Barco amazes visitors of l'Astralia at the 'Cité de l'Espace' Science Center in Toulouse, France
When l'Astralia reopens its doors end of January 2006, visitors of the Cité de l’Espace Center in Toulouse, will again enjoy the wonders of the universe at the largest planetarium in the south of France. Barco recently provided the newly constructed Astralia center with a number of exciting and immersive visualization solutions in the attendance hall and the 20-meter domed planetarium, and equipped the conference room and the IMAX theater with latest state-of-the-art digital projection systems.
The attendance hall of the planetarium was upgraded to immerse the visitors in an impressive pre-show. Barco SIM 4 DLP projectors blend images from three channels into a seamless picture delivering utmost detail on a huge 2m high screen with a radius of 29 meter. For easy maintenance laser array alignment units, placed immediately under the projectors, allow fast and accurate realignment of the projected images.In the new planetarium up to 280 visitors can embark for a journey through the universe. Evans & Sutherland partnered with Barco for the visualization system: 12 BarcoReality 909 CRT projectors in a double-stacked configuration with optical soft edge blending technology deliver an unequalled black night sky and a sparkling star show. Especially impressive is the capability to project the Zenith part from a projector positioned in the perimeter of the planetarium, thus creating more room for extra visitors on the best viewing places of the planetarium.
On top of this, l’Astralia features a conference room for business meetings and seminars, equipped with latest state of the art projection equipment. Up to 4 windows can be simultaneously visualized on a large screen powered by a Barco iQ G350 LCD projector.
By installing a D-Cine DP100 Digital Cinema projector, Barco also expanded the functionality of the IMAX theater. The 300-seats large theater, which is normally being used to project impressive 70mm documentaries on life on earth and in space on a screen of 350m², can now also project high quality digital images during special events or conferences.
“We have integrated the latest technological innovations in the domain of image and sound to open up new exciting and educational horizons for our visitors.” said Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse and main fund provider of the project. “l’Astralia will present its visitors with a unique journey in the heart of space evoking exciting emotions.”
About Barco
Barco, an international company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, provides visualization and display solutions for professional markets. Barco designs and develops solutions for large screen visualization, display solutions for life-critical applications, and systems for visual inspection. Barco is active worldwide and has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco is quoted on Euronext Brussels and is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company (Euronext: BAR; Reuters: BARBt.BR; Bloomberg: BAR BB).
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