Dome Club

We also sell fisheye projectors. Yet customers hardly ever buy them because they are TRIPLE the cost of spherical mirror projection, with significantly lower resolution Why then do people sometimes buy fisheye projectors? possibly they’re not aware of the relatively new spherical mirror projection option fisheye projection produces a full, uninterrupted horizon (whereas a spherical mirror creates small shadows on the dome behind it) Yet consider this: although some audience members may prefer a full, uninterrupted horizon; most won’t mind (or even notice) if you use the software to spin the sky around to show North, for example it may be quaint to have the audience sit in a circle looking up at the sky (as if they’re outside), yet after 10-15min most people get bored of seeing stars (and very likely the sound of your voice!) so next you’ll project astronomical images and video clips. Yet with fisheye projection such content needs to be radially symmetrical and positioned at dome zenith if the concentrically-seated audience is to enjoy it equally; limiting your choice of content you’ll soon run out of radially symmetrical visuals (plus by now the audience is truly weary of your voice), so you decide to screen a fulldome film yet 99.9% of fulldome films are unidirectional, which means at least half your audience will be watching the film upside down (see example here) you therefore ask everyone to move to the rear of the dome this of course means that, as with a spherical mirror system, you can never completely fill your dome With so many restrictions and limitations, is it worth paying up to $20,000 extra for a fisheye projection system, just so you can offer a 'full, uninterrupted horizon'? Your expensive fisheye system will risk falling into disuse and begin collecting dust in a storeroom somewhere we are occasionally approached by fisheye system owners enquiring what they can do to make their systems as versatile as a spherical mirror system we've had audience members who saw the same film in a 7m dome with spherical mirror projection, and then a 7m dome with fisheye lens projection, say: 'the fisheye projector being at the centre of the dome made us, the audience, feel of secondary importance, as if we were pushed out to the side'.