Christie has helped the Science Museum of Virginia create a state-of-the-art planetarium that is taking patrons across the planet and deep into the universe.
Audiences are seeing it all in high resolution at 120 Hz thanks to Christie D4K2560 high frame rate projectors, which were installed by Evans & Sutherland (E&S), a pioneer in computer graphics and digital dome theater systems.
The projectors power an 8K-resolution full-dome system with the sharpest and brightest images ever seen on the 76-foot Dome screen, one of the largest digital dome theaters in the world. Audiences are spellbound when they see the high-energy 2D and 3D movies, as well as innovative astronomy shows featuring E&S's proprietary Digistar 5 system.
Making the journey from film to digital with Christie
The fact that the Christie D4K2560 projectors with 120 Hertz and 25,000 lumens of brightness became available at the perfect time meant we could offer a cutting edge digital dome projection system to the museum. These new projectors provide them a solution that has the brightness on the dome that would equal or surpass what they were getting out of their film projector, said Dennis Elkin, Director of Advanced Displays, Evans & Sutherland. And with our proprietary auto blending and auto alignment systems, we are able to perfectly blend the five projectors into a uniform image across the dome. Color and dark state uniformity makes a lot of difference - especially in the dark parts of a presentation. It is critical to have the right black level for the sky in a dome or planetarium and the Christie projectors provide that.
Aware of the dome's 30-degree tilt, Evans & Sutherland installed three Christie projectors in the back of the dome inside the projection booth, cross-shooting two of them. Another two Christie projectors were installed in the front of the dome, cross-shooting to the back. Using E&S's auto-alignment and auto-blending, all the images were perfectly blended and stitched together, resulting in a seamless image throughout the entire dome surface, which was recently re-skinned by Spitz, an E&S subsidiary.
With a film projector that physically loads frames into the projection gate 24 times per second there is a slight misalignment between frames that causes some image jitter. Digital projection eliminates that shake and resulting blurriness. You add to that 8K resolution and four foot-lamberts of brightness and you really get a premium experience, which we demonstrated at the GSCA digital dome day, added David Sasich, E&S sales account manager.
We split the dome down the middle with 1570 film on one side and digital on the other. We masked half of each projection system so there would be no cross-contamination, Sasich continued. The left side showed film and the right side of the screen showed the same footage in digital and they were synced together using Digistar. The feedback from the very film-centric GSCA audience was overwhelmingly positive and the takeaway was that digital is the way to go.
Overall, the image coming from the digital system and the brightness is better than what was presented on film, said Michael Daut, Director of Show Production, Evans & Sutherland. Plus, the colors on the digital side were more true; you have a more consistent color for the digital image over the entire dome. When you have film, there is variance - but not with digital. And, from an operational standpoint, digital is much simpler to run.
The Christie D4K2560 3DLP projector boasts 25,000 center lumens for ultra-realistic images and smoother video at 60Hz and 120Hz. It features Christie TruLife electronics - a major leap in video-image processing for high frame rate and high-resolution video projection.
Photos courtesy of Sean DeWitt Photography
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
Christie has helped the Science Museum of Virginia create a state-of-the-art planetarium that is taking patrons across the planet and deep into the universe. 
