It has been three years since the Charles W. Brown Planetarium, the state's largest planetarium, opened on campus. Now, the old space is getting an upgrade.
The old planetarium space is being repurposed into a Fulldome Media Production Lab that will be
used to create, test and edit content for the Charles W. Brown Planetarium and
other planetariums around the world as a "production dome," said Dayna Thompson, assistant planetarium director.
“Planetarium production
had been a thing at Ball State for many years, but with the new planetarium
technology we are able to create what are called fulsome programs," Thompson said.
The lab is a collaborative production studio between the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts lab and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, according to bsu.edu.
Along with helping students learn the technology, it will
also be used to create productions that will help generate money for the
school. Ball State created the show “Saturn and Beyond,” which was recently sold to a distribution
company for $18,000.
The old planetarium will mainly be used to test future
productions that will be shown in the Charles W. Brown Planetarium. Having a space to create and test will be valuable for the future of
their productions, Thompson said.
“These programs consist of visuals that cover the entire
dome and therefore require testing on an actual dome surface,” she said. “We
were able get the same software set-up that we have in the planetarium, so there are no issues moving material between the two.”
Thompson said the university hopes the new Fulldome Media Lab will be
a useful learning opportunity for students of all majors.