| |
| powerdomeŽVELVET Presented at Conference of German-Speaking Planetariums |
| |
| True Black Projection Technology |
| |
The conference of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutschsprachiger Planetarien (ADP) hosted by the Mannheim Planetarium on May 17th/18th, 2009, saw the European debut of "True Black Projection Technology", a new, revolutionary projection system created by Carl Zeiss. Based on Texas Instruments DLPŽ imagers, it ensures an absolutely black image background in digital planetarium projections. This high-contrast technology works in newly designed video projectors named "VELVET". On the Mannheim planetarium dome, three of these covered an image field sized about 180° x 110°.
For the Mannheim presentation, Carl Zeiss had special video sequences made that enabled an assessment of the projection quality by the audience, about 110 planetarium specialists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. They were convinced by the perfectly black background and impressed by the colors and brightness of the fulldome contents shown on the 20m dome. powerdomeŽVELVET is the ideal fulldome projection system to be combined with an optical-mechanical star projector: video overlays do not dull the star projections; and the pictures are of unsurpassed definition and brilliance.
The Bochum Zeiss Planetarium ordered the first VELVET projection system for its modernization project scheduled for the spring of 2010. Batch production of VELVET projectors at Carl Zeiss has started meanwhile. | |
|