3D/4D/5D IMERSA 2014
Designing and producing programmes for commerical success was among the themes at the IMERSA 2014 summit, as consultant Ian McLennan reports
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n a world of ever-increasing specialisation, it’s refreshing that an organisation exists to serve a wide variety of interests, from educational to experimental
to cultural to commercial, and everything in between. IMERSA (Immersive Media Entertainment, Research, Science & Arts) started with a small group of individuals whose activities in existing vehicles, such as IPS and International Planetarium Society, was deemed restrictive in terms of innovation in a rapidly evolving digi- tal age. The common element among the people who first gathered under the IMERSA umbrella was that almost everyone was involved in designing and producing programmes for audiences to experience and enjoy under domes or other immersive environments.
CONFERENCE AGENDA In March, the fifth IMERSA conference was held – once again at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) – under the watchful eye and guid- ing hand of Dan Neafus, operations manager at DMNS’s Gates Planetarium. Neafus likes to say the real purpose
Dream to Fly presents the development of aviation through the ages with a poetic narration
of these annual gatherings is to bring a bunch of his good friends together, but that belies a significantly more ambitious agenda – namely to advance the cause of promoting widespread use of dome and other immersive spaces in a variety of institutional, artistic and commercial environments. IMERSA
has positioned itself as a group not only to promote that idea, but to foster educational opportunities for people to learn from each other, and to establish a culture of best practices. It’s striking how many of the sessions involved codifying best practices, as well as providing common language and other
VISIT TO FISKE PLANETARIUM
During the conference, delegates visited the newly refurbished and upgraded Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, Colorado for an event hosted by Dr Douglas Duncan, plane- tarium director (see interview on page 44). The old Zeiss Mark 6 projector has quaintly taken its place among old-style displays that adorn the exhibition area of the planetarium. Now, inside the planetar- ium’s 20m (66ft)-diameter dome theatre, there’s a technological transformation with a brand new Megastar II star-ball projec- tor, capable of projecting some 22 million
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stars. This is complemented by a state-of- the-art Sky-Skan 8K (8,000 X 8,000 pixels resolution) digital video system, with added SCISS astronomical data sets.
The 8K system produced some dazzling,
crisp, clear, and bright images, although some (not all) were dogged by the persistent dome cross-reflection problem that tends to wash some scenes out. It’s difficult to fathom why some scenes are more susceptible to that phenomenon than others that appear to be similar in content. Well, it’s an art as much as a science.
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Annette Sotheran-Barnett was able to see her own production To Space and Back for the first time in an 8K projection dome, and was moved to see the production as she imagined it should be seen, under ideal conditions.
After a brief retro-laser show in the new theatre, there was a panel talk with Chris Maytag (Fiske Planetarium), Mark Webb and Patrick McPike (Adler Planetarium), Andrew Johnston (Smithsonian Institution), Steve Savage (Sky-Skan), Michael Daut (E&S) and Staffan Klashed (SCISS).
AM 2 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014
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