Reuben H. Fleet Science Center Heikoff Dome Theater to Premiere Digital GSX™ System from Global Immersion in February

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                            Media Contact: Susan Chicoine

619-685-5743 / 619-325-9416

schicoine@rhfleet.org

 

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center Heikoff Dome Theater to Premiere

Digital GSX™ System from Global Immersion in February

 

Monthly Planetarium Show “The Sky Tonight” Returns February 1;

Daily Planetarium Show BLACK HOLES: The Other Side of Infinity

Opens February 4 for an Open-Ended Run

 

State-of-the-Art GSX™ Giant Screen System Promises to

Transport Audiences to Infinity  ~ and Beyond!

 

 

San Diego, CA  January 20, 2012— The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is delighted to announce that final preparations are underway following installation of a new, state-of-the-art, giant dome screen digital GSX™ system from Global Immersion.  The GSX system will augment the existing IMAX^® projector in the Eugene Heikoff and Marilyn Jacobs Heikoff Dome Theater with one of the most comprehensive and powerful fulldome experiences available today.

 

The celebration begins early next month: on Wednesday, February 1; our popular “The Sky Tonight” live monthly planetarium show will return; followed by a new daily planetarium show, BLACK HOLES: The Other Side of Infinity, running in conjunction with our new exhibition “Black Holes: Space Warps & Time Twists”; both open on Saturday, February 4.

 

At the heart of GSX is a combination of technologies called ImageFusion™ which combine the power and resolution of four of the latest Sony® 4K resolution cinema grade projectors to offer audiences an entirely digital, truly immersive and pixel-perfect giant screen experience.  The Heikoff Dome Theater (76-feet in diameter) provides a 168° (vertical) by 360° (horizontal) field-of-view immersive experience which envelops the audience in the 314 seats in the house.

 

The GSX system at the Fleet uses four powerful Sony® SRX-T420 digital cinema projectors, expertly adapted by Global Immersion to project a single-displayed image onto the specialized surface of the hemispherical, curved dome screen.  Each projector offers 4096 x 2160 pixel resolution that, when combined as the GSX system, converts a total of 84,000 lumens and over 32 million pixels into a full screen image to offer audiences a stunning immersive visual experience.

 

Each of the four digital cinema projectors is the size of a small refrigerator and produces a significant amount of heat and noise.  Combined as one GSX system in the heart of the Heikoff Dome Theater, the projectors are specially mounted inside an insulated steel enclosure, fitted within the existing instrument floor space near Dome center.  This enclosure, supported by a custom engineered precision projector mounting solution, has been designed by Global Immersion as part of the GSX system to precisely monitor and maintain the temperature of 20 °C/ 68 °F and provide acoustic insulation.

 

Also housed inside the projector system is a proprietary combination of GSX components each required to seamlessly integrate the system and deliver the best possible performance.  The ImageFusion™ for GSX features a range of hardware and software technologies including custom lenses, image processing and optimization tools, geometric laser alignment systems and performance monitoring and diagnostics.  A total of eight high performance servers power the GSX system, which delivers lucid, high resolution and superior quality digital video.

 

Returning on Wednesday, February 1; the fulldome digital GSX system will take the Fleet Science Center’s popular “The Sky Tonight” live planetarium shows to unheard-of levels, featuring stunning visuals and incredibly realistic simulations of cosmic phenomena.  As always, a professional astronomer leads backyard astronomers through the universe; presenting the sky in San Diego as it can be seen on the night of the show, twice nightly. Weather and operational requirements permitting, the San Diego County Astronomy Association provides free telescope viewing outdoors on the Prado in Balboa Park.

 

There’s a place from which nothing escapes, not even light, where time and space literally come to an end.  BLACK HOLES: The Other Side of Infinity, our new daily public planetarium show, opens Saturday, February 4.  Academy Award®-nominated actor Liam Neeson is our narrator and guide through other-worldly wormholes to experience striking animations of the formation of the early universe, the collision of giant galaxies, the violent death of a star and a simulated flight to a super-massive black hole lurking at the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

 

The new fulldome digital GSX system is an indicator of the evolution of giant screen cinemas and the need to provide improved content to audiences.  The Fleet is delighted that their state-of-the-art system will set a new quality benchmark for digital dome video, with the flexibility to present a wide range of media and show experiences.  Innovative planetarium shows from all over the world and other high-definition multimedia productions will enable Fleet visitors to enjoy incredibly bright, colorful and high contrast images on the Fleet’s iconic 76-foot tilted dome NanoSeam™ screen.

