Hi all.  With the lull in postings through the holidays, I thought that I'd
try to spark some discussion with an excerpt from my December Digital
Frontiers column published in the IPS Planetarian.  Not everyone on the
Fulldome list is an IPS member (though perhaps you should be...).  My column
was in response to some of the discussion that we had on this list a few
months ago. I'm now working on the next column that focuses on the issues
raised in 5) below; diversity of programming.  Feel free to send me your
comments!

- Ed Lantz, ed@...

************************************************

Digital Frontiers

Those who frequent Ryan Wyatt's fulldome.org list have been witness to a
flurry of passionate - and in some respects, extraordinary - discussions
about digital domes, the future of planetariums, and the future role of IPS.


Expanding the Dome

Interestingly, the fulldome medium has attracted a great deal of interest
from artists, filmmakers, educators, engineers, and other professionals with
roots outside of the planetarium profession.  These individuals question why
so many versatile "virtual reality theaters" should be dedicated to
astronomy topics alone.  Some have even questioned the appropriateness of
IPS as the organization to lead professional advancement of the rapidly
growing fulldome community.  They point out that IPS's support programs and
membership are deeply rooted in the tradition of astronomy education - not
technology, filmmaking, virtual reality, or art.

Others point out that there would be no fulldome medium if not for
pioneering planetarians and institutions, and the support of IPS alongside
the many regional chapters who have welcomed vendors and their digital wares
in recent years.  Clearly the fulldome medium was born within the
planetarium community and has largely been nurtured by innovative
planetarians who are eager to enter the digital age.    Digital producers
and storytellers have much to learn from traditional planetarium arts.

Supporting Digital

If you take an honest look at the issues raised by the fulldome community,
you see that they are driven by legitimate needs, concerns and visions that
deserve a supportive and understanding professional society.  IPS has been
meeting the needs of a niche profession focused on astronomy education, so
it is not surprising that support is currently lacking in areas that will be
crucial for nurturing fulldome into maturity.  A number of long-time IPS
members and officers recognize the unique challenges of supporting the
digital dome community, and are making an effort to rise to these
challenges.  Here's a few of the issues that have been raised:

1) Inclusiveness.  Vendors are traditionally not part of the organizational
core of IPS.  However, the vendors are the ones who have created and driven
the new digital technologies and they remain integral to advancing the
profession.  Indeed, there can be issues with corporate rivalries and bias,
but they are not fundamentally unlike institutional rivalries and bias.
Well-run professional societies do not tolerate overt favoritism or
commercialism from anyone.  Inclusiveness means support for technical
exchange, standards development, and other activities that reach out and
support the larger community of stakeholders.

2) Recognition of technical innovation.  IPS needs a program to recognize or
reward technological advancement in the profession.  There is a juried
reward for the best planetarium script, but there is not an IPS award for
excellence in things like theater design or technological innovation.
Showcasing and supporting successful innovators recognizes those who are
truly benefiting the profession, and raises the bar for others.

3) Timing.  The equipment that planetarians have traditionally used to work
their magic - star projectors, slide projectors, special effects and audio
systems - have not been subject to fundamental changes in decades.  The
substantive market changes wrought by digital projection have primarily
occurred in the past 4-5 years with the refinement of real-time digital
planetarium capabilities that reproduce (and surpass) traditional star
projector motions.  In this time period, IPS has had 3 conferences.
Fulldomer's have commented that this is too infrequent, considering the pace
that these technologies are developing.  They want a professional society
that provides dedicated international support and leadership for the rapidly
growing digital dome medium.

4) Infrastructure and financial support.  IPS is a volunteer organization
without a paid staff.  This vastly reduces the level of support that is
possible from this organization.  The fulldome community could benefit from
an actively managed website, a newsletter, a serious standards effort, etc.
These things can be funded by grants, but even this requires a dedicated
staffer or secretariat to support the writing and administration of a grant.


5) Diversity of programming.  By definition, the planetarium is a kinetic
diorama of the celestial sphere portrayed from a geocentric eyepoint.  The
fulldome community is exploring a wide range of programming across the arts
and sciences, and they seek an expanded definition of the planetarium.  In a
recent email list discussion there seemed to be agreement that planetariums
should stand for "meaningful media," programming that uplifts, enlightens,
educates, or otherwise transforms visitors in a positive way.  There was
general consensus between planetarians and the fulldome community that media
entertainment of an expressly commercial nature - such as IMAX's recent
foray into Hollywood films - was not their primary interest.  This shared
desire for planetariums to offer meaningful programming could be the common
ground needed to redefine the mission of planetariums and embrace a larger
agenda.

