Open Dome Open House

Ian Downie — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:00:53 +0000

Press Release: South Carolina’s First Immersive Dome Theater Educational Field Trips

Ian Downie — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:03:06 +0000

For Immediate Release

Contact: Diana Bristow
Educational Booking
Open Dome Productions
t: 888.DOME-360 x-1
education@opendome.net

Open Dome Productions Launches South Carolina’s First Immersive Dome Theater Educational Field Trips

Charleston, South Carolina, August 24, 2010

Open Dome Productions, based in Charleston, SC, is a full service video production company that delivers the next generation of immersive dome theater field trips directly to schools throughout the Southeast.

The immersive experience takes students on a journey no bus can. Classes can travel to the rain forest, walk on the moon, swim underwater or journey inside the human body without leaving the safety of the school. Open Dome takes that one step further and curates their show selection to offer the industry’s top educational immersive films. They work with teachers across the southeast to ensure that the experience directly targets the curriculum standards that students need to succeed.

“All of our content partners develop shows to directly support K-12 curriculum standards.” Ian Downie, co-founder. “Many of them come complete with educator guides, standards breakdowns and handouts.”

Open Dome’s ultra-portable full-dome theatre, sound and video projection system comes right to the classroom for less than the average field trip. Everything is included, from delivery and setup to content and presentation so you don’t have to worry about a thing. The lightweight production and technology that power the portable immersive dome provide an opportunity for millions of children to virtually visit otherwise impossible to reach places.

Teachers and parents: Call us today at 888-Dome-360 to learn how we can bring the dome to your school.

About Open Dome Productions:

Open Dome Productions is a full service immersive video production company bringing 3D, high definition dome theaters to corporations, non-profit organizations, events, trade shows, festivals, and schools. Our creative team uses cutting edge production techniques to turn your ideas into a powerful and captivating reality. We bring our domes to your location to provide a 360 degree HD immersive video environment that will captivate your audiences, enhance your brand, drive more business, create a memorable event and have fun!

Surround sound and the latest projection technologies are combined with creative content to reinforce your customized message, to make an unforgettable and compelling experience for your target customers, and to meet your marketing objectives.

We encourage local business leaders to contact us about sponsorships, scholarships, and how you can help bring the dome to a school or event near you. Call 888-366-3360 ext#8 for more information

The opportunities are endless-open your mind and experience the dome!

Open Dome Productions
1094 Morrison Drive
Charleston, South Carolina 29401
Captivate-Educate-Motivate
www.opendome.net

Trinumeral Festival

Jack — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:59:54 +0000

Mount Pisgah is home to Deerfields, the most beautiful outdoor festival grounds in North Carolina, and we were proud to bring two immersive domes to this wilderness refuge for Trinumeral Festival 2009. While people piled in we deployed an intimate dome next to Wes Wezooga’s incredible array of innovative instruments. Then the festival brought us to it’s highest plateau where we inflated our fully immersive party dome for a constant crowd of excited people that had never seen the medium before. The high profile visibility brought artists and promoters from across the festival to see for themselves what an incredible experience our immersive environment really is.

The New VJ Rig – Charleston Pour House for Alex B, Pericles, Nostalgia with VJ Soup & Powell

soup — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:41:14 +0000

On Thursday, May 20th, 2010 we un-veiled our new VJ rig at the Charleston Pour House for Alex B (Pnuma) w/ Pericles (Chronicles of the Landsquid) and Nostalgia. V1.0 was ODP’s gear, V2.0 was mainly Soup’s, and V3.0 is a beautiful hybrid with upgrades on both sides and in every step of the system. Versions 1 & 2 were really trial systems, v3.0 is our first official and true ODP VJ vig. “Soup” Stephen Williamson & Jack Powell performed the live visuals on 5.20.2010.

Here’s a look at the system from the back of the venue to the front. In the middle of the VJ table is the V-4 video switcher. 4 in, 2 out + a preview out. Input one is s-video from Soup’s MBP (the primary video source). Input two is from a Korg Kaptivator (dynamic video sampler, a true video instrument). Input three is from Jack Powell’s MBP. Input four is from a one chip sony mini-dv camera so we can add in a live feed of the crowd or musical artist at will.
Both MBP’s are running Arkaos GrandVJ and playing from a standardized library of 800 x 600 photojpeg 80% clips. Jack’s is controlled through Korg Nano Controllers, a NanoPad and NanoKontrol. Soup uses an Akai APC-40 (as does Pericles & Alex B on the main stage). Sometimes Soup will also add in Percussa Audio Cubes and an iPad for unique control surfaces/options. When Soup does Modul8 work he uses a PCR-300.
The V-4 has a preview out screen that we run to an LCD on the main table. One main output runs to a DVD recorder to record our visual output. The second main output (s-video) runs to the front of the house, above the very front of the audience, in the ceiling. Here we mounted one of our projectors on a custom mounting system we built off of VJKungFu’s system/description. For this show, on that same physical contraption we mounted a distribution amplifier and actually ran the s-video from the back of the room to there.

