Author: Christiana Polycarpou

A Digital Projection Insight Dual Laser 4K projector has been installed in North America’s first seamless dome planetarium. The Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Planetarium opened this summer, located in Minnesota’s Bell Museum following its $79 million renovation. The renovation combined two originally separate entities: The James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History, which had outgrown its 1940s building within which all its historic dioramas and scientific collections were housed; and the Minneapolis Planetarium, which was demolished in 2002. Sweden-based digital planetarium solution provider, Sciss AB, won the competitive bid for the project with one of its two proposals: the Digital Projection laser 4K solution. Digital Projection’s Insight Dual Laser 4K has become an industry staple of the planetarium design roadmap due to its true 4K resolution, its super bright 27,000 lumens and 20,000 hours of dependable laser phosphor illumination. Offering high-quality image quality from a long lasting light source with minimal running costs, it also offers a very low overall cost. The planetarium’s intention was to pair it with the University of Minnesota’s latest data research and produce data visualisations that span the arts and sciences – taking audiences from the far reaches of the universe to deep inside the human brain. The project specification called for a 4K, dual projector system that reflected 2.0 ft. lambert of brightness straight back off the dome of 45% reflectivity, whilst projecting white...