concept art, take a day or two to review the concepts with your team. Let your design team know which style you prefer. If you want to make visual refinements to the styleframe, now’s the time to speak up. If you like design elements from multiple concepts, tell your design team. They can combine the best design elements into a single visual concept for you to review and approve. This typically takes another day or two for the designers to create and then run by you for approval.

Illustrations

Now that your concept art is approved, the designers will create the rest of the art for your video. It takes about one week to create all of the art for a one minute animated video. Give your illustrations a thorough and detailed review. It’s important you are happy with the art before animation begins. If you love it as-is, let them you know you approve the art. Otherwise, submit your feedback to the design team and wait 1-3 days for the update. It’s not uncommon to do a 2nd round of edits on the illustrations for an additional layer of polish.

Animation

When the art, soundtrack and voiceover are approved, the animation team will start animating your video. One animator can animate about one minute of 2D or 3D animated content in one week. Revisions can typically be turned around in 1-2 days after the animator receives your feedback. When you receive the first draft of their video, circulate the first draft among your stakeholders. It’s a good idea to get different people’s impressions and feedback. This way, when you come back with your list of edits, all the ideas are consolidated and can be addressed at once. Going through multiple rounds of revisions at this stage will likely increase your final production cost and the amount of time it takes to get your animation completed.

Post-Production

The final stage of the explainer video production process is called, “Post-Production.” Post-Production includes adding little details like sound effects, or rendering out multiple versions of the video with slight variations (perhaps you want to show a different business location’s address at the end of each video). These kinds of edits are typically simple and take 1-2 days to process after the final draft draft is approved.

At Kelsey Media Productions we can make your vision a reality! Visit us now at KelseyMediaPoructions.com or call 781-365-4800!

5 Amazing 3D Printed House Projects!

A French family just became the first to permanently live in a 3D-printed home

At 350 square feet, the house was far cheaper than the average tiny home, which has a price tag hovering at around $25,000, but can often reach six figures. Before using 3D-printing technology, it took New Story eight months to build 100 homes, each costing about $6,000.

While the prototype was being developed, Icon’s printer, known as the Vulcan, was running at only 25% speed. That gave the companies confidence that they could build a 600- to 800-square-foot home in just 24 hours for $4,000 or less.

When it comes to producing an average-sized home — around 2,000 square feet — the savings aren’t quite as stark. A year after releasing its $10,000 prototype in Austin, Texas, Icon told the Wall Street Journal that printing a 2,000-square-foot home would cost around $20,000.

More remarkable is the fact that the company’s upgraded printer, the Vulcan II, is now available for purchase, and could soon be used to produce affordable homes in places like Austin and Latin America.

Icon’s first 3D model offers a glimpse of what the machine could produce in the future. Take a look.

The Vulcan II can produce a home seamlessly onsite, without having to piece together individual units. The Vulcan II can produce a home seamlessly onsite, without having to piece together individual units. The printer churns out layers of cement, which amass to form the walls of the home. Non-printed fixtures like doors and windows are installed later.

The Vulcan II is capable of producing walls that are up to eight-and-a-half feet tall and up to 28 feet wide.

The printer is designed to be mobile and weighs about 3,800 pounds. The Vulcan II is operated by a tablet, which means only a few workers are required to produce a 3D home.

Cameras just aren’t what they used to be!

Think about how good we have it these days and then complain again….

GO PRO HERO 7

360 Degree Cameras

Drone Cameras

Watch LG’s 65-inch rollable OLED TV curl up like a poster, disappear from sight

We’ve seen the future of TV, and it rolls up like a newspaper. Now you can see it, too

WATCH VIDEO FOR ROLL UP TV

After two years of watching white-gloved LG Display engineers gingerly roll up prototype OLED panels, the company has finally created a functioning roll-up OLED TV. Of course the idea of being able to roll up your TV, throw it in your backpack and take it wherever you want is a fun, futuristic idea, but LG has found a more practical application for a rolling OLED television. It is both literally and figuratively the most flexible TV ever made.

