He would be the same Bono the Jalbout brothers flew overseas to meet 26 years ago for a discussion that heralded the transformation of a Montreal-based industrial control panel manufacturer into a world-renowned, custom designer and maker of LED screens, including the massive ones key to Sphere’s appeal as a groundbreaking entertainment venue. The interior screen is even more awe inspiring, such that a writer for NPR could detect “the wrinkles in Bono’s forehead” during a recent concert. The moon, a tennis ball, a happy face emoji, the Rockettes, an eyeball, a luxury car commercial and more have shown up on the arena’s exterior - and gone viral on social media. The Sphere’s wraparound, ginormous, fully programmable exterior and interior LED screens can display all manner of imagery, and in unprecedented detail.

It is the largest spherical structure on Earth, and a magnetic piece of eye candy in a desert town with no shortage of shiny attractions.Īrticle content Sphere, displaying a giant eyeball, as it lights up for the first time on July 4, 2023, in Las Vegas. U2 today resides on the Mount Olympus of pop music deities, although lately the band has been hanging out in Las Vegas, appearing as the headline act at the Sphere, a US$2.3-billion, 18,000-seat spherical arena. “But Bassam, he told me, ‘Fred - this is U2 we are talking about - and if we can get U2, can you imagine the opportunity for us?’”

“I swear to God, and it is too bad for me to say this, but I wasn’t watching U2’s shows,” he said. Word got around, so much so that in 1997 the brothers were invited to Dublin to demo a prototype of an LED screen, measuring approximately two feet by two feet, for a famous Irish rock band that non-musical Fred had never heard of. In the world of 1990s’ industrial control panels, this was revolutionary stuff. The screens could display any colour under the sun, and in a range of intensities, too. Saco’s panels were modular, easy to install and repair, but what gave the panels an edge over the competition was their programmable LED display screen.

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