The temperature of spherical leds: When technology is no longer a cold machine

The light of a sphere can tell a story

I’m not the kind of person who will be impressed by technology at first sight. Large screen, naked-eye 3D, light matrix… If you see too much, you may even develop a bit of aesthetic fatigue in your heart. But that night, I remember it all too clearly: In the atrium on the first floor of the exhibition hall, the entire wall was dark, with only a sphere emitting soft light, quietly suspended in mid-air, like the moon, or like some kind of device that did not belong to the Earth.

It is sphere LED display.

I stood there and watched for nearly twenty minutes. There is no explanation, no words, only flowing images slowly spreading on the spherical surface. The clouds are surging, the mountains are deforming, and the light seems to be shining out from within – do you know that feeling? Just suddenly there was a “click” sound in my mind, as if some switch had been turned on.

I’m not here to see the equipment. I’m here to see the inspiration. But what it told me was that the two could actually be the same thing.

Why is a spherical shape more touching than a square one?

Later, I began to study sphere LED display seriously and also participated in some projects. I gradually discovered that the spherical structure itself has a force that draws people closer. Without sharp edges and without distinction between top and bottom, you will never find the “only front”. This makes it naturally suitable for “watching” and also for being the visual core in the space.

In a newly-built urban library, we use it to play the 24 solar terms. Every 15 days, its content changes with the seasons: white dots fall during Minor Snow and drizzle flows during the Qingming Festival. Every day on their way to school, children pass by here, take a look, say, “It’s the coldest day of the year today,” and then run away with their schoolbags on their backs.

I think, isn’t this the best form of technology? Not high-profile, not noisy, but memorable.

Is technology very expensive? Expensive, but not blindly

It would be false if you said it was cheap. A stably operating sphere LED display involves not just a “screen”, but an entire system: from the module design of the sphere structure to the later content production and the connection with the control system, every step is not casual.

But whether it is “worth the price” depends on how you use it.

If you want a space to be remembered, to make people willing to take pictures, share and stay, then its value is not just a “shining ball”, but a “container of memory”.

In a shopping mall, we installed a sphere with a diameter of 2 meters and hung it directly beneath the courtyard of the atrium. At 7 p.m. every night, it plays the star map and automatically changes the rhythm in accordance with the ambient music. No one was forced to gather around, but you would find that the restaurants on that floor were quietly doing much better business.

Some things don’t need to be shouted at.

What’s truly difficult is never the equipment but the content

To be honest, the most headache-inducing part is actually the content.

You have to relearn “telling stories on spheres”. The original storyboard and composition logic all have to be changed. Where is the front? From which perspective do the audience view it? How does the visual center of gravity shift? You can no longer expect a landscape video to be directly pasted.

Once in a science and technology museum, we spent two months creating an immersive set of interstellar content. You stand directly beneath the sphere, and the entire Milky Way rotates slowly above your head, as if in a space capsule. This kind of experience cannot be achieved with an ordinary screen.

If you only show the LOGO, then don’t put it on the ball screen. That would be a waste.

Sometimes, should a sphere do nothing

I have been looking at minimalist space design recently. You will find that some sphere LED displays do not require complex content at all. A breathing effect of a single color and a static material texture are already sufficient.

It is like a moon that exists there and doesn’t disturb anyone.

I think that’s another kind of wisdom – not winning by volume, but by leaving blank space for people to imagine.

A small piece of advice if you are still hesitating

Don’t be moved by the appearance too quickly, nor be deterred by the price too quickly. Ask yourself a few questions:

Do you want people to “see” it or “remember” it?

Do you need it to be the focus or the atmosphere?

Do you have any content, not videos, but “something you want people to feel”?

These questions should determine whether you choose the sphere LED display or not.

By the way, I have seen many project teams start anxiously looking for content production at the very end, by which time it is too late. The best-case scenario is to have the space designer, content creator and equipment provider sit down and chat together from the very beginning.

Just like the last time I chatted with a space design team in Shanghai, we used visualpower’s solution as the carrier, designed projection interaction on the ground, and did dynamic light breathing on the sphere, integrating so seamlessly that the boundaries were almost indistinct.

That time, I finally believed that light has warmth.