A short run went from that amplifier to each of the three projectors front of house, each strategically positioned to match/cover our three screen geometrically pleasing arrangement.
I’ll put up another blog post soon that talks about the generation of the visuals more, since this one was more of a general overview and look at the display systems.

ODP Immersive Time-Lapse Demo Reel

Jack — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:21:59 +0000

Waterkeepers Water Ball

Ian Downie — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:15:15 +0000

Charleston has the most beautiful waterways in the country, and it’s the mission of the Waterkeepers to preserve and protect the integrity of Charleston’s waterways by defending against pollution and contamination. We love their work so we stepped in at a recent fundraising event to help them communicate their message in the most profound manner possible.

Skinful Halloween

Jack — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:14:11 +0000

As Charleston’s most eclectic and eccentric costume ball, Skinful Halloween 2009 found the center of excitement inside ODP’s giant party dome. The wildest dressed participants got funky to DJ/VJ team Soup and Gamma inside the most interesting and extreme visual environments ever imagined! Gamma’s live interactive musical improvisation complimented the evening’s visual set and the experience was a smashing success.

Big Gigantic, Two Fresh, Electric Friends at Eye Level Art

Jack — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:13:32 +0000

The immersive dome is a first class experience, and our debut at Eye Level Art proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. In just a few hours our event dome was transformed into a VIP lounge complete with an open bar and a complimentary laser show! VJ Soup of Smash Visuals and VJ Sonar from Spaced Invaders streamed a constant flow of eye candy both inside and outside the VIP lounge all night long while The Electric Friends DJ’d a high energy set giving rave reviews of their first immersive show. The audience, DJ’s, VJ’s and event promoters wore huge smiles on their faces all night long as the extra ticket sales and innovative outdoor attraction proved well worth it for everyone.

Providing sound and light for “Ban the Bottle”

David Walen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:53:54 +0000

Adam Taylor of the College of Charleston spearheaded the initiative and contacted us to cover the sound, and projection equipment for a Movies in the Park evening at Marion Square in the heart of historic Charleston.

It was well attended, with around 100 people there to witness the acoustic singing and guitar work of Howard Buglesh. The Films Shown were “Tapped” by and “Campus Sustainability” which Open Dome Productions is proud to have produced.

Tapped is a film which details the seemingly innocent love affair the world has with bottled water, revealing the hidden dangers of PET and BPA plastics, and the results of a landfill mentality in our Oceans and Rivers. Definitely a must see.

Stellarium: a great open source exploration tool

David Walen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:31:36 +0000

We have a great time using stellarium in the Dome! It is always nice to be able to point at a planet, or a nebula, and say, would you like to see more?
We encourage all our visitors to go to their web site and download it as well.
They can be found at http://www.stellarium.org/

Venus Festival

Jack — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:47:32 +0000

When our VJ friend Peter Parker called to book our event dome at Venus Music and Arts Festival, we jumped at the chance to showcase the immersive experience in North Carolina. We pulled out all the stops: our biggest dome, concert sound system, extra projectors, intelligent lights, bean bags, creative content and our best field team. The first night we setup right in front of the field stage, but due to an overwhelming audience demand, we re-deployed our dome as the main stage! The hot touring act Astral Projection spun an unforgettable debut U.S. set to a dome-full of dancers and the party raged on late into the night.

Here are some pictures of the dome in action:

Charleston Green Films

Jack — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:19:16 +0000

We were recently honored to be invited to showcase our immersive theater at the Charleston Green Fair Green Films event. Our passion is in nature documentary making and this year’s feature film was “Botany of Desire”. To compliment their theme we chose to begin each dome show with “Seeds of Spring,” an artful and musical time-lapse and stop-motion film shot from the perspective of growing plants. For a second course we custom built an exciting panoramic tour of charleston’s most beautiful places. Both short films were received with great enthusiasm and the visually striking fulldome theater turned more than a few heads.