6) Image.  When school planetariums are seen as classrooms dedicated to
astronomy, they must compete with all the other arts and sciences for
survival.  Astronomy is no longer a leading educational objective for
schools, resulting in school planetarium closings in recent years.  Public
planetariums have also struggled to attract visitors and have suffered
closings.  Some fulldome enthusiasts feel that the prevailing public
perception of planetariums could limit the success of the new fulldome
facilities.  Indeed, many large public institutions have changed their name
in an attempt to re-brand the traditional planetarium, i.e. Cyberdome,
Imaginarium, or Virtuarium.  This image issue needs to be addressed.

7) Inertia.  Perhaps the biggest concern that the fulldome community has
expressed is the difficulty of changing years of inertia within the
planetarium community.   Should fulldomers try to re-invent IPS to meet
their unique needs?  Will they be granted sufficient autonomy to evolve the
medium?  Can IPS deal with rapid change?  It has been suggested that IPS's
Full Dome Video Committee, now lead by Ryan Wyatt, be granted a degree of
autonomy similar the Association for Computing Machinery's special interest
groups including SIGGRAPH, ACM's special interest group (SIG) for computer
graphics (GRAPH).  A fulldome SIG within IPS would support issues that are
uniquely digital in nature (i.e. standards, production issues, show
distribution, etc.).

The Future is Bright

The officers of IPS recognize the importance of fulldome to the planetarium
profession and have expressed a desire to nurture this growing community.
Discussions with Martin George, Shawn Laatsch, Jon Elvert, and other IPS
officers have affirmed this.  Candidates for IPS president elect have
reached out to the fulldome community for feedback and to offer support.  If
the energy and momentum of the fulldome community is embraced and supported,
it will revitalize IPS and the planetarium community as a whole.  At the
same time, it must be recognized that IPS has many duties and supporting the
digital planetarium is but one of them.  IPS must continue to support the
full spectrum of planetariums, from portable to classroom to public
institutions, whether digital or optomechanical.

Times of change bring challenges and opportunities alike.  Now is a good
time to re-examine what a planetarium is, what it could be, and how IPS can
assist in this natural evolution of the dome.  By taking a leadership role
in the digital revolution, IPS can maximize the positive, educational, and
culturally enriching use of this new medium and will position the
organization for renewed growth and a bright future.

I'm trying to find information on the ideal paint for a large dome
surface .... in particular what gain/reflectivity and level of
matte/gloss. This is for an existing dome that is going to be used for
full dome video style projection. Ideally seeking practical advice, the
painting needs to be perfomed "soon", ideally before the rest of the
interior is decorated.

Post replies to this group if you like but I equally encourage direct
email to paul.bourke@...

Paul writes:

<<I'm trying to find information on the ideal paint for a large dome
surface .... in particular what gain/reflectivity and level of
matte/gloss. This is for an existing dome that is going to be used for
full dome video style projection. Ideally seeking practical advice, the
painting needs to be perfomed "soon", ideally before the rest of the
interior is decorated.>>

Dome painting is a tricky endeavor, and you will have to live with the
results for a long time!  I'd recommend contracting the work to one of the
dome manufacturers who specialize in this.

Ideally the dome should be as flat a finish as is available (Lambertian
surface that reflects equally in all directions).  Unfortunately, flatter
paints tend to soil very easily and can be difficult to clean.  Any specular
component (where reflected brightness is a function of the angle of
reflectance) foils multi-projector edge-blending, since the relative
intensity of the overlapped projectors will vary depending on where the
viewer is positioned in the theater.  With a center mounted fisheye
projector, a slight specular component (referred to as "gain") will provide
a brighter image for people sitting towards dome center and cross-dome
scatter is actually reduced.  However, controlling the specular component on
a painted surface is extremely difficult, so a flat finish is best.

