On May 6th we hosted Virtual IMERSA Day: “The Game of Immersion”, where we presented leaders in the games and planetarium industries who are moving ahead with exciting works, challenges and visions.
Explores the potential of bringing live performances to the dome. This video program will showcases examples that have evolved from experiment to success.
Immersive Connections to Hyperlocal Data
Our exciting panel takes immersive experiences to the next level in time and space. Collection and classification in citizen science not only support the work of scientists, but in the case of scientifically visualized community data, strongly connect us to the influence we exert on our host planet.
IMERSA Day was a virtual event held on August 27th 2021
Immersive media has the potential to shift worldviews and foster empathy, and the digital nature of the medium has the potential to democratize the creation of content.
How can we make immersive technologies more equitable?
How can we amplify marginalized voices, including indigenous communities? And how can we make our profession welcoming to all people?
This conversation will bring together professionals from the VR, higher education, and planetarium communities to discuss the potential of our work, the responsibility of our organizations to foster diverse creators and audiences, and the opportunity to create a more equitable and inclusive community.
August 21st -2020: Dani LeBlanc, Director of the Charles Hayden Planetarium and Adult Programs at the Museum of Science, Boston, leads a panel focusing on the art and business of presenting artistic efforts under the dome, including pivots made in the age of COVID, from the perspectives of producers, managers, and artists working in Planetariums across the US. Panelists include Ben Gondrez (Fort Collins Museum of Discovery), who leads a highly successful Domelab series, Kate McCallum (Vortex Immersion) at the forefront of the hit production Mesmerica, Monica Bolles (Resonant Interactions) a multimedia artist working in immersive media, and James Wetzel (Museum of Science, Boston) who has spearheaded and produced a myriad of novel artistic and theatrical experiences for the dome. At the end of the presentation, Dani and panelists will be available for a live Q&A session.
August 28th 2020
A Look at Camera Technology (panel discussion)
A look at today’s state-of-the-art camera technologies featuring the 8K Digital Camera Comparison demo produced by the Giant Screen Cinema Association, presented by Michael Daut, and ultra-high-resolution camera used in recent fulldome show creation by The Ken Ackerman and Mike Schmitt (California Academy of Sciences), Robin Sip (Mirage3D), and Paul Raphaël (Felix & Paul Studio). We will explore the capabilities and potential of these remarkable tools to capture live-action content with video resolutions necessary for today’s 6K and 8K digital dome systems. Led by Michael Daut, who will moderate a live Q&A after the panel discussion.
Our featured speaker for IMERSA 2020
Eddie Sotto,
President of Sotto Studios/LA and former senior vice president of concept design at Walt Disney Imagineering.
He’ll be giving us a look at how Imagineers make their magic, and how we in the immersive community can apply some of that magic to our own work.
An insightful presentation by Michael Daut (Michael Daut Productions) about creating audience impact, extending a discussion he began at the last IMERSA and offering five simple principles for storytelling in the dome. In educational programming, the audience is often the forgotten partner in the equation. Especially in the immersive dome format, the audience is more important to consider than ever. Immersive media naturally places the audience right inside the experience, providing an emotional connection that simply does not exist in other forms of media.
IMERSA Day April 30 2021. Simulating the Dome in VR. What do you do if you can't get access to a dome?
Or, if you need a space online to teach a class, and you need more than what Zoom or other 2D applications can offer?
IMERSA has a number of software creators and producers tackling those questions and many others, as the world moves into its second year of pandemic shutdowns and capacity limitations. Both VR producers and dome educators have gotten very creative as they reach out to audiences.
We've invited three innovators who are blazing new flat screen and VR pathways to benefit content creators and educators.
Laserium founder Ivan Dryer, speaking at IMERSA Summit 2013
What is Fulldome - A Celebration of the Medium Pt. 2
Speakers:
Brad Thompson - Spitz Creative Media
Paul Mowbray - NSC Creative
Ryan Wyatt - California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium
Dan Neafus - DMNS/Gates Planetarium
KaChun Yu - Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Toshiyuki Takahei - Orihalcon Technologies
Isabella Beyer - IB Creation Studio
Aaron Bradbury - NSC Creative
Video: Ben Gondrez
Speaker: Ben Gondrez, presenting his museum's Dome Club experiences during a Pecha Kucha session at the 2015 IMERSA Summit.
