As part of a major renovation project, the Bangkok Planetarium has upgraded with Christie Boxer projectors and Evans & Sutherland’s Digistar 5 system, to offer an immersive cosmological experience.
The renovation was carried out through Evans & Sutherland’s local agent, Siam TC Technology Company Ltd. and included the installation of 280 new, customised leather seats and a themed wall and lighting system along with two Christie Boxer 4K30s projecting seamlessly onto the 20m dome using both the Digistar 5 and existing Zeiss system.
Using two Christie Boxer 4K30s, Evans & Sutherland did a centre (front and back) installation using customized fisheye lenses to shoot around the optical projector, thereby avoiding shadows on the dome. Evans & Sutherland also integrated their auto alignment and auto blending systems to calibrate and maintain the seamless beauty of the fulldome image.
Michael Daut, creative director/marketing director for Evans & Sutherland, emphasised how key the omnidirectional capabilities and brightness of Christie Boxer projectors were to this project. Duat said: “The Christie Boxers were able to fit into the position where we needed them because of their omnidirectional capability. It’s a very steep angle – probably an 80-degree angle – almost vertical, where the Boxers are. It was a great fit for the Boxer and I doubt we could have done it with another projector.â€