 

Conventional dome theaters, with their application-specific, hemispherical shape, have mainly been used throughout the world to teach astronomy.  The Fleet continues to offer informative and educational sky-based experiences, but now has the flexibility to extend programming to a wider range of formats and subject matters.  GSX is designed as an ‘open’ format with the emerging DIGSS / Digital Immersive Giant Screen Specifications in mind; allowing the widest possible programming, including live streamed events and musical experiences.

 

Digital experiences in the Heikoff Dome Theater will set the stage for an inclusive visitor experience, expanding upon hands-on exhibit content found in the galleries.  Creative visualizations can take audiences on a tour of the universe, or probe inside a human cell.  The new digital system in the Heikoff Dome Theatre will offer the power and flexibility to reflect and expand on content and concepts found on the exhibit floor and galleries.  The Fleet also looks forward to partnering with local scientists, musicians and artists in innovative projects.  The installation of the GSX system will advance the non-profit organization’s mission to inspire lifelong learning by furthering the public understanding and enjoyment of science and technology.

 

The $5 million project, led by Fleet Science Center executive director Dr. Jeffrey Kirsch, has been under development for more than five years; installation of the new seamless Dome screen marked Phase 1 of the project, along with the sound system and the interior refurbishment.  Supporting the efforts of the Fleet Science Center, a dedicated team of volunteer expert technical advisors – including Tei Iki, William Bleha, Robert Hardacker, Jack Schmidt and Dave Eccles – carried out a comprehensive search for the highest quality immersive theater system suppliers and established the overall specifications for the system.

 

The installation of the digital dome signals the completion of the Fleet’s five-year capital campaign, “Creating Possibility, Inspiring Tomorrow.”  The major donors for the Heikoff Dome project are Joan and Irwin Jacobs, Weingart-Price Fund, Don and Maryann Lyle, Patricia Carter, Joseph Cohen and Martha Farish, The Hervey Family Fund, The Nierman Family Fund, Mrs. Audrey S. Geisel and the Dr. Seuss Fund, The Helen K. and James S. Copley Foundation, Chuck and Judy Wheatley, Margie Warner and John H. Warner Jr., Eric and Peggy Johnson, and Nancy Robertson and Mark Cookingham.

 

Looking forward, the Fleet has plans to introduce a digital production studio that will develop educational content in cooperation with multiple institutions, including the San Diego Supercomputer Center, UCSD’s CALIT2, and others.  Shows produced will use scientific data collected and interpreted from partner institutions to take the public on astonishing immersive journeys from inside the theater into a human stem cell, an atomic nucleus or virtually any environment imaginable.  Moreover, local scientists, students and artists will be invited to use the Fleet Science Center’s digital projection technology to present data and other visualizations on the giant tilted-dome screen.

 

Our team comments on the project thus far:

 

Dr Jeffrey W. Kirsch, Ph. D., Executive Director, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center commented “We are delighted to have worked so closely with our technical experts and with Global Immersion on premiering the new digital fulldome GSX system in the Heikoff Dome Theater.  It will launch a new era for the Fleet, not only enhancing our planetarium capabilities but expanding the possibilities for sustainable institutional programming that could include evening programming with cultural content of various kinds.  We will be the first Giant Dome Theater in the country to share a digital planetarium with an IMAX Dome theater.  In a sense it is reminiscent of our beginnings in 1973 when we introduced the world to a  tilted dome (analog) planetarium system and IMAX in a shared venue (the original Space Theater).”

