Moment Factory, an award-winning multimedia studio, has announced its latest collaboration with Phish – a four-night concert series at Sphere in Las Vegas. The shows are scheduled for April 18 to 21 and promise to be a groundbreaking experience in live concerts. The venue’s next-generation technologies will be utilized to showcase immersive multimedia content generated from an innovative fusion of real-time and pre-rendered visuals. Phish is only the second band to perform at Sphere, and with its improvisational style, it ventures into new territory, leading concert-goers on a mind-bending multisensory journey.
Moment Factory played a central role in the co-creative direction of the four shows. The studio collaborated closely with Show Director Abigail Rosen Holmes, and its involvement extended to set design, video design, and production, as well as contributing to lighting concepts in collaboration with the band’s longtime lighting designer, Chris Kuroda.
Moment Factory uses a future-forward approach to real-time generative video content, bringing unique visuals to the world’s highest-resolution LED screen each night. The studio combines scenographic elements, 360° live performance capture, technologies including Unreal and Notch, pre-rendered imagery, and visuals generated with the assistance of AI, using a number of tools and techniques never before seen at Sphere.
“Phish Live at Sphere is an incredibly audacious project that we are thrilled to have worked on. We feel extremely privileged to have legendary bands like Phish entrusting us with creating immersive universes around their music and identity, enabling them to connect with fans in completely new ways. Moment Factory got its start VJing in the late 90s, and we are particularly proud, nearly 25 years later, to have maintained this initial passion. We are now pushing it to an unprecedented level, creating the longest-ever real-time content show on the world’s most immersive canvas at Sphere,” says Daniel Jean, Producer for Shows, Moment Factory.
The four-night series of shows is powered by the venue’s modern technologies and features a curated setlist, Phish’s unique improvisation, and a customized orchestration of music, visuals, and lighting. To meet this creative and technical challenge, the team collaborated with various experts, including Disguise, who provided their innovative platform to power Moment Factory’s pre-rendered and real-time visual content on a massive 16K x 16K resolution canvas. Fuse Technical Group was responsible for the video system integration, managing the incorporation of Moment Factory’s content onto servers and providing additional servers for real-time content delivery. Moment Factory also worked with Fly Studio, Myreze, and Sila Sveta for screen content production, Troublemakers for audio design during Phish’s stage entrance, and Picnic Dinner Studios and Totem Studio for 2D animations during the intermission.
Phish Live at Sphere is Moment Factory’s seventh and most ambitious collaboration with the rock band, with previous concerts at Madison Square Garden and the MGM Grand. This latest project showcases Moment Factory’s ability to use technology to create innovative entertainment, including artificial intelligence. By integrating AI seamlessly into workflows and tailoring the technology to meet production demands, Moment Factory demonstrates its commitment to innovation, collaboration, and pushing creative boundaries. The studio embraces AI as a tool for pioneering new aesthetics, modes of engagement, and experiences that blend digital and physical worlds.