Presented by KaChun Yu, Denver Museum of Nature and Science at the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
dmns.org/science/museum-scientists/ka-chun-yu
Digital video fulldome has long been heralded as a revolutionary educational technology; yet the research literature showing its effectiveness has been sparse. We briefly review what the current research says about the use of digital domes for learning. Based on results of a study using fulldome technologies to teach college undergraduates, we reveal how dome visuals shown on a large display, with a wide field-of-view and a deep sense of immersion, can lead to greater learning gains in the treatment audience compared to control groups (including those who saw similar content on a flat screen). Such improved performance may result from the reduced cognitive load that is possible when using an immersive virtual environment, with consequences not only for lectures in formal education, but also the continuous "narrative journeys" that are commonly found in fulldome film.
IMERSA Summit 2016
Exploding the Frame
Speaker: Ben Shedd
Presented by Charles Veasey at the IMERSA 2016 Summit. He is from the Interactive Dome IAIA and University of New Mexico, (interactivedome.net/)
Ambisonics is a full sphere surround sound technology that provides three-dimensional reproduction over arbitrary speaker systems. The technique can be recorded, encoded, and decoded independent of the number of playback speakers making it an ideal standard for the fulldome and other immersive systems. Ambisonics is a patent-free, well-researched technology with supporting hardware and software tools. This presentation provides a history of Ambisonics and the benefits of its workflow within immersive production.
This talk presents results of a user survey for FULLDOME OnDemand, a fulldome video streaming service at fulldomeondemand.com. The survey was taken to determine who and what the users are, and what their budget and technology limitations are as they select content for use in their facilities.
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
Presented by Heather Fairweather, Boston Museum of Science, mos.org
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
Experiments with gaming recently done by the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Science in Boston, will be presented as well as some plans for the future. Heather talks about the partnerships the museum has made, the logistics of planning for these events, and some of the technology behind it all.
New immersive technologies need to change the way we make and the way we experience movies. When cameras, lighting, sets, mise en scene and montage change, narrative changes as well to create a different kind of storytelling that surrounds the audience and makes the experience more interactive. Offered by filmmaker Alberto Garcia.
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
A panel discussion about the use and applications of VR in Hollywood and beyond. Hosted by Paul Fraser (Blaze Digital Cinema Works, super78.com), and featuring panelists Robert Coker (Senior Show Writer/Creative Development, Super 78, super78.com); Devin McGinn (Devin McGinn, Director of Creative Media, The VOID (thevoid.com)), Chuck Peil. (Head of Business Development & Co-Founder, ReelFX (reelfx.com)), and Mattias Pusch ( EVP Business Development & Co-Founder, WorldViz (worldviz.com))
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
Kevin Williams, Digital Out-of-Home Interactive Entertainment (DNA), dna-association.com
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
A presentation that looks at the development of media attractions, dome theaters and virtual reality technology towards the new generation of immersive experiences.
Michael Dowling, SCISS.
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
Where are the winds blowing in the planetarium industry and what tendencies do we see that will affect us the upcoming decades? Michael discusses where we stand today, what major trends are on the horizon, and how planetariums can shape a strategy to grow and remain increasingly relevant. Based on a recently published paper, "The Next 20 Years: A Vision for Planetariums" in the 21st Century by Staffan Klashed.
Presented by Mats Reiniusson, IAIA.
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
The Virtual Museum is an open-source collection management software that allows you to curate 3D and 2D objects within a virtual space such as a gallery or museum. The case study is the Institute of American Indian Art’s contemporary art collection which emcompasses over 8,000 items including paintings, weavings, and sculpture. These items are digitally prepared through photogrammetry and integrated into a complex virtual environment capable of network-based collaboration. The Virtual Museum can be reproduced on the digital dome, head-mounted displays, and other systems.
Carolyn Sumners, Tom Casey (HomeRun Pictures, homerunpictures.com/fulldome/), Jason Fletcher (Boston Museum of Science, mos.org/)
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
The script is written. The storytelling is effective. But there are calls for visuals of things that don’t exist yet, or real data representations that have never been visualized. Storytelling for immersive fulldome environments has required producers to take the idea of the “artist concept” to new levels. How do we ensure a successful pipeline between the left-brain expert supplying the input and the right-brain creative implementing the visuals to achieve the desired⎯but most important, accurately told story for the educational goals? The speakers give examples of what works... and sometimes what doesn’t.
