Virtual Lights by Phish and Moment Factory at the Sphere

Photo from Moment Factory

I was wondering how bands like Phish, who are known for improvising sets, would end up using the massive video display of the Sphere, since it’s not easy to generate imagery for a few hundred million pixels in real time. Most of the acts seem to have mostly been using time-based approaches for pre-recorded videos, with the performers locking themselves down in time to the pre-recorded video. It didn’t make it onto my radar, but of course it was the great Moment Factory who started working on this for the Phish 2024 run; I’ve been a fan of Moment Factory since at least 2008 when they made some amazing visuals for the NIN tour (my writeup on that show here, and I’ve seen many other of their shows and detailed them here).

And now, for the most recent Phish run, they have been making virtual lighting, which is especially interesting since the sphere is notorious for its limited physical lighting positions and options.

Photo from Moment Factory

From the Moment Factory blog:

Elevating Live Performances with the Virtual Lighting Rig

For over 40 years, lighting design has played an integral role in Phish’s live performances. Moment Factory, in collaboration with Sphere Studios, takes this approach to a new level with the Virtual Lighting Rig, a breakthrough in digital technology that replicates the feeling of a physical light show on Sphere’s 160,000 sq ft display plane. Using real-time LED technology with high frame rates, the system ensures digital lighting behaves in an organic and fluid way.

Pre-programmed and controlled live by the band’s lighting designers, it enables effects, patterns, and shapes that are otherwise impossible in the physical world. By merging unprecedented real-time interactivity with evolving visuals, this performance sets a new industry benchmark and delivers a unique audiovisual experience exclusive to the band’s live show. All of this is developed in close collaboration with Phish lighting designer Chris Kuroda and band management to ensure all lighting concepts remain authentic to the band’s DNA.

Some more details and videos from Live for Live Music here.

It’s pretty cool, you can see a bunch of videos and photos on IG here and here and here.

And it’s an interesting parallel/evolution of the virtual lighting at the ABBA Voyage, which I wrote about here.