Dome reflectance or reflectivity (assuming a flat finish) is typically in
the 0.23-0.55 range.  Darker domes (0.23-0.38) are preferred since this
reduced cross-dome scattering which limits contrast for fulldome imagery
(less of a problem with stars, which is why older planetariums have
reflectivity up to 0.7-0.8 or 80%).  However, if your fulldome system is not
very bright (i.e. CRT projectors on a large diameter dome) you may want to
push the reflectance up a bit as a compromise, since a "darker" dome
essentially darkens the image.  Ideally, you would use a very dark dome
(0.2) with a very bright projector.  If it is a perforated dome it is
probably already something like 20% void, so you need to account for this.
Above around 0.5 reflectivity the scatter is particularly bothersome and
bright images will really wash out the dome.  Be sure that your
low-reflectance paint is neutral density (grey).

Ed
ed@...

When we replaced our dome, we purchased a used perforated aluminum
dome from Ash.  After it was assembled and installed, Ash arranged to
have it repainted by Astro-tec, who did a terrific job.  Astro-tec
has a special paint formulation that does not fill the holes, yet
covers all sorts of scuffs and marks.  It dried so quickly they were
able to do multiple coats in a single day.

Because they sprayed it on, there was quite a mess on the floor below
the dome, but it was a water-based paint and cleaned up easily.  As
the sole employee of our institution, I got the job of pushing the
scaffolding around the theater while the Astro-tec employee sprayed
on the paint - I almost matched the dome color by the time we were done.

We had our previous dome painted by a well-recommended local
painter.  They used standard paint and spray equipment, and did a
terrible job.  I highly recommend you choose someone like Astro-tec
who knows about domes.

Steve Schaffer
Argus Planetarium
schaffer@...
www.aaps.k12.mi.us/aaps.planetarium/home

Greetings!

I'm looking for three data points from specific planetarians -- those
who present typical "what's up tonight?" constellation identification
programming *in "space theater" style tilted domes*.

      1a) Do you fill the dome with stars like a traditional
planetarium, just tilted forward, so that the celestial zenith is
forward of overhead by the amount of the dome tilt?

   or

      1b) Do you tilt the sky back by the amount of your dome tilt,
keeping the apparent horizon parallel with the floor, and fill in the
"banana" shaped gap in the front with a local panorama scene?

If the latter, let's assume your audiences face south.  What do you do
about objects in the north -- that is, behind the audience or cut off
by the seating platform?

      2a) You just don't mention any.

   or

      2b) You "rotate the dome" to put north in the front of the
theater, then spin 180 degrees at some point during the show in order
to face south.

Finally, which of these statements most closely applies to your theater?

      3a) We don't present much "what's up tonight" programming; we
mostly run recorded shows.

   or

      3b) At the end of most shows, we do a quick 5-minute "what's up
tonight" star talk.

   or

      3c) You kidding? Star talks are the most important thing we do in
our dome.

Your three choices will be most appreciated; either reply to this
message privately, or post your reply publicly to generate some
discussion.

Thanks in advance!

>> Mark

Hi Mark, et al;

At Chabot Space & Science Center we tilt the sky back leaving a wedge
at the bottom which we fill with a local (or sometimes not so local)
panorama.

The audience does indeed face south but our dome tilt is only about 16
degrees so it doesn't interfere _too_ much.  The biggest exception is
at this time of year when Ursa Major is a little difficult to talk
about but we decided a while ago that the illustrative ability gained
in rotation is totally offset by the disorientation factor.
Essentially, if it's obscured by our tilt, we really don't talk about it.

Our schedule is such that we mostly run prerecorded shows.  We only
have two to three live shows per week and one of them is purely
Digital Universe material - not a "what's up tonight" kind of show.


In short:
1b, 2a, 3a


-Ryan

Hi Mark,

This is Rebecca at Sci-Port Discovery Center.  We have a very tilted
dome.  To answer your questions, we do 1a, and keep north in the front
and talk mostly about the circumpolar constellations (since those are
the ones you can always see anyway).

Live presentations are the most important thing we do in our dome.  Star
talks comprise about 3/5 of that programming.

Thanks,

Rebecca

Hi Mark and company,

In short:

1a, 2b, and 3a.

A little explanation:

Regarding 1a - Our tilt is only 12 degrees so it still feels pretty natural
even though the zenith is also tilted forward.  If it were a steep tilt
(over 25 deg) we would reposition the sky so the zenith was truly overhead.

Regarding 2b - Audiences love it when we rotate the dome!  Aside from the
"we're moving!" sensation it also helps to demonstrate the act of "turning
around" to face a different direction.  It adds dynamics to the
presentation.

