Blog Details

Technical Secrets of Asia’s No.1 Spherical Screen — From Design Blueprint to Completed Project

Located at the Ecological Crayfish City Square in Qianjiang, Hubei Province, hundreds of drones light up a giant sphere with a diameter of 54.7 meters — equivalent to a 15-story building. This is Tian Palace Nova, the world’s second and Asia’s largest immersive LED spherical screen complex, following the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas, USA. As a landmark project that drives Qianjiang’s transformation from the "Capital of Crayfish" to an international digital cultural tourism destination, it also represents the pinnacle of China’s LED display technology for super-large special-shaped display applications.

1.    Design Concept: A New Urban Landmark Blending Technology and Culture

1.1 Urban Positioning: From Crayfish Capital to a Hub of Digital Cultural Tourism

Qianjiang is renowned as the Hometown of Chinese Crayfish, attracting millions of tourists every year for its local delicacies. However, single-format cultural tourism experiences and underdeveloped night economy once restricted urban growth. Tian Palace Nova was conceived to build a core urban landmark that draws visitors all year round and hosts diverse cultural activities.

Sited directly opposite Qianjiang Ecological Crayfish City and close to the high-speed railway station, it enjoys superior transportation access to gather tourists from across the region. Adopting the core philosophy of "Technology as the brush, culture as the soul", the design team avoided the common pitfall of prioritizing form over content in cultural tourism projects. The spherical shape symbolizes cosmic stars and echoes Qianjiang’s identity as a "water town and garden city". When illuminated at night, it shines like a brilliant pearl settled on the Jianghan Plain.

1.2 Functional Design: An All-scenario Immersive Experience Space

Unlike similar overseas projects focused merely on commercial entertainment, Tian Palace Nova is positioned as Asia’s largest landmark spherical screen cultural, tourism and commercial complex, featuring multi-functional spaces:

• External Screen: Acts as a public urban art installation, broadcasting city promotional videos, light and shadow shows and public service advertisements, powering the local night economy.
• Internal Screen: Creates a 360° immersive viewing space with 16K ultra-high-definition panoramic display and naked-eye 3D effects.
• Indoor Space: Freely converts between flat ground, tiered auditorium and flight simulation cabins, catering to cultural performances, film screenings, brand launches, academic forums and other scenarios.

·      

1.3  Technological Innovation: Breaking Engineering Limits for Giant Spherical Screens

A 54.7-meter-diameter giant sphere posed unprecedented engineering challenges. The design team applied BIM technology to conduct simulated installation and full-process simulation analysis for all structural rods, ensuring controllable stress on every joint. The innovative dual-layer internal and external screen design, together with the "permanent-temporary integrated keel platform" technology, guaranteed structural safety while greatly shortening the construction period.

2. Renderings: From Digital Blueprints to Real-world Wonders

After hundreds of design iterations and optimizations, Tian Palace Nova presents a stunning visual effect. As shown in the night scene renderings, the giant sphere seems to hover over the city center, harmoniously integrating with surrounding buildings, plazas and water systems. When displaying traditional Chinese artworks such as A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains, the sphere turns into a flowing ink wash painting, perfectly combining technology and traditional culture.

The plaza adopts a radial layout to naturally guide crowds towards the sphere, forming a striking visual focal point. Reflections on the water blend with the sphere itself, creating a breathtaking scene where "heaven and earth merge as one".

3. Hardware Composition: Core Components of the Giant Spherical Screen

The Qianjiang Tian Palace Nova spherical screen is a sophisticated systematic project, consisting of five core parts: special-shaped LED display units, display unit supporting structures, spherical steel structure, image control and processing equipment, and auxiliary facilities.

3.1 Special-shaped LED Display Units: The "Skin" of the Spherical Screen

As the core component, special-shaped LED display units serve as the screen’s "skin". Different from rectangular modules for conventional flat screens, these units are custom-made to fit the sphere’s curved surface.

The external screen is divided into multiple modules through precise calculation to achieve seamless fitting on the spherical surface. The project features a creative dual-layer screen structure:

l  External Screen: Covering an area of approximately 7,500 square meters, it adopts P55 pitch conformal LED screens. The conformal technology enables the panels to perfectly attach to the curved spherical steel structure with seamless splicing. With GOB glue coating technology, it reaches IP65/IP67 protection rating, resisting extreme temperatures, wind, rain, ultraviolet rays and other harsh outdoor conditions.

l  Internal Screen: Spanning around 3,200 square meters, it uses P3.9 pitch sound-transparent LED screens. This design solves the poor sound effect issue of traditional spherical screens, allowing sound to penetrate the panels and realize perfect integration of audio and visuals. Supporting 16K ultra-high-definition panoramic display, its pixel density is nearly 200 times that of the external screen, delivering extremely delicate picture details.

Every LED unit is tailor-produced with a special wedge-shaped edge, and the assembly error is controlled within 0.1 millimeters to ensure a gap-free complete spherical image.

3.2 Spherical Steel Structure: The "Skeleton" of the Spherical Screen

The spherical steel structure is the main load-bearing body, acting as the screen’s "skeleton". It supports thousands of tons of LED display systems and auxiliary equipment while maintaining the sphere’s roundness and stability.

Built as a large-span steel reticulated shell structure, it is welded from thousands of steel pipes and nodal balls. The team used BIM technology for 3D modeling and stress analysis of all grid rods to ensure even force distribution at every joint. All steel pipes are precisely bent, and nodal balls are manufactured with high-precision casting, keeping errors within the millimeter range. Multiple anti-corrosion treatments are applied to the steel structure, granting it a service life of over 50 years.