Cosm Takes Live Events to the Next Level

Here’s an extraordinary use case for virtual production: Cosm’s live sports venues in Los Angeles and Dallas use massive domed LED screens to create an entirely new way to watch and connect with others.

Here’s how Cosm works: The company sets up four or five cameras at the venue for live events, shooting in 8K and even up to 10.5K resolution. Those feeds are produced remotely by technical directors in LA and then aired to Cosm venues on a delay to match the television broadcast. The producers use Unreal Engine and other tools to add enhancements: When the Cowboys score, the team’s iconic blue star lights up the ceiling and virtual banners unfurl throughout Cosm Dallas. Broadcast partners provide the play-by-play; servers bring the wings.

“We will never recreate the stadium experience. Or ever even aspire to beat that,” says Jeb Terry, president and chief executive officer of Cosm and a former offensive lineman in the NFL. “There is nothing like being in a big game — just something about the electricity in the room. But we want to offer the next best thing.”

The company’s name, meant to evoke both “cosmos” and “coliseum,” hints at its history. Cosm launched in 2019 and embarked on a series of acquisitions, starting in 2020 with Evans and Sutherland, a computer graphics firm whose digital projection technology powers planetariums. In the same year, the company acquired Spitz, a manufacturer of domes and projection screens, and LiveLike VR, an immersive tech company. Cosm built its prototype LED dome in Los Angeles as a vertically integrated company.

New Cosm locations in Atlanta and Detroit will test whether this model can thrive in a more urban environment. Cosm Detroit will anchor a 1.5 million-square-foot development from the real estate firm Bedrock Detroit in historic Cadillac Square. Kofi Bonner, the CEO of Bedrock, says that Cosm Detroit will drive the ongoing revival of the Woodward Avenue corridor and help cement the Paradise Valley neighborhood as a nightlife district. “It’s a unique entertainment concept that doesn’t exist in the market,” Bonner says.