January 26, 2017—The Adler Planetarium, America's first planetarium, opened its doors in 1930 and has been a Chicago cultural icon ever since.
The Adler Planetarium operates two domes, all day, 363 days a year—presenting nearly 5000 planetarium presentations each year. For this demanding schedule, the Adler is refurbishing both of their dome theaters with 8K resolution Digistar 6 systems from Evans & Sutherland. Digistar 6 provides a rich feature set that allows the team at the Adler quickly and intuitively to create high quality real time programming for their audiences, bringing the latest discoveries to audiences at the speed of science. Each theater features a different multi-projection solution optimized for the size of each dome to provide bright, high-contrast imagery on the screens.
The 8K Digistar 6 system in the Grainger Sky Theater's 70' diameter dome uses six Sony SRX-T615 4K projectors with 18,000 lumens per projector and 12,000:1 contrast; the 8K Digistar 6 system in the 55' diameter Definiti Space Theater uses six Sony GTZ280 4K laser phosphor projectors with 5,000 lumens per projector and 20,000:1 contrast. All projectors in both theaters are seamlessly blended together using E&S' auto alignment and auto blending systems that will keep the imagery looking expertly aligned with the click of a mouse.
Adler's Director of Theaters Mark Webb said, “We needed a planetarium system that could do everything from advanced visualization—to pristine night sky—to marriage proposals and cocktail parties. A workhorse system that was easy to program and easier to operate, without sacrificing any traditional planetarium functionality. And we needed to know that we were getting a proven product on delivery and solid support after the sale. For all these reasons and more, we selected Digistar 6 from Evans & Sutherland, and we are excited to have them as our technology partner now and into the future.”
E&S President and COO Kirk Johnson said, “The Adler Planetarium has been an industry leader in real time programming, bringing the latest astronomical discoveries to their audiences and using live presenters to provide a truly memorable experience. With the power of Digistar 6 in their hands: its advanced features and its ease of use, we can't wait to see how our system revolutionizes the production workflow at the Adler, and how the ultra-high resolution 8K domes will delight and amaze audiences of all ages, igniting the spark for a lifetime of learning more about our universe.”
About Evans & Sutherland
Evans & Sutherland (www.es.com) provides Digistar 6, the world's most advanced digital fulldome planetarium and digital dome cinema system, ideal for replacing 1570 film systems. Digistar 6 combines fulldome video playback in 2D and 3D with the most comprehensive real time 3D digital astronomy package ever assembled, all within a powerful easy-to-use graphical user interface that makes creating shows more intuitive than ever. The unique capabilities of the system, the Digistar Cloud Library (a resource for community content sharing), Domecasting (live broadcasting to planetariums), Show Builder (a powerful and intuitive way to build shows), the Digistar STEAM library (included content for science, technology, engineering, art, and math), and Ease of Use, combine to provide unequalled capabilities for immersive dome experiences. Evans & Sutherland is also the world's leading producer and distributor of digital fulldome shows including show converted from giant screen film. As a full-service system provider, E&S also offers Spitz domes, SciDome, hybrid planetarium systems and a full range of theater systems. E&S markets include planetariums, science centers, themed attraction venues, and premium large-format theaters. E&S products have been installed in over 1,300 theaters worldwide. Visit the E&S website at www.es.com.
Source: Evans & Sutherland
