Front Pictures delivers 8m outdoor fulldome theater to Italian tourist destination

August 2018
Castellana Grotte, Italy

One of the main tourist destinations of southern Italy, the town of Castellana Grotte, received a cutting edge 3D fulldome theater powered by Front Pictures technology. The opening ceremony took place on August 6 and was attended by the city mayor and journalists from local media.

At the 8m outdoor geodesic dome, multiple projectors seamlessly blended together form a perfect hemisphere where visitors can enjoy a shared, VR-like immersive experience that fills their peripheral vision and jumps off the screen.

The FP HDx4 fulldome system runs on a Screenberry media server which controls and auto-aligns 4 х BenQ W1210 ultra short throw Full HD projectors to create a 3K x 3K 3D digital image. The whole projection system, including automatic calibration and 360-degree playback, is controlled wirelessly with the help of intuitive applications installed on an iPad and laptop.

The Screenberry server provides the planetarium personnel with fast access to fulldome shows thanks to its built-in DRM system. It allows for time-based and pay-per-view licensing options for content from leading production studios. Currently, the fulldome theater screens the We Are Aliens show by NSC Creative. The system also comes equipped with hours of free fulldome shows.

The 8m Rigid Frame Enclosed dome with an inflatable decorated printed cover was manufactured by Front Pictures Engineering. The negative pressure dome is a high-quality but cost-effective solution, especially when compared to a perforated aluminium dome. It also provides the theater operators with high mobility as the dome can be assembled and relocated to a new place as needed.

The installation of the dome and projection system took six days.

System: FP HDx4
Software: Screenberry Media Server 2.0
Resolution: Fulldome 3K
Channels: 4
Projectors: BenQ W1210
3D technology: Active / DLP Link
Dome model: 8M-RFE with inflatable decorated printed cover