Visionary companies often reach for the stars. Sky-Scan, a Nashua, N.H., company that creates digital planetariums and full-dome theaters, sought to capture space marvels and bring them indoors to an eager public. To capture more of the market for full-immersion theater experiences, Sky-Scan partnered with architects of mobile membrane domed structures at Zendome GmbH, Berlin, Germany, and sound-system innovators at IOSONO, Erfurt, Germany, to create an entirely new experiential space: Definiti theater, at the 21st International Planetarium Society (IPS) Conference 2012 in Baton Rouge, La.

Sky-Scan’s expertise in developing software to render special visual effects culminated in DigitalSky, which presented a real-time simulation from two high-resolution video projectors on the Zendome.ims1200 spherical screen inside a mobile dome.The geodesic cupola, 14 meters in diameter, offered space for the Immersive Media Screen and created 225 square meters of negative pressure projection screen with near to no reflection. Black theater cloth was used as a curtain to hide the equipment at the outer rim of the cupola, and also provided some acoustic dampening. IOSONO provided vivid 3D soundscapes from 32 speakers surrounding the audience.

“Let’s say a meteor is coming at you,” said Jan Herrington, a member of the conference advisory committee. “In 8K, it looks like the meteor is coming into your brain.”