 

Martin Howe: Chief Executive, Global Immersion “Working in close collaboration with the Fleet, Global Immersion has developed GSX specifically to meet and exceed the high standards and performance demands that exist among the world’s giant screen theater network.  This project has provided us with a fantastic and highly knowledgeable customer to work and consult with; ultimately ensuring the new GSX™ Digital Giant Screen Theater range would exceed expectations and offer giant screen theatres a digital system which fully realizes the demands of such a theater in the modern age.  It is hugely exciting for us to have the Fleet as the premiere venue for the showcasing of our new giant screen solution, GSX.”

 

Alan Caskey: Director for the Americas, Global Immersion “We are delighted to be working with the team at the Fleet on such a unique, energized and ambitious project.  This visionary digital giant screen theater follows months of design, innovation and planning – we are very excited by the prospects of a continued partnership with the Fleet, and ultimately the public premiere of the new GSX experience.”

 

 

About the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

With exhibits to touch, IMAX films to experience and planetarium shows to watch, the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center (“the Fleet”) offers an educational, entertaining experience for visitors of all ages.  Located at 1875 El Prado, two blocks south of the San Diego Zoo on Park Blvd, the Fleet is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the public understanding and enjoyment of science and technology.  For information regarding current admission prices, please call (619) 238-1233 or visit our website at http://www.rhfleet.org

 

# # #

 

IMAX is a registered trademark of IMAX® Corporation

GSX and ImageFusion are trademarks of Global Immersion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Chicoine

Public Relations Manager

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

P.O. Box 33303
San Diego, CA 92163

schicoine@rhfleet.org

(619) 685-5743 office     (619) 325-9416 cell

First Sky Tonight with Digital Dome 2/1/12

Here are a couple photos of the first audience enjoying the full dome experience.

Photos of Full Dome Digital getting ready for premiere 2/1/12!

Almost done!

 

The tempo of work is accelerating as we close in on the completion of the system.  The 4 projectors are being enclosed in a custom metal enclosure.
The extremely thick metal lined with foam is designed to prevent the fan noise from reaching the audience. An additional requirement is that the panels be removable for technical access.  Final alignment will be done in the next few days.

I recorded local actor ( and Fleet floor manager) Steve Warner reading the narration for the Worlds of the Solar System show that will accompany Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity, the other Fulldome show we are opening with.  I finished composing the music and made several preliminary mixes for listening in the theater. It’s a pleasant challenge recording music and narration in 5.1 surround sound, though my studio is optimized for just that purpose.
Both shows will play together,and they open on February 4th, but the first PUBLIC showing is on February 1st, at the regular  Sky Tonight presentation.  Fleet astronomer Grant Miller and I have been burning up the midnight oil also,  getting ready for the premiere of the system. It’s operation is far different from the previous Digistar, or the Zeis star projector he uses for astronomy instruction.

Tonight I learned the basic of Adobe’s After Effects program. This non-linear editing system allows advanced editing operations at up to 4K resolution. I can composite, or layer items such as text, images, and even other movies on top of the frames already created by Uniview. I can also add transitions such as fades, wipes, dissolves, and all the video editing tricks.

 

Full Dome: What is it and what can we do with it? Part One

For background, you might consider reading the Wikipedia article on Full Dome. Wikipedia also lists Reuben H. Fleet Science Center as an innovator in the historical  section in 1973.
This page describes  Voyage to the Outer Planets as an IMAX film, but is only partly accurate. A better description of it is that is was a multimedia show: Combining film AND custom made devices and our star projector.

Full Dome is pretty much what it’s name implies. A video image that cover the entire dome. There are several ways of creating this imagery.
One way is using standard computer graphic tools such as 3D Studio Max, Maya, Bryce, Blender or the other software packages out there. The images must be specially created to fill the dome – the target media is NOT a flat screen, but the inside of a dome. And yet we create it ON a flat screen. The creator of Full dome sequences must output the video as a “Dome Master”. This series of 30 still frames per SECOND is saved as PNG format images.  As it will be filling a dome you must make some mental interpretations to view it on a flat screen, until you can see it in its intended locale: inside a hemisphere. Wrap you mind around the following concepts to understand…

Note that the top of the image is UPSIDE DOWN when viewed on the flat screen you are probably seeing this on...

