Annual Conference of the Association of Science-Technology Centers

By Judy Rubin

More than 2,000 people attended the annual conference of the Association of Science-Technology Centers, Oct. 13–16, hosted by the California Science Center and held at the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Wilshire Grand Hotel. ASTC was founded in 1973 and has some 570 members that include 440 operating or developing science centers and museums.

Conference headliners included famed science fiction author Ray Bradbury in a dialogue with Disney ambassador Marty Sklar, renowned film critic Leonard Maltin, and An Inconvenient Truth’s producer/director team of Lawrence Bender and Davis Guggenheim. A well-attended keynote session featured the hosts of Discovery Channel’s award-winning MythBusters show, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. An apparent highlight of this talk was a video showing Savage scientifically (but discreetly) setting fire to his own personal methane emissions.

At ASTC, trade-show exhibitors are often seen doing business with one another as well as with the museums and theater owner/operators who attend, because the conference attracts vendors of many stripes — including designers, architects, fabricators, tech companies, and distributors of traveling exhibits. Media producers and AV companies are also well represented here, as science and technology centers constitute a strong market for them.

The California-themed party at CSC rocked, and guests were invited to eat, drink, dance, shmooze, and wander through the museum’s new traveling exhibition, “Goose Bumps! The Science of Fear.” The science center also hosted several conference sessions, as well as Big Screen Day in its IMAX theater. Big Screen Day attendees saw Giant Screen Films’ Mummies: Secrets of the Pharoahs and Dinosaurs Alive! 3D, MacGillivray Freeman’s The Alps, National Geographic’s Sea Monsters 3D and Lions 3D, and a preview of Legends of the Sky 3D from K2 Communications.

A line of chartered buses traveled uphill into the fog and through rugged Griffith Park, to Evans & Sutherland’s Fulldome Video Showcase at Griffith Observatory. A full house saw 31 selections from a multitude of sources, in five categories: data visualization, show trailers, excerpts, for kids, and experimental music and art. The works were screened on the observatory’s Digistar 3/ESLP laser video projection system. All productions were created using the industry standard “dome master” format and projected on the 76-foot (23-meter) dome at 4k x 4k resolution.

In addition to the big demos at CSC and the observatory, and what could be seen in the various domes and small theaters dotting the exhibit floor, conference presentations included many smaller screenings and media demos. Steve Savage, president of Sky-Skan, Inc., led the session on “3D Stereo in Full-dome,” screening live-action shots, 3D animation, real-time image generation, and other selections from the International DomeFest, held in August in Albuquerque, NM.

Two giant-screen producers offered demos of stereoscopic 3D digital media for smaller screens: National Geographic and Real D presented Sea Monsters 3D, and nWave Pictures and Edwards Technologies, Inc., teamed up to show several clips, including Fly Me To the Moon. Recognizing that science museums will be thinking of content when they outfit a theater, both of these demos linked a digital projection system to a digital library of educational content.

ASTC is a natural magnet for people and companies connected to the giant-screen industry and we encountered Diane Carlson of Seattle’s Pacific Science Center, Giant Screen Cinema Association chair Andy Gellis, George Wiktor of Hettema Design, Mark Katz of National Geographic, Mike Bruno and Jeri Panek of Evans & Sutherland, Joe DeAmicis of the California Science Center, and Marianne Cheyne of XpanD Cinema. Ammiel Najar was talking up Graphic Films’ April 2008 LF release, Animalopolis. Steve Bishop, VP of the Harsco Science Center at the Whitaker Center for the Arts in Harrisburg, PA, reported that his 210-seat IMAX 3D theater was currently showing Roving Mars and Aliens of the Deep, tied in with a traveling exhibit, the “Science of Aliens.”

The Gizmo Group was displaying its tornado simulator, which doubles as a hurricane simulator and adapts to other kinds of bad weather as well. “Gizmologist” Chris Barrs told us that the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, AL, among others, had found it a convenient accessory when screening Hurricane on the Bayou. The simulator, which is available to lease or buy, is a cylinder about the size of a phone booth, combining wraparound AV, sound, and wind effects. It also snaps the visitor’s picture during the experience.

Steve Dorand of the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans reported that the post-Katrina delays were almost at an end and the new Audubon Insectarium with its 63-seat interactive theater developed by Technifex, Inc., would be opening in mid-2008 with the animated, high-def “Insect Awards Night” show. Audubon also offers a 28-seat mobile version of the show, in addition to a Traveling Bug Show complete with live insects and educational materials.

Jeffrey Kirsch of the Reuben Fleet Space Center in San Diego, CA, chatted about the need for dome theater operators to pool resources to get more dome-specific content produced, rather than relying on footage primarily intended for flat screens. “Domes are on their own,” he said. “We must rally the troops in support of a medium that has worked and can still work.” As Greg MacGillivray pointed out at the first GSCA conference in Los Angeles in 2006, a significant portion of the giant-screen audience sees the shows in a dome.

Full-dome video

Paul Tetu of Sky-Skan reports that full-dome video is coming into its own. “We’ve passed the early adoption stage,” he said. The first full-dome video system (a Sky-Skan installation) was shown in London in 1998, and as late as 2002 there were still fewer than 20 worldwide. But now, according to Loch Ness Productions’ online full-dome theater compendium (www.lochnessproductions.com/lfco/lfco.html), the worldwide total exceeds 300 (about half in the US). Considering that the primary system providers — E&S, Sky-Skan, Goto, Zeiss, Global Immersions, and RSA Cosmos — are currently installing a combined total of about 60 new systems annually, the total could reach 500 in less than four years. Although their hardware offerings differ, the system providers have collaborated on data standards to allow the widest possible distribution of content.

About half of all full-dome venues in the world are E&S installations, and the company has amassed a considerable content library for full-dome. E&S’ Mike Bruno expects the technology will be adopted by venues ranging from the smallest planetariums (under 40 feet in diameter) to the largest dome cinemas (65 feet and over). He believes the digital dome format has the potential to revive what he calls “white elephant” domes — smaller planetariums whose technology hasn’t been upgraded in decades — and, significantly, that eventually the planetarium and giant-screen cinema markets are likely to overlap and converge. Digital technology makes it possible; the need to finance quality content makes it desirable.

This convergence encourages theater operators to see their venues with fresh eyes. Jeff Stanford, public relations director at the Orlando Science Center, says the center plans to convert its 15/70 Iwerks dome to a digital system within the next two years and is conducting a capital campaign now. “We’re looking for more things to do than just show films,” he said. “There are some great films, but there are more options than just films.”

The 2008 ASTC conference will be held in Philadelphia, PA, Oct. 18–21. For more information visit www.astc.org.

Image at top from National Geographic's Sea Monsters