Regarding 3a - We actually do one "night sky" showing per day, which might
be a lot by comparison to other schedules, but when we run as many as 13
shows per day that only comes out to somewhere between 8% and 10% of our
schedule.

*************************
Mike Murray
Programs Manager
Clark Planetarium
110 South 400 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
(801) 456-4949
*************************

Hey Mark,

With our 30-degree tilt, flattening out the horizon would just leave too much
dead space in front of the dome.  We do (1a), and it works out great.  I find
that in the pitch blackness of the theater, with no real frame of reference, the
audience very quickly adapts to seeing a tilted horizon.  Although the bulk of
our shows are fulldome digital theater productions, we perform daily live star
ID shows, which the audience seem to enjoy just as much!

Take care,

Davin

-----------
Davin Flateau, Director
Theaters and Media Services
CyberDome Theater
Exploration Place
300 N. McLean Blvd.
Wichita, KS  67203
(316) 266-4257 direct
(316) 263-4545 fax

dflateau@...
Exploration Place: http://exploration.org

Astronomy News From the Great Plains: http://starsoverkansas.org

Hi, this is Jon, an intrepreter at the Lodestar Planetarium in
Albuquerque, NM.  Our dome is tilted but we keep the zenith straight
overhead.  We don't have a gap, which our tech explained to me as a
result of our projectors being built on a tilted ramp and then shimmed
to match the tilt of the dome.  We rotate the dome at least once per
show.  I often rotate twice, since I usually start in the south,
rotate north, and then rotate south again before "taking off" to do
the digital universe portion of the show.  Our star talks are given
equal billing with the recorded shows, with several each day and
occasional night time events that involve local astronomy clubs doing
telescope demos.  I love the star talks because it gives me something
to do beyond pushing a button and I can't get enough of the DU system.

We've got a pretty shallow tilt, about 9 degrees so as a result we don't
tilt the image to compensate.  When talking about things in different
directions, sometimes we will turn the sky around.  Because we don't
have seats in the theater, if there is a small enough group we just have
them sit on the floor in the center and make them turn around as they
would have to under the real night sky!  Live night sky shows are about
half to 2/3 of our programming.  The sky shows are always dedicated and
from 30-45 minutes long, depending on how long winded I get!

Kristian Anderson
Space Sciences Program Coordinator
Science Center of Iowa
401 W Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway
Des Moines, IA 50309
(515)274-6868 ext. 235
(515)274-3404 FAX

www.sciowa.org

Hi Mark,

1a, 2b, 3a - We mostly run pre-recorded shows (and pre-recorded "what's
up tonight" type pre-shows) but, do live IDs about once or twice a month.
I have produced 4 (for each season) short 8-10 minute pre-recorded shows
that run before each of our main shows showing where we are in the MW
Galaxy, zooming in to the seasons night time sky, and then proceeding
with "what you can see at night during winter, spring, summer or fall."
When transitioning from North to South or vice versa, I say "...ok..now
turn around and face North....ah...better yet...let me do that for you",
then turn the sky. This illustrates all we are doing is turning around
when we turn the virtual planetarium sky.

-Lance

*****
Lance Tankersley
Omnisphere Director
The Coca-Cola Space Science Center
www.CCSSC.org
Columbus State University
706-649-1484
lance@...
*****

Hi,

Would you please advice me what is the best warping and edge blending
system that I can use for correcting the image geometry and blend the
overlapping area for the projected image. Some people advice me to use
Image Any Place system that's manufactured by silicon optix but some
people told me that it has some over heating problem! are there any
other devices that works perfectly.

I will highly appreciate any comment.

WN Al-Mofty

Hi,

We have installed a few Image Any Place based systems and I am not aware
of any overheating problems, I guess its like all equipment, as long as
care is taken with ventilation...

Regards

Alan

" Would you please advice me what is the best warping and edge blending
  system that I can use for correcting the image geometry and blend the
  overlapping area for the projected image."

There are other stand-alone blend/warp options in addition to Image Anyplace
(i.e. SEOS Mercator and Digiblend), options built into projectors (Barco,
Christie), and built into image generators (E&S, Sky-Skan, Zeiss, others).

E

Hi boys and girls,

Clark Planetarium Productions is exploring a possible collaborative fulldome
show project with NASA Ames Research Center and I would love to get a little
preliminary feedback from you!   We've been speaking with the team responsible
for creating public programs about the LCROSS mission (Lunar CRater Observation
and Sensing Satellite), but the idea is to frame the mission inside a much
larger theme.  More specifically, the future exploration of the Moon:

* Why go back?
* What would we need to have a base there?
* Why look for lunar ice?

