We’re entering a new era of concert venues with the grand opening of the Sphere at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. True to its name, Sphere is a humongous, circular building that graces the Las Vegas skyline completed with LED screens.
As part of its grand opening on Friday night, U2 decided to go up the stage for such a momentous event. The last time the band performed live was in December 2019. Apart from returning to the stage for the opening, the event also marked the start of the band’s 2.5 month residency.
What’s remarkable about the Sphere is that it took four years to build. The whole project cost $2.3 billion.
The Sphere’s opening event on Friday was graced by as many as 17,500 avid fans. But as Fierce Wireless noted, the experience was optimized for Verizon Wireless subscribers. The publication revealed that concertgoers had trouble getting stable service upon entering the bridge. And once they were inside, service was pretty much gone. Their devices also switched to emergency service.
Even though free Wi-Fi was offered by Sphere. But even then, it was a struggle staying connected to that free service.
As revealed by the publication, Verizon was the only provider who responded over requests related to wireless coverage in the venue. Verizon was also the only major provider who signed onto the Sphere’s distributed antenna system (DAS).
Big Red confirmed that its engineers had worked obsessively “to provide customers an exceptional experience with a highly complex and sophisticated in-building network, providing exceptional performance for fans to capture and share every important moment of their experience.”
Hopefully, both T-Mobile and AT&T will work on this to ensure their subscribers continue to have network connectivity while attending an event at the Sphere.
Source: Fierce Wireless
