Discussion About Dome Standard

Abstract

Why do we need standards? A first reason is to ease the creation of content for dome: more shows of various genres can spread interest and attract more visitors. Secondly, they can facilitate the distribution of contents and its creation to the different dome theater places due to the knowledge that different technology configurations exist.

Why are we talking about dome standards for this type of installation these days? What are the novelties? Originally used in astronomy, new interactions have been developed which require immersive screen. However, like for 3D-display recent technological changes have occurred and these have facilitated the creation of content for dome and its diffusion. The problem of recording movies with a fisheye lens or 3D-movies with two cameras has been solved for many years, but the access to such content by a broader audience is now effective. The switch to digital technology has opened new possibilities to create content, projectors have sufficient resolution for dome projection. Also the variety of projector sizes has allowed working with a very different size of dome and has opened new markets and new usages.

What do we understand by dome standards? We can distinguish between two standards or specifications: the dome file standard (DFS) and the dome theater standard (DTS). DFS describes the file displayed in a dome theater and DTS describes the architecture of the theater. They both coincide on the half spherical shape of the screen and the round aspect of the image displayed.