West is on the right side, but rotated 90 degrees, and the East is on the left side, but rotated 90 degrees in the OTHER direction. The Northern direction is upside down.
However, imagine projecting this image on the inside of a dome, not a flat screen like your computer screen, and then imagine you can get inside that dome, sit in the center and rotate your whole body to look at every angle, it would be correct.
The North would be projected not upside down, but on one quarter of the dome, directly opposite of the South. Behind you if you are facing South.

Here is a real image, if you are confused, this should help.

50 degree fish eye type lens

A “Fish Eye Lens”?

Using the before mentioned 3D software, the stills are rendered using a virtual fish eye lens. A real fish eye lens captures light from 180 degrees around the camera.
The virtual fish eye uses ray tracing to trace the rays of light from the light source, to the objects in the scene,  and then to the “camera”. Depending on its setting, you can render images for a small flat screen, or for the larger fulldome format.

Fish Eye Lens Diagram

A fish in still water can see the world above the water through a circular window overhead. This is an optical phenomenon known as “Snell’s Window,” and it happens to not only fish eyes.
If you lie in water and look up the water surface, you will see just the same thing: By the action of the refraction of light,
a 180-degree view of the world above the water condensed into a cone angle of about 97.2 degrees in water with refractive index 1.33.

The other method of creating Fulldome content is immediate and does not rely on rendering. Borrowing from the gaming industry and their increasingly powerful graphics cards, a virtual world can be created that will allow the camera to move around it in real time.
If you were playing a video game, you would be likely blasting your enemies and traveling across a landscape, dungeon or spacecraft.
In a more educational use such as we will be presenting, the same sort of software will allow the operator to take the audience through a 3D model of the Solar System, or out to the distant reachs of the Galaxy. But the system will not be restricted to astronomy.
Models exist also of molecules, biological structures, geology and many other scientific disciplines. As time goes on we intend to add more and more uses to this system.
It is a tool to reach the future with, and like a tool, can be used for any purpose.

Would you like to learn more?
Download free software that will allow you to create your own virtual worlds and explore or create images of them.
These are all Open Source, and available in several computer formats.
Blender is FREE and pretty friendly. But DO read the manual!
BLENDER

Perhaps you would like to travel through space? Try Celestia. This FREE software creates a model of the Solar System and places beyond in your computer.
Your mouse and keyboard will explore this model.
CELESTIA

Additional pieces add in spacecraft from history and science fiction.
THE MOTHER LODE

Both of the above software suites have extensive users groups, and I must refer you to them for assistance.

Partiview is outstanding as well, another FREE product, this one is from the Hayden Planetarium
PARTIVIEW

Or if these are too scientific for you, Bryce has a free version also. This fine software gives you the ability to create your own worlds and it has an excellent GUI, or Graphic User Interface.
They also sell objects you can add to your creations, but the basic software is quite free.
BRYCE

renderings of completed installation

The Global Immersion folks have gone home for the holidays, but they left some nice presents!

Being computer graphics oriented, of course they left….. RENDERINGS!

Have a look at some of these glorious pixels…

And glance at this TOP VIEW!

Top view of the Heikoff DOme Theater after installation is finished.

A simulated image on our Spitz Nano Seam Dome screen.
Of course, this blog is on a flat screen, whereas the dome is going to surround and IMMERSE you!

This is where I want to be spending MY holidays! Thanks Santa!

This past week we completed the installation of the lenses, and fine tuned the crucial alignment.
We will start up again in January. I will update these pages in the meantime with my Full Dome  Tutorial.

Brightening the Image

Second lens added as Global Immersion exec Martin Howe watches

The amount of light on the screen doubled tonight, as light from the first 8.2 Kilowatt lamp was joined by a second lamp. Soon 2 more lamps will be brightening our dome. When completed, the total amount of power used in this complex projection system will be 32.4 Kilowatts.

Several folks have asked us who these amazing folks are that are adding this incredible capability to the Heikoff Dome Theater.
We are pleased to announce that we are working with a company called Global Immersion. Tonight their CEO dropped by for an inspection of the work.  Gamely wearing a hard hat against the posibillity of a head injury on the work site,  he was pleased by the progress, and will return tomorrow night for a closer look.

Visit their web site @ Global Immersion

Global Immersion CEO Martin Howe visits the site to inspect the work