by Judith Rubin
On the heels of the week-long International Planetarium Society meeting in Chicago (June 27–July 2) more than 100 people chose to stick it out for one more day (and night) of industry immersion and attend the FullDome Summit and DomeFest on July 3. The events took place at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place and the Adler Planetarium — very appropriate, since the Adler boasted the first permanent fulldome theater installation in the 1990s, and recently upgraded to a Sky-Skan Definiti system.
“Fulldome” refers to a digital projection system specifically designed to present content in dome theaters. It combines the ability to navigate three-dimensional digital databases in real time (including detailed terrain models of the earth and extensive astrophysical models of the universe) with a playback system for exhibiting pre-rendered shows. Operators may combine these functions with live narration. A variety of scripting and production software applications exist for creating shows from database fly-throughs. Pre-rendered shows all use a common Domemaster format enabling them to be played back on any fulldome system.
Fulldome system providers include some names that will be familiar to members of the giant-screen film industry: Evans & Sutherland, Spitz, Inc. (recently acquired by E&S), Global Immersion, Sky-Skan, RSA Cosmos, Zeiss, GOTO, Barco, Konica Minolta, the Elumenati, Digitalis Education Solutions, e-Planetarium, Obscura Digital, and Learning Technologies. The projection system can range from a single fisheye unit to an array of six or more edge-blended projectors.
There are currently more than 400 fulldome theaters in planetariums and educational institutions around the world. That total, which was reached in 10 years, is forecast to increase to around 700 in the next two years. The theaters that draw the most media attention are the biggest — 70 feet (21 meters) in diameter or larger — featured in world-class institutions such as the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. But more than half are smaller, measuring 40 feet or less in diameter, mostly in schools, and including a number of portable domes. Relationships with educators are the industry’s bread and butter.
As the technology advances and both the network and awareness of the medium grow, however, fulldome is beginning to reach into areas besides planetariums and schools, and realize potential applications for business, special events, worship facilities, and entertainment. To help the industry step up to these opportunities, a new trade group has formed from within IPS, called Immersive Media, Entertainment, Research, Science and Arts (IMERSA). In cooperation with IPS, IMERSA organized the FullDome Summit and officially launched itself there.
An overview of the fulldome industry was delivered by Mark C. Petersen of Loch Ness Productions (not to be confused with Mark B. Peterson of White Oak Associates). Loch Ness is a fulldome content creator which maintains an international compendium of fulldome theaters on its Web site, www.lochnessproductions.com. Mike Bruno, media director of Spitz, took the podium to show the trajectory of production sources and how it should and must evolve. As fulldome was getting started it was important for system manufacturers to provide a stream of content to customers, and vendors account for most of the existing library of some 100 pre-rendered shows. Bruno pointed out that the network is now large enough, the technology accessible enough, and the process affordable enough for other producers to begin to step in with new creative perspectives. Bruno went on to detail some realities of production, budget, marketing, and sponsorship and pointed out that the business model is at this point anything but fixed. The text and slideshow of his presentation have been subsequently published at Blooloop.com.
As in the giant-screen world, some institutions participate in creating content, and a high-quality stream is expected soon from the Morrison Planetarium, part of the new California Academy of Sciences, which is re-opening this month. Ryan Wyatt, director of the Morrison, talked about the ins and outs of designing the new in-house production facility for specialty formats. The Morrison features a SkyVision fulldome system.
DomeFest provided attendees the opportunity to review a selection of finished shows, works in progress, and technical developments. Walt Ordway, the keynote speaker at the FullDome Summit, profiled the Digital Cinema Initiatives as an example of how industry players can cooperate in order to maximize the potential for showing product and growing together.
Sound system standards
The need for some kind of standard in the area of sound systems and sound production was pointed up in two presentations, “Methods for sharing audio among planetariums” by Leslie Gaston, Peter Dougall,and Curtis Connelly, of the Department of Music and Entertainment Industry Studies at the University of Colorado, and “The future of sound for fulldome environments” by Rene Rodigast of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in Ilmenau, Germany. (Abstracts of all summit presentations are available on the IMERSA website at www.imersa.org.)
We spoke with a well known sound designer who is active in the giant-screen industry, Brian Eimer of Images in Sound. Eimer agrees that the sound factor needs development and standardization. He outlined a series of steps toward creating an audio standard that would specifically address, and make the most of, the immersive qualities and the acoustic conditions of dome theaters. “Start by analyzing the best examples of what’s being done with sound in fulldome theaters now. Then, using the 5.1 principle as a base model, alter it slightly for speaker and subwoofer placement — maybe with a few extra speakers up top. It should go to eight channels fairly easily. Run some tests to determine what works best for eight-channel or 5.1, paying attention to intelligibility, directionality, and location of sound. Develop it fully in one planetarium, then test it in others.”
The curved surface of the dome means that sound reflection is always likely to be an issue, just as light reflection is. “You’re never going to get away from it, but you can come up with standards that minimize it,” says Eimer.
While recognizing that most fulldome operators have limited development budgets, Eimer pointed out how investing more in sound can help fulldome move forward. “Adding immersive sound to these immersive visuals will give fulldome productions amazing power. In some cases, it will dramatically change audience perception from ‘kinda cool’ to a real ‘wow’ reaction. There is so much potential in this medium for allowing your audience to be completely overtaken, completely immersed. Naturally, I’m intrigued by the opportunity to explore the full potential of the dome in terms of sound, in a way that isn’t happening in giant-screen dome theaters. When I mix a giant-screen film, I’m very much into a surround-type feel, a wraparound. I’m excited by fulldome because the visuals are wrapping as well. I see huge potential for underwater content as well as space theater and many other subjects.”