Here are some pictures from the event.

College of Charleston Campus Sustainability

Ian Downie — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:15:04 +0000

Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs

Ian Downie — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:04:21 +0000

We have been working with the non-profit “Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs” for over three years. We have assisted them in many facets including technical communications direction, website design, strategic planning, expedition support, videography and editing, and viral outreach.

Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs from Open Dome Studios on Vimeo.

Astronomy Links

Ian Downie — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:53:30 +0000

http://astronomylinks.com/index.htm

Astronomy Links .net

Stargazing for Beginners (article with advice on how to begin stargazing)
Celestron’s Sky Scout (site for personal handheld planetarium)
www.skymaps.com (skymaps)
Heavens Above (real-time satellite, ISS, and Space Shuttle orbital pass information, sky charts, and more)
Astronomy Picture of the Day (images with explanation)
NASA’s Planetary Photojournal (images and information from various missions and instruments)
Starchild (a learning center for young astronomers)
Space Telescope Science Institute (resources and programs)
SpaceWeather.com (information about the Sun-Earth environment)
Space Weather Now (real-time space weather)
Sky & Telescope Magazine (magazine of astronomy)
SOHO: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (sun, corona, and solar wind site)
Astronomical Society of the Pacific (astronomy society with a lot of information)Ast

BEST OF THE BEST

PICTURE OF THE DAY ARCHIVE
AN ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE
WIKISKY
SKYFACTORY
GOOGLE SKY
MICROSOFT’S WORLDWIDE TELESCOPE
SPACE.COM
UNIVERSE TODAY
FOXNEWS SPACE CENTER
SKYHOUND
ADVENTURES IN DEEP SPACE
ALADIN PREVIEWER
DEEP SKY BROWSER
NASA
SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE
HUBBLESITE
CLEAR SKY CLOCK
ASTRONOMICAL LEAGUE OBSERVING CLUBS
HAWAIIAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY’S DEEP SKY ATLAS
MARTINDALE’S REFERENCE DESK
DEEP SKY DATABASE
VIEWS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
CASSINI-HUYGENS
MARS INTRODUCTION
2MASS ATLAS IMAGE GALLERY
IMAGES OF NGC OBJECTS
THE MESSIER CATALOG
BAD ASTRONOMY
ENCYCLOPEDIA ASTRONAUTICA
NOVA – ORIGINS
ASTRONOMY RESOURCES FOR KIDS
ASTROWEB
ASTRONOMY BLOGS
LIVESCIENCE
BIG LICK GALAXY GROUP
CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS IN N. AMERICA
UTAH SKIES
S&T’s INTERACTIVE OBSERVING TOOLS
SPECTRA OF STARS
WHY SCIENTISTS DISMISS ‘INTELLIGENT DESIGN’
DIGITAL UNIVERSE VIEWER
NASA/IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE
QUARKS TO QUASARS
DARK MATTER DETECTED BEYOND OUR OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE
SIX COSMOLOGICAL FALLACIES
SCITECH DAILY RESOURCES
CONVERT ANYTHING TO ANYTHING ELSE
OPEN DIRECTORY – ASTRONOMY LINKS
NEW SCIENTIST – ASTRONOMY AND COSMOLOGY
PHYSICS FOR BEGINNERS
GOOGLE SKY
STSCI DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY

Open Dome Open House

Press Release: South Carolina’s First Immersive Dome Theater Educational Field Trips

For Immediate Release

Open Dome Productions Launches South Carolina’s First Immersive Dome Theater Educational Field Trips

About Open Dome Productions:

Trinumeral Festival

The New VJ Rig – Charleston Pour House for Alex B, Pericles, Nostalgia with VJ Soup & Powell

ODP Immersive Time-Lapse Demo Reel

Waterkeepers Water Ball

Skinful Halloween

Big Gigantic, Two Fresh, Electric Friends at Eye Level Art

Providing sound and light for “Ban the Bottle”

Stellarium: a great open source exploration tool

Venus Festival

Charleston Green Films

College of Charleston Campus Sustainability

Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs

Astronomy Links

RAINFOREST: An Immersive Experience

Music With a Message

Immersive Charleston

Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Water in WNC: The Power Connection

Awakening The Dreamer

Stunning Data Visualization in the Allosphere

The Future of Concerts

Spring Is Here!

BEASTLY ARTWORK

Gyrating Geodesic Fascination

Domefest 2008

Allosphere