Questions for you:

1. Would you have any interest in such a show?
2. What would you need to have covered in it as a condition to run it?
3. Would you rather it be a full-length feature (30 minutes), a "mini-show"
(10-12 minutes) or a "news flash" (2-4 minutes)?

If the show is made, it would be ready for distribution by the time LCROSS is
launched in October of '08.  Assuming it launches on time, the Impactor is
scheduled to hit the south pole of the Moon in early '09.  They are planning a
huge collaboration with museums, science centers and planetariums to show the
impact event live (real time video will be transmitted from the Impactor itself
and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter).  An amateur observation network is being set
up, and thus planetariums can help to get the word out about it.

Please take just a moment to share your initial thoughts with me.  We'll be
talking with the Ames team again on February 7.

Many thanks!

Mike.

*************************
Mike Murray
Programs Manager
Clark Planetarium
110 South 400 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
(801) 456-4949
*************************

Hey Mike,

I guess we'd like to see something in the middle, about 20-25 minutes.
If you figure five minutes in and five minutes out, that leaves 20 for
content.  It would be nice if you could make the show somewhat like
Ringworld, where it was anticipating the mission, but didn't go out of
date the moment the spacecraft got there.  I'd like to see a cultural
component in the show, as well as ways the Moon has influenced modern
culture through song, superstition, etc.

It would also be  great if the program was free!

Kristian Anderson
Space Sciences Program Coordinator
Science Center of Iowa
401 W Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway
Des Moines, IA 50309
(515)274-6868 ext. 235
(515)274-3404 FAX

www.sciowa.org

Mike,

Being without a theater but still planning for a future planetarium in
the Colorado Springs area, I would say to design your presentation so
that it anticipates future manned missions to the moon and discusses how
LCROSS will be a milestone on the way. Since LCROSS will have an
impactor review the mixed evidence about lunar water ice. If it's not
too depressing discuss the impact, no pun intended, if no ice is found
on possible future manned missions. Will we still go to the moon?

Mickey Schmidt

Hi Mike,

1. Would you have any interest in such a show?
YES - A news flash (2-4 mins)
2. What would you need to have covered in it as a condition to run it?
For a news flash, nothing specific. Just mission overview and a few details.
3. Would you rather it be a full-length feature (30 minutes), a "mini-show"
(10-12 minutes) or a "news flash" (2-4 minutes)?
We would definitely run a 2-4 minute pre-show news flash. The mini show would be
too long and for some shows put us over the 1hr mark (if we ran it in
conjunction with other shows).
A full show about the mission and future moon exploration would probably be too
narrow of a subject for us (being our main audience is school groups). A "Moon"
show that talks about its creation theories, composition, phases, affects on the
earth, etc. AND about the LCROSS mission and the "future exploration of the
moon" would most likely be a better bet for us.
Also, with the time invested in a full length LCROSS/Future Moon Exploration
show you are somewhat banking on the return to the moon theme to stay alive and
would hate to see that theme disappear because of no ice found or budget cuts
or?...


-Lance

*****
Lance Tankersley
Omnisphere Director
The Coca-Cola Space Science Center
www.CCSSC.org
Columbus State University
706-649-1484
lance@...
*****

Just FYI, AMNH is wrapping up production of "A Field Trip to the
Moon," a 20-minute fulldome program that simulates a human voyage
from Earth to the Moon based on NASA's proposed Ares program.  The
production is rooted firmly in real-time (and hence UniView, in our
dome), although we will create a playback version as well.  Thus,
it's not a "space show" in the same vein as "Cosmic Collisions,"
"Search for Life," or "Passport tot he Universe"; instead, it
presents a pared-down approach to fulldome content (still rooted in
data visualization).

You can take a look at my presentation from GLPA for a run-down of
the program:
       http://research.amnh.org/~wyatt/Community/glpa2006_ftm.pdf

And temporarily, we are making a few odds and ends available online
via my website:
       http://research.amnh.org/~wyatt/FTM/

Right now, we have some DRAFT workshop activities available (final
versions due out in early March), and we'll be putting some 4x3 video
online soon.  Maybe some all-sky stills as well.  As far as the
fulldome portion goes, we're still working out the details for
distribution, but we hope to make it broadly available, with a
particular emphasis on smaller theaters.

