Behind the Screen: Insomniac and Tomorrowland’s Unity at the Las Vegas Sphere
- Shunya Carroll
- Nov 6
- 3 min read
Originally Published on CoolHunting.com
It’s easy to get lost in the Venetian hotel’s casino maze, but once we heard the EDM playing we knew we were on the right track. Pathways and beats ushered Subtronics jerseys and fluorescent rave braids to the adjacent Sphere. Festival crews from all over the U.S. reunited for a one-of-a-kind experience under the 16K resolution electric sky.
Tomorrowland and Insomniac, two pillars of electronic dance music known for their expansive music festivals across the world, joined together in October 2025 at the Las Vegas Sphere for Unity, for their first collaborative project. Led in part by Belgium-based production studio Prismax, the 30-person creative team built brand new systems just for this project.
The venue’s immersive, nearly 360-degree screen and story-telling technology is the ultimate venue to push video and art. Project Unity reimagined Tomorrowland’s fantasy worlds and Insomniac’s dedicated music festivals. The 165-minute film, orchestra performance and DJ set combined animation with physical special effects for an immersive experience that can only exist in the Sphere.
Collaboration between the international festivals came about from a simple phone call. Both Insomniac and Tomorrowland were looking to put on a show at the Sphere.
The Prismax production team built their fantasy worlds Planaxis, Adscendo and Orbyz while Insomniac animated Beyond Wonderland, Escape Halloween and Electric Daisy Carnival. Together, they’ve created their biggest animated project that rivals a feature-length film, but with more dancing.
Prismax CEO Joris Corthout said the Sphere’s resolution is 16,000 by 16,000, and this film project is 64 times the resolution of an average movie theater screen. Rendering the project required Prismax to build specialized hardware infrastructure to meet its technical demands. The team’s new rendering farm supported the petabyte-sized project—over 1 million gigabytes—and future projects at the Sphere.
The massive Unity tree that opened and closed the show ran in real time on Unreal Engine, a creation tool typically used for video games. The program allows a video jockey or VJ to animate live with a performer.
The seats rumbled with every drop, scents wafted in via massive vents and animatronic flying butterflies reminded us how beautiful today’s technology can be. The orchestra united the timbre of classical instruments with electronically-produced beats, nature united with technology and music unified the headliners of tomorrow. Prismax has been leveraging technology to build experiences with Tomorrowland for 20 years and this was arguably one of its most impressive feats yet.
Rehearsals of the show took place at a scaled down “mini-sphere” in Los Angeles, but access was only given three weeks before the show. To test the 360-degree viewing experience during earlier production stages, Prismax built a replica in virtual reality. “We [could] visit the Sphere whenever we want.” Corthout said. “If someone was ready and we wanted to test it, you put on the goggles and you’re sitting in the Sphere.”
At the end of the Unity film, the Sphere’s 20,000 attendees applauded the orchestra’s curtain call bows. The harpist, strings, percussionists, brass and woodwinds waved to the crowd and introduced the night’s follow-up performance. Fans erupted throughout the auditorium.
Hailed for pushing the limits of sound system engineering, Subtronics rose to the DJ decks to perform an hour-long set of body-bending dubstep. Tenacious hands gripped the banisters and seats—anything sturdy enough became the holy rail for Subtronics’ dirty drops. He gave headbangers a break with Bon Jovi and Fleetwood Mac throwbacks, then returned to his bread and butter to give bass lovers what they really wanted.
A performance under the 16K resolution Unity Tree was taken over by the VJ. Big bass drops and lighter moments were synced. The iconic Subtronic cyclops also made a cameo, but this time it was 40 feet tall. “It’s all about bringing people together with music,” Corthout says.
The Sphere’s paradigm-shifting storytelling has inspired the construction of its twin space in Abu Dhabi. With its new hardware infrastructure, Prismax is excited to create worlds for the only venue on Earth that can match its endeavors.