This is how it works: flexible OLED panel is mounted to a motorized spindle, set in a rectangular box. You can’t see the mechanics, all you see is the TV going up and down. But why would you want to be able to move your TV up and down like this?

The appeal of hiding your TV is clear. When you don’t want to see your TV, you simply put it away. But the practical applications go further than that. You can adjust the TV so that it’s sized for different aspect ratios. Admittedly, different aspect ratios have a smaller size, but this is a very cool application for watching movies.

You may have noticed that, when watching movies, you see black bars on the top and the bottom of the screen. This is because many movies are filmed in a 2.39:1 (or 21:9) aspect ratio, and a convention 16:9 widescreen TV can’t fit the picture. To accommodate, the letterbox bars are added so you can see the full width of the film. By rolling this TV down to obscure part of the screen, the rolling OLED TV can be resized to 21:9, and the black bars are unneeded.

Roll it down a bit further, and you can have an extremely low-profile display which could be used for computing, informational display, or simply for showing pictures. Use your imagination. What would you place in a slick strip of roll-up OLED TV?

The TV won’t be seen commercially in 2018, but it could very well be LG’s flagship offering in 2019. This time next year, we could be talking about when you could buy your own roll-up OLED. Between now and then, LG TV needs to take this display and build it into a TV. It will need a box to handle HDMI connections, the processing chips, optical digital audio output jacks, and all the other features we’re used to seeing in a TV. It’s also possible LG’s TV division could somehow fold a soundbar into the final design.

It’s also possible the TV could be hidden in a piece of furniture, so you wouldn’t have a TV in the room until you pressed a button on a remote control.

The roll-up OLED isn’t the only innovation to be seen at the private LG Display booth. We also got up close and personal with the 88-inch 8K OLED and we’ll be posting video of that TV very shortly.

Falcons Debut ‘Halo Board’

Eye-popping 360-degree display highlights New Mercedes Benz Stadium

By Mark R. Smith from TV Technology

ATLANTA—After getting an eyeful of the massive main video boards that have been featured in new ballparks and stadia in recent years, sports fans had to wonder what the next step would be by the time Atlanta’s techno-cool Mercedes-Benz Stadium—which is billed as the most technologically advanced stadium in the world—opens this month.

The new Halo Board in Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta is a 360-degree, 62,000-square-foot circular
testament to technological fortitude.

The wonder was how much bigger a video display can get before it intrudes on the actual game that’s happening beneath it. But the crew and the contractors at AMB Group, the parent company of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, made that sentiment a moot point while going even bigger with a new idea.

For when the fans look toward the heavens when the Falcons need a dramatic score to win a game, they can send their prayers through Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s (here it comes…) “Halo Board.”

While video displays have been created in various shapes and sizes in recent years, this ensemble is a 360-degree, 62,000-square-foot circular testament to technological fortitude—under a roof that opens like a camera lens and is modeled after the Roman Pantheon. It will offer Falcon fans some interesting opportunities to share video and information, exercise the imagination and sell advertising.

NEW SENSATION
While the Halo Board in Mercedes-Benz Stadium isn’t the first circular-type screen—the outdoor board at Barclays Center in Brooklyn is similar, albeit much smaller and an irregular shape—it’s certainly something new.

“I haven’t seen anything of this magnitude,” said Tyler Jones, senior project manager with Daktronics, of the board that rests within the eight-section mega-circle of the roof that hangs under what’s known as the “Oculus.” He added that the company’s install outside of the Barclays Center gave it “something to draw on for the Atlanta project.”

That had to help the Brookings, S.D.- based company during the bidding process for the job, which commenced after the design of the stadium came back to the Falcons from HOK, a Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm.

“We were eventually awarded the job,” said Jones, “and there was a great deal of coordination with all of the people behind the team,” which included HOK Structural, then BuroHappold Engineering and IBM, the technical partner on the stadium that installed a passive optical network comprised of 3,770 miles of groundwork fiber cables.

The “Mega Column” vertical measures 101 feet tall by 71 feet wide. Jones said Daktronics had “almost three dozen” workers on site; for the sake of comparison, that’s about two dozen more than the company needed five years ago to install the flat board in rightfield at Miami’s Marlins Park.