Our program was funded by NASA ESMD and Marshall Space Flight Center,
with significant collaboration from both Kennedy Space Center and
Ames Research Center.

So, all that goes to say that, with any luck, Mike, you'll choose a
different tack from ours, since the community would be well served by
a variety of approaches to the topic.

If you have any questions about our program, don't hesitate to drop
me a line.


Ryan, a.k.a.
Ryan Wyatt, Science Visualizer
Rose Center for Earth & Space
American Museum of Natural History
79th Street at Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

As we prepare to start production for fulldome and adapt some of our
classic programs for the new medium, we intend to start small and work
our way up. Our existing Moon program, Lunar Odyssey, won't be the first
we do, but it is on the list. The program addresses how our view of the
Moon has changed over time, lunar geology, origin theories, and a
possible future on the Moon (not tied to NASA's current plans). A News
Flash on LCROSS would be a nice tag for the show, allowing us to remain
current without becoming easily dated.

Kris McCall
Sudekum Planetarium - without a dome
Nashville, TN

go to www.SudekumPlanetarium.com to see dramatic video of a planetarium
without a dome

Ryan says:
"So, all that goes to say that, with any luck, Mike, you'll choose a
different tack from ours, since the community would be well served by
a variety of approaches to the topic."

Ryan is right, there are and there will be many approaches to this moon
topic - luckily!

So from a producer's point of view, no show can pay tribute to all
aspects of a topic. Hey, maybe the customers need to do some editing
themselves, cutting together the parts they emphasize on. For those of
you who (like me) were not selected during the Apollo Program, let me
inform you that our new show "Journey into Space" will feature a roughly
10 minute part showing all aspects of the Apollo missions in great
detail. The sequence is integrated into narration, but could just as
well be used as a stand alone module or even as a backdrop for live
presentation.

There will soon be a full announcement of the show, and it will be
available at some time between April and May.

--
Tom Kwasnitschka
research and development div.
kwasnitschka@...
cell +49 (172) 8546025
http://www.allsky.de

It seems that most big theaters prefer 20 minute
long shows. Presumably this allows the
administration to ram as many people through as
possible on the half hour, every half hour all
day long.

Truth be told - people really don't like this! In
our theater we run 30-35 minute shows with 5 to
10 minutes at the end for sky tours and Q&A. We
often hear comments from visitors that shows at
other planetariums are way too short.

It'd be nice if full dome shows were modular,
allowing theaters to run shorts or longer
programs depending on their schedule. Not sure
how you'd do that but its something to consider.


Kevin Conod
kdconod@...

At the Lodestar all our shows are about 45 minutes in length.  Our
live shows run exactly that length and our push-button shows usually
run as double features.  It works well because we have a "dyna-max"
theater in the same building and their shows are about 45 min. as well.

Kevin Conod makes an excellent point about show length.  When we
re-established our identity from the Hansen to the Clark Planetarium in 2003
with fulldome video we thought hard and surveyed our audiences about that
very subject.  We felt the days of 45-minute long "feature shows" were over,
especially with the kind of emotional intensity you can achieve with
fulldome animation.  The best length (for us anyway) has been the 35-minute
length.  Doing anything shorter made the public feel shortchanged, and the
script was way too fluffy because you didn't have time to develop a real
"story".

Just last summer we tried running a 20-minute long show, even adding a
4-minute fulldome "preamble" to the and following it up with a 10-minute
"what's up tonight" segment.  It tanked.  Word got out really quickly
(indicated through attendance and surveys) that the show was way too short.
People felt jipped.

Now if a planetarium is primarily a "tourist attraction" and the average
visitor wants to spend only 60-90 minutes in the entire institution, that's
one thing.  While at the Museum of the Rockies we ran 22-minute shows in the
summer and our capture rate jumped from 30% to 44%.  But that was a unique
situation.  Most all the people who have purchased shows from us prefer the
35 minute show length.

However, this does bring up a question I'd like to ask the group:

Is there an interest out there in running "mini-shows" (12-20 minute
vignettes) or "news reels" (2-4 minutes long)?  Either of these could be run
before a "main feature," or even as several segments pieced together to
offer a chapter approach to hot topics and current events.  I ask because we
have a possible opportunity to create such a format but I need to know that
there's interest in actually running it.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

Mike.
------------------------------

Mike Murray
Programs Manager
Clark Planetarium
801-456-4949
mmurray@...