Presented by immersive artist Jenny Carden at the IMERSA 2016 Summit. This talk charts the hardware and content marketplace today and reveals the humorous development path the technology has taken over the last 50 years. Carden talks about the current differences in VR and AR and shares how museums, schools, entertainment companies, and gamers are using the technology to create incredible experiences. For those interested in creating and displaying VR and AR - she also helps you avoid the biggest mistakes content creators are making today and inspires you to get involved in this exciting revolution in immersive media.
Hosted by Daniel Fine.
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
The Beneath team is designing and constructing Seismic, a new system for stereoscopic 3D flat-screen planetarium media production, control, and display that will greatly expand and amplify current capabilities of planetariums that use more traditional platforms such as Sky-Skan's. Panelists from the team discuss the creation and implementation of Seismic that allows for the ease of programming and playback of a variety of media—2D, 3D, pre-recorded, real time, generative, interactive, etc.— to be created, stored, controlled, and displayed through a simple user interface.
From the IMERSA Summit 2016
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
As the CEO of COSI, Andy operates two theaters, a 4K fulldome and a digital giant flat screen, key components in his hi-tech interactive museum in Columbus, OH. This offers nearly unlimited programming choices, but how do you decide the right choices? How can you most effectively define your core audiences and find programming to engage them and bring them back for repeat visits?
IMERSA Summit 2016
David Rabkin, Moderator, Boston Museum of Science
and a team of panelists discussed questions of importance to producers: What are the biggest obstacles to creating content for immersive media, specifically fulldome? Our panel of producers, with lots of help from the audience, will consider the answers and propose solutions.
IMERSA Summit 2016
Immersion Expanding - New Opportunities for Immersive Experiences
Speaker: Eric Hanson
IMERSA Summit 2016
From the IMERSA 2016 Summit.
A moderated panel discussion featuring Paul Mowbray, Eric Hanson, Ben Shedd, and Jenny Carden.
Where is this industry heading with the VR explosion? Where should we be focusing our efforts to create immersive media? Is it all becoming the same, or is it diversifying into multiple markets? Transmedia?
Speaker: Timmy Edens, presenting a look at some of his experiences with dome installations and the tools he uses; presented during Pecha Kucha at Summit 2015.
One-on-one interviews with IMERSA 2015 attendees, focusing on recent challenges in the community.
Highlights from IMERSA Summit 2015. This video kindly provided by our friends at Fulldome Pro.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Immersive Designers
Speakers:
Ryan Wyatt
Claudia Cumbie-Jones
Lance Ford-Jones
Staffan Klashed
Mats Reiniusson
Micky Remann
Dominic St-Amant
What Can Research Teach Us?
Speakers:
Mary Nucci
Carolyn Summers
Hilarie Davis
Brad Davey
Pat Reiff
KaChun Yu
New Directions in Alternative Content
Speakers:
Kate McCallum
Patrick McPike
Matt Mascheri
Carolyn Collins Petersen
David Rabkin
Tina Ratterman
Nina Wise
Ian McLennan
Toby Mensforth
Case Study Innovative Spaces, Part 3. Leveraging Supercomputers to Create Unique Spaces
Speakers:
Mike Bruno
Tom Lucas
Brad Thompson
AJ Christensen
Case Study- Innovative Spaces, Part 2. The Making of the Cambrian Theater
Speakers:
Dennis Elkins
Michael Daut
Real-time Content Panel - Leveraging Datasets and Opportunities
Speakers:
Patrick McPike
Mark SubbaRao
Mike Smail
KaChun Yu
Immersive Media Strategies and Challenges
Speakers:
David Rabkin
Paul Mowbray
Ken Scott
Tom Lucas
David Rabkin
The Business of Quality, Jena Fulldome Film Festival Trialogue. This video is made available to the IMERSA channel thanks to the copyright holders. It was recorded and produced by Jakob Laugs, JOKERPRODUCTS.de and Sebastian Nevermann, SE-N.de.
The 45 minute Trialogue discussion features; Dan Neafus from IMERSA, Carolyn Collins Petersen with Loch Ness Productions and Eduard Thomas from the Keil Mediandome. Answering the question; tell us how you define quality in immersive cinema?
Brad Thompson of Spitz Creative Media speaking at the IMERSA Summit 2014 on Tools of Fulldome Production.
A highlight video from the IMERSA Summit 2013. Thanks to Jane Crayton and Derek Osterlund.
