Evans & Sutherland (E&S), a Cosm Company, has installed its most technologically advanced Digistar 7 system for Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum’s (NASM) new planetarium theater.
The new fulldome display system incorporates six Sony 4K laser projectors with high brightness and contrast for enhanced image quality and realism. The installation also features E&S’s proprietary auto alignment and auto blending technologies to produce a seamless, uniform image across NASM’s giant immersive 70-foot diameter dome screen.
“Forty years ago, Evans & Sutherland invented the world’s first digital planetarium, Digistar,” said Kirk Johnson, Executive Vice President and General Manager at Evans & Sutherland. “The Digistar 7 system now at National Air & Space Museum is the result of the constant innovations we have made in display quality and image rendering capabilities. We are thrilled to see the groundbreaking experiences Smithsonian will bring to its audiences with this new technology.”
Digistar 7 includes a powerful suite of real-time science visualization tools, allowing Smithsonian’s audiences to explore the cosmos live in three dimensions. It reveals new scientific discoveries, including from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, automatically updated in the system from the world’s leading data sources.
E&S’s system also includes a DCI-compliant Christie digital laser projector to exhibit cinema experiences in the planetarium, new 5.1 surround sound, assistive listening and descriptive audio, and theater lighting systems from Bowen Technovation.