As far the construction of the Halo Board is concerned, its shape wasn’t quite the challenge one might think. “We can make the boards about any shape that is needed,” Jones said, “since 14.4 inches per square is our standard and we build around that. Within the Halo, the squares run 48 high and 896 wide,” totaling more than 43,000 squares.

Within the Halo, Daktronics also developed a 277V power option specific to the board, in lieu of the normal 120V power supply. “That allowed the Falcons to forgo using a number of smaller transformers,” said Jones, noting that it is embedded within the display.

The manufacturing process for the Halo Board began at Brookings headquarters in mid-October and ran until early February, and required the talents of more than 100 people to build; the install began in May, with that type of lead time necessary when Daktronics “had 616 pieces to mount in the stadium roof,” Jones said.

IN THE CORNER
Not lost in the buzz about the Halo Board is the “Mega Column,” which rests in the east corner of the stadium, by the massive end zone window that gives fans a panorama of the Atlanta skyline. The vertical display, which measures 101 feet tall by 71 feet wide, wraps around three of the four corners of that column.

“The information technology staff told me that the column has more square footage than the main boards in 17 other NFL stadiums,” Jones said, and it is fully visible to passersby outside the venue.

There is no end zone board on the east or west sides of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which does include Daktronics ProRail ribbon boards on its north and south sides. They act as the railing for the upper deck and are topped with glass and handrails.

Mike Meglathery, senior project manager for broadcast systems integrator Diversified, described setting up the Halo Board as “technically challenging” for various reasons, not the least of which was obviously its size, which he termed “the equivalent of 12.5 video screens in a circle at 60 feet high, but it’s also a quarter-mile around.

“The biggest challenge was driving an image that can go all the way around it with pixel accuracy and synchronously,” he said. “We had to get all of the boards in sync.”

The Halo Board also required a “first of its kind graphics system” from Ross Video, the Tessera platform, which was developed for the Falcons and designed to offer enhanced IP video routing and connectivity.

The two million square-foot Mercedes Benz Stadium can hold up to 71,000 football fans. Modeled after the Roman Pantheon, it features a roof that opens like a camera lens.

Gus Drosos, technical principal at HOK, Kansas City, also noted the unusual approach that all involved had to take at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “We had a tall structure” to address, meaning the 14.5-acre roof “was 198 feet above the ground. It became apparent that if we used that real estate to integrate a smooth ellipse, we could create a ‘theatre-in-the-round’ to give the fans a full immersive experience.”

Drosos said that, initially, what became the Halo Board “was segmented, but as we worked with the Falcons, it became apparent that making it round would work.” Thus was the establishmsent of a 70-foot tall board, “with a 10-foot gap on top until you hit the flat roof would work.

“We saw the Halo Board as an opportunity to take the scoreboard out of the line of sight,” he said, and the Falcons “were excited about the possibilities of the board, because the team’s video operators can drive a car or bounce a ball around it. No one has done this, so there is an evolution of ideas going on. The potential for what they can do with this board is unprecedented.”

THE POSSIBILITIES
Drosos also mentioned a social media angle for the display. With a new stadium that features 1,800 wireless access points that allow 75,000 fans to stream concurrently, “wouldn’t it be cool if the team [and the NFL, which would have to set up a protocol] let the fans use social media and integrate them into the Halo Board, or offer them specials?” he mused. “What does this present for other activities? Can you play video games on it? Could you potentially put something on 3D on it and give fans special glasses, if the technology can allow that?”

Jones noted that “the most important thing I learned from this project was that the communication between the architects and designers, as well as the contractors and those who worked in manufacturing, was especially important. That’s what made this happen.

“It’s pushed us forward,” he added, “because there will be more interest in this type of video application. Stadiums are trying to push the envelope and we’re anticipating more interest in this type of design as we move forward.”

Meglathery agreed. “It’s stunning what it does and it will elevate the in-stadium fan experience. This the showpiece video board for America at this point.”

Kelsey Media Blog

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