------------------------------

What we've done at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium, where I'm an
educator, is to standardize on a 40-50 minute show length - even when we
are running shorter fulldome shows.  With the 20 minuteish fulldome
shows we start with a live interactive part of the program, with some
tie in to the the fulldome program - for instance , before Oasis In
Space we talk about planets, which ones are viable in the sky if any,
and talk about some of the planets that they'll hear more about in the
fulldome part of the show.  Then we finish with the fulldome show, and
answer any questions people have just outside the theater.  This lets us
run shows hourly which seems to be a really good compromise for us.

Our patrons seem to enjoy it, and be comfortable with that length, and
having a show every hour (which is more then we had pre-fulldome due to
setup times) has been a major benefit - people who arrive just after a
show has started are much more likely to purchase tickets for the next
show when it starts in less then an hour....

So far (at lest from my perspective) this has worked very well for us.
Of course YMMV.

Take care,

Andy

> At the Lodestar all our shows are about 45 minutes in length.  Our
> live shows run exactly that length and our push-button shows usually
> run as double features.  It works well because we have a "dyna-max"
> theater in the same building and their shows are about 45 min. as
> well.

Let me add a little to Jon's post. (Jon, btw is an amazing University of
New Mexico media arts undergrad and L* interpreter/presenter.  Beyond
exceptional dome presentations, he's been making some wonderful montages
and other mediated programs for our exhibit and pre-show areas.  Nice
having young talent working with us and getting involved in the fulldome
community.)  Anyhootie:

As Jon pointed out, we run our shows on an hour turn, so show duration
is about 45-minutes.  Show schedule includes three live 'star' shows
based in DigitalSky (utilizing the power of DS2 in all shows since
10.06) and four presentations of a 'feature' show based in a fulldome
playback lease (e.g. E&S's "Wonders", AMNH's "Search", NASM/Sky-Skan's
"Infinity Express," Nanotoon/RPI's "Molecularium" and DMNH's "Black
Holes:Other Side" currently.) The feature show normally run for a full
year (principally due to the cost and availability of distributed shows,
but that's another post another time.)

Until the latest show changeover in November, we collaboratively and
locally produced a fulldome prologue to the ~23-minute feature show (six
shows since '01) to localize and extend the visitor experience.  We did
this for several reasons:

1. We wanted to continue the planetarium tradition of community-based,
live presentations--and importantly, differentiate from the IMAX/Iwerks
LFT experience.  Here we were looking for the best of both worlds:
Audience interaction with knowledgeable presenter while having the
immersive cinematic experience as well; both exploiting the power of
fulldome, each portion with its own strengths.  We also believed in the
professional development this afforded our presenters and gave us a pick
into the future of realtime in the dome for standing public
presentations.

2.  We've been building our local community of fulldome producers and
the shorter, live presented prologues offered opportunity to involve
many , keep costs exactly where we need them (read as nil),  give us (L*
and other producers) audience feedback on approaches and techniques,
give producers an audience and screen-time (ego), provide community
service (values),  and portfolio items (professional growth).  These
fulldome prologues ran the experimental gamut of a VR-ish (wireframes,
animated graphical information overlays) orrery by Hue Walker et at at
UNM's ARTS Lab which presented used to introduce the solar system before
E&S's "New Horizons" , to a series of immersive virtual toys
(ViewMaster, Bug's Eye View--picture a ViewMaster flying into the dome
and cover the collective eyes of the audience, then a run thru the
easily updated wheel of images) to extend NASM's "Infinity Express" with
very current updates of IE's topics, to Dr. Carl Diegert's 'ultimate
home movie by a national lab scientist" (read as smart good-hearted
people with incredible tools)  for "Molecularium" in which he took
audiences on a tour of Sandia National Labs as he kept halving and
imaging a penny in a sort of powers-of-two story as he tried to get to a
single copper molecule in the obsolete currency unit. (That one had it's
own soundtrack by Carl so it was push & play, but also unmistakably
local and fun.  Shot entirely in HD via camera and microscope; augmented
with motion graphics and produced with Sky-Skan's AE plug-in. Crazy fun
with a chunk of copper...)