Could fulldome be the next big thing in out-of-home entertainment? “I feel it is going to break open,” says Eimer. “Planetariums will see the value of producing alternate content, and going to the planetarium for a fulldome show can become an entertainment option for Saturday night.”
One instance of a non-planetarium use of fulldome is an architectural/environmental application which opened in early 2008 at the new Hollywood Casino in Grantville, PA. Spitz provided the system and produced the content for an environmental dome that loops through several sequences of the Hollywood Hills at different times of the day.
Giant-screen veteran Ammiel Najar, producer with Graphic Films, attended both the FullDome Summit and DomeFest. We spoke to him recently in his studio as he was reviewing footage for Animalopolis, to identify shots that would work best on both the dome and the flat screen. Like Eimer, he stressed the potential of fulldome for out-of-home entertainment, and extolled the potential of a medium that is all about the dome.
“As digital technology gets better and better and we have accessibility to faster playback streams for higher data, as projectors give higher output, sharper imagery, and put more pixels on the screen, fulldome is going to move into a respectable format,” he says. “It’s important to move cautiously. Don’t settle for ‘good enough,’ keep moving forward, and don’t try to force-fit something from another medium into the dome. Embrace the dome for what the dome can do. Consider what people can see in the dome and be very specific in how you produce for that geometry. It can be a wonderful space.”
Najar recalled that in the 1970s, when one of the only permanent giant-screen theaters was the IMAX Dome theater at the ReubenFleetScienceCenter, there was specific investment in creating work for that format. “[Founder] Sandy Fleet was very serious about it. There was a lot of experimentation, and San Diego put out money to help people create films for the dome. Lester Novros [founding partner of Graphic Films] studied the great cathedral domes in Europe and how imagery placed itself on those domes, and how the viewer perceived that imagery. Now we’re looking at a sizeable network of hemisphere domes in planetariums. When people design for the dome — for that geometry, that specific kind of venue — it can really shine.”
“I am very interested in what the fulldome people are doing,” observed Najar. “They’re coming up with editing software for simulating the dome, so you can previsualize before you commit money. There were a lot of very interested people from all over the world — Germany, Japan, France, Italy — all embracing what they can do with the dome, and all willing to share information and grow together.”
Founding IMERSA
To help IMERSA get off to a good start, charter membership chair Martin Howe of Global Immersion took the podium for a few minutes and raised some $30,000, pledged on the spot by a variety of sponsors and members. The five founders of IMERSA are David Beining of the University of New Mexico ArtsLab (also the founder of DomeFest); Ed Lantz of Visual Bandwidth, Inc., and Spherical Media Group; David McConville, director of noötropic research, The Elumenati; Dan Neafus, operations manager of the Gates Planetarium at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science; and Ryan Wyatt, who chairs the IPS Fulldome Committee.
According to Neafus, IMERSA will continue to build up through 2008 by recruiting additional founding members, becoming fully operational in 2009 with a salaried administrator. The organization hopes to pioneer industry standards for immersive media, in addition to providing industry research, a networking Web site, media outreach, professional development, and program development that will benefit the immersive media industry.
Neafus invites creative professionals to jump into the fulldome business. “We still have much work to do to maintain the highest quality content in the planetarium industry,” noted Neafus. “In growing the industry, the community needs to make really strong efforts to include the broadest range of professionals capable of presenting things in the dome. We are making significant strides in making the tools widely available and accessible, and limiting barriers to entry. We hope that media producers doing a special-venue title will consider the possibility of repurposing or preserving their work for a fulldome version. We want to engage those folks to help establish standards and workflow.”
To that end, IMERSA members, including Ed Lantz, will attend the upcoming Giant Screen Cinema Association meeting, to discuss the possibility of joint common digital standards for the giant-screen and fulldome worlds. IMERSA will conduct three planetarium-related workshops and some demos in a portable dome at the Jackson Hole Film Festival, Sept. 23–25 in Jackson Hole, WY.
As in previous years, fulldome will have a major showcase at the annual meeting of the Association of Science-Technology Centers, taking place this year in Philadelphia, Oct. 18–21. At that meeting, Fulldome Showcase V will be presented by Spitz and Evans & Sutherland at the Franklin Institute’s Fels Planetarium on Oct. 20. Next spring in Espinho, Portugal, fulldome will star at the Immersive Film Festival, April 24–29 at the Centro Multimeios de Espinho, courtesy of the Navegar Foundation.
Judith Rubin is features editor for Blooloop.com and a freelance journalist and publicist with extensive experience in the LF industry. She has recently moved to St. Louis, MO. She can be reached at rubin.judith@gmail.com.
Reprint credit:
First published in LF Examiner, September 2008. (C) 2008 by Cinergetics, LLC. All rights reserved. www.LFexaminer.com
See also:
Trends in Fulldome Production and Distribution: The Paper
Trends in Fulldome Production and Distribution ; The Slides
The Future of FullDome: Pioneering a New Medium
Introduction to FullDome Theaters
"FullDome" Digital Surround Theater Technology Ready to Explode into Special-Venue Markets
FullDome Summit/Int'l Planetarium Soc. Call for Papers
FullDome Focus: New & Exclusive coverage from Blooloop