Need to put 250K people in a virtual room? Local company may have the answer

Marina Worre isn’t looking to keep live meetings from gathering in Las Vegas as the coronavirus pandemic wears on.

But the founder of Worre Studios, based in southwest Las Vegas, hopes to supplement the live-meeting experience with a hybrid business model that can potentially put 250,000 people in a virtual room in real time and that such a model could be used in conjunction with events in Las Vegas or separately for audiences around the world using multiple languages.

Worre Studios can produce live television broadcasts, new product launches, live concerts, press conferences or speaker presentations in a 25,000-square-foot venue that can be configured as a stage in the round.

Images of participants can be projected 360 degrees with the capability of singling out individuals or breakout groups that enable all participants to see reactions or contribute to the conversation.

Only two events have been staged since the studio opened in December, but that’s because Worre wanted the presentations to be perfect and she renovated the design of the multimillion-dollar facility by changing it from just a stage in the round to a more flexible space of two semi-circles with moveable walls.

“What we thought would be a temporary answer during the pandemic ended up being the perfect solution to reshape what’s possible for live and virtual events, making them even better than imagined,” Worre said. “We are now ready to share the studio with the world. Quality, reach, cost savings — all of this without losing touch, but creating even more of a connection with your audience is a producer’s dream.”

The circular stage is 65 feet in diameter and the LED video walls are 73 feet long and 14 feet tall with 65 million pixels for ultra-high resolution. Two more screens are 24 feet wide and 14 feet tall.

The ceiling towers 28 feet above the stage enabling large displays on stage.

Half of the video wall can be moved with a pulley and skate system providing additional flexibility; events can be held in the round, or the studio can be set up for a live local audience. Worre said there’s a capacity of about 300 people with a live audience — 100 during the COVID era of social distancing.

Larry Smith, president of Worre Studios, said the venue’s back-of-the-house technology is what makes productions stand out.

Worre Studios has two 5G networks to transmit and receive video and data. There are 48 work stations for production for technicians to monitor an event as it happens.

A massive garage door enables organizations to bring products to the stage in trucks or trailers.

Worre has five full-time employees, but during the production of an event several temporary workers can be hired based on the volume and scope of the event.

“You can do pretty much any kind of event you can imagine,” Worre said. “You can do concerts here, you can do educational events, you can do trade shows, you can do fashion shows, car auctions or any other kind of auctions. Anything you can possibly imagine, including board meetings. The sky’s pretty much the limit.”

Worre said she thinks her virtual model will continue to be popular for some time with would-be event participants either too skittish to travel, a trip is too expensive or an individual is unable to travel as a result of government visa policies and travel restrictions that are in place.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.