3.  The third reason for prolog development and show length we've
instituted --following well behind LodeStar's values and development--is
financial or at least price positioning.  We're unique in competing with
an 8/70 Iwerks theater.  That LFT, run by another agency co-located in
the same building/institution, keeps the money they bring in through the
gate while we keep LodeStar's.  So there's no greater good.  I wanted
our dome programs to be equally priced and valued so we kept our ticket
prices equal to the "DynaTheater" and kept our visitor experiences
equal--at minimum equal.  In retrospect, the better fulldome shows
running at ~23-minutes alone had more value than most of the (limited by
8/70 format) LFT offerings running 40-minutes at the same price.  But
we're here to serve, support and grow both our visitors and UNM/art/sci
communities, so I stand pat by the decision.

I stand pat and proudly on these decisions, but I should note I did
attempt to move to a half-hour show schedule to include two live shows
in DS2 and two feature (leased/produced) playback shows.  I proposed
this to increase show offerings and hopefully gate revenue, diversify
programmatic topics, accommodate visitors' specific interests, and focus
our production and presentation resources to specific areas.  What I
proposed was to create two very focused live 'star' shows in DS2 (one
'Moon & Planets" and one "Stars & Beyond" shows to start, each beginning
with the night's sky) and offer two playback shows, an "A" show running
and marketed more frequently than a "B" show, based on the slight
increase in the quality and quantity of shows being produced here and
through the fulldome community.

That plan was vetoed by our titular partners in this state/private/UNM
shared institution, the non-UNMers crying unfair competition.  So right
now we've focused on the live DS2 shows as 45-minute live show which is
giving us time to train staff and explore the insane breadth of
programming opportunities.  For the playback show, we're offering a
double-feature to ease operations  and focus on distributable show
productions while keeping most of our standards for our visitors--a 40+
minute experience that frankly blows the LFT away (if only we had the
marketing to communicate it sufficiently).  So we're running a
double-feature of "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity" with our
version of "Wonders of the Universe" with our locally produced
soundtrack which received huge numbers and acclaim when we first ran it
in 2001.

Sorry for the sloppy tome, but thought some might be interested.  Long
story short: the ~23-minute prerendered show has great flexibility and
is a good standard in many ways.  However, domes resting on
push-and-play are missing two-thirds the fun and power of fulldome as
well as a giant part of its tradition and its future as realtime keeps
evolving.

bueno,
d

david beining
director
LodeStar
1801 Mountain Road, NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87104
dbeining@...
505.841.5985
505.362.2614 (cel)
www.lodestar.unm.edu
www.domefest.org (news soon!)

We at Sci-Port are in the mini-show and newsreel market.  Given the
nature of our open dome (people can come and go) and our bench seating,
watching anything longer than 30 minutes can be uncomfortable.
Moreover, admission to our planetarium is part of the overall admission
to the science center, so people feel like they're getting something
extra (lagniappe, as we say in Louisiana) when we can offer them
something short and personal, in addition to our live presentations and
movies (all of which are about 25 minutes long).  We did develop a short
show for our donor gala (11/18) which we continue to play.  It's 10
minutes long and our visitors love it.

[Moderator's apologies:  this should have gone out last week.]

Hi all,

Given the prices of some of these shows (this is not a comment on value
or worth) how are you paying for them?  Do you have the budget to buy
them outright, do you fundraise, or seek sponsors?

Regards,

Matt Linke

All:

The Detroit Science Center and Cranbrook Institute of Science are
working on a planetarium program entitled "Bad Astronomy" based on the
book by Phil Plait.  We're now in the production stages and are looking
for some help.

The unique nature of this production is that it will result in both a
traditional planetarium program *and* a fulldome video version.  We're
looking for freelance artists or production companies to assist in the
generation of certain visual scenes.

Here are the requirements:

1. 3D scenes should either use or be exported to 3ds Max with
uncollapsed stacks.
2. Visuals need to be submitted in final form by end of May 2007.
3. Contract to be paid on a per scene basis, not hourly; rates to
be negotiated.

If you're interested and have time available, please submit a demo reel
or website of your previous work to:

Todd Slisher
tslisher@... <mailto:tslisher@...>

and/or

Michael Narlock
mnarlock@... <mailto:mnarlock@...>

Todd K. Slisher
VP - Science Programs
The New Detroit Science Center
5020 John R Street
Detroit, MI 48202
www.detroitsciencecenter.org <http://www.detroitsciencecenter.org/>