Barco “I-DOME™” to provide largest dome in North America with brightest high resolution pictures
The world-famous Papalote Museo del Niño in Mexico City recently began construction of a revolutionary new dome theater. Spitz – who provides the original custom design for the theater – chose the Barco I-DOME™ solution to cover the entire surface of the 23-meter (75.4-foot) diameter hemisphere with immersive images. The Barco I-DOME™ at the Papalote Museo del Nino will use an array of nine blended Barco Galaxy Warp high-resolution 3 chip DLP™ projectors to create a seamless image, enveloping 280 visitors in spectacular moving images.
The Barco Galaxy WARP™ projectors of the Barco I-DOME™ are located in the perimeter of the dome. They incorporate proprietary developed WARP predistortion ensuring accurate geometry across the dome and allow to align the adjacent channels with subpixel accuracy. Especially impressive is the capability to project the Zenith part from a projector positioned in the perimeter of the planetarium, thus making room for extra visitor seats.
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Barco engineers designed the “I-DOME” configuration to be used at the Papalote Museo del Niño in Mexico City, including the exact positioning of the 9 projectors located in the perimeter of the 23m-diameter dome.
“The integrated lens shift - achieving 100% vertical optical off-axis projection – combined with an advanced global brightness/contrast control are key components of the I-DOME™ design,” explained Eric Braux, Barco Edutainment product group manager. “It will allow the projectors to fill the screen with a minimum loss of pixels, while offering full versatility to project a wide range of shows.”
“Featuring perfect color matching; excellent color uniformity and color saturation; automated brightness matching; built-in geometry distortion; built-in edge-blending; and excellent contrast, the Galaxy Warp™ DLP™ projectors are specifically designed for multi-channel projection on curved and hemispherical screens”
Equally important for planetarium applications is Barco’s proprietary optical soft edge blending, which can be combined with electronic blending to result in one huge hemispherical image with imperceptible blends - as well in bright as in dark images. Through proprietary optical blending Barco maintains exceptional black levels with its light valve projectors, giving excellent detail and contrast.
For accurate alignment of all projected images and easy maintenance the Barco I-DOME™ includes laser array alignment units, placed immediately underneath the projectors. These lasers project reference points on the dome, allowing for accurate adjustment and periodic realignment of the projection system.
As Barco’s I-DOME™ handles the complete visualization, including predistortion and blending of the images through dedicated electronics inside the Barco projectors, a correct geometry is achieved on the dome screen, without requiring external computational power. This encompasses that the I-DOME™ offers the flexibility to use other image generators and other formats in the future.
Berta MacGregor, Deputy Director of the museum says “What we like most about the Barco I-DOME™, is that it gives the capability to simultaneously contribute to various exhibitions and events, since the I-DOME™ can project whatever content is provided by whatever image generating system. This sure will open new horizons for world class programs and public outreach events”.
Barco is also providing the high-definition pre-show stereoscopic visualization in the 50-seat VR-theater's lobby and is delivering two Barco cineVERSUM 50" plasma screens for Papalote's planetarium pre-show system.
Papalote Museo del Niño is one of the most prestigious children's museums in the world, with over a million visitors a year. The development of the new theater coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the popular facility. The 280-seat theater will be housed inside a huge 28-meter sphere that is already part of the building's architecture and that will open early 2004.
About Barco
Barco, an international company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, is active in three key areas of imaging technology. Barco designs and develops solutions for large screen visualization, display solutions for life-critical applications, and systems for visual inspection. Barco has a network of subsidiaries, distributors and agents in almost 100 countries. Barco is quoted on Brussels/Euronext and is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company.
