SCIENCE CENTRE, IMAX THEATRE & FULLDOME PLANETARIUM C K YIP HONORABLE CURATOR & ADVISOR, MACAO SCIENCE CENTER LTD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DESIGNATE, ASPAC

INTERNATIONAL COORDINATOR, IPS-MACAO INTERNATIONAL FULLDOME FESTIVAL (JUNE 2014)

HONG KONG SPACE MUSEUM

• An interactive science centre on astronomy and space science, of about 1,500 sq m exhibition space • A 23 m diameter dome with a Zeiss planetarium projector plus an IMAX projector with OMNIMAX lens • Opened in 1980

HONG KONG SCIENCE MUSEUM

• Opened in 1991 with 7,500 sq m exhibition space • Around 500 interactive exhibits

• Since its opening, became the best attended museum in Hong Kong

COMPARING THE TWO MUSEUMS • During the years when I was working there, the Hong Kong Science Museum got higher attendances • But the Hong Kong Space Museum got more revenue

• Staff size in Hong Kong Space Museum is also smaller • So Hong Kong Space Museum is more cost effective

2012/13

HK Space Museum

HK Science Museum

Revenue

HK$11,482,000

HK$11,123,000

Attendance

843,999

1,435,447

Expenditure

HK$52,859,000

HK$70,504,000

WHY HONG KONG SPACE MSEUM IS MORE COST EFFECTIVE? • Definitely not because of the exhibits, as the variety of exhibits in HK Space Museum is smaller and updated much less frequent • Its financial advantage is mainly because of the planetarium + IMAX theatre (in one dome), that provides a good balance of more academic planetarium shows, and more entertaining (mainly nature topics) but still educational IMAX films. • With a constant change of new programmes, the Space Museum is able to create regular publicity • It can also attract a regular groups of visitors in particular young kids

BRIEF HISTORY OF IMAX

• Began in early 70s, and mainly in science centres • Hong Kong Space Museum is the first permanent installation in the eastern hemisphere in 1980, by then there were less than 10 theatres worldwide

• Only in the later half of the first decade of 2000, that IMAX became popular with commercial film titles that are produced in both traditional theatre format and IMAX format (the Avatar).

COMPETITION WITH HOME CINEMA • But with current advance in TV technology, the quality of IMAX theatre is now getting strong competition from home entertainment • So what is the new technology that have the potential to help bringing regular visitors to a science center?

FULLDOME PLANETARIUM • Optical planetarium projector started 100 years ago in Germany • Traditional optical planetarium began its transformation into digital in the mid-90s • Technology became mature and stabilized in mid-2000, with 3 key developments: •

The emergence of 4k by 2k projectors

•

Avoid the use of special purpose computer: just using multiple personal computers available in the market with distributed processing and realtime control

•

Passive glasses for stereo dome viewing

• Full 3D database of all known objects in the Universe, with constant updating, allowing 3D walk through • More productions available for fulldome

STATE OF THE ART IN FULLDOME • Macao Science Center worked with the International Planetarium Society (IPS) and Beijing Planetarium (host of the IPS 2014 conference) to host the IPS-Macao International Fulldome Festival • It will be the first fulldome festival held in the Guinness Record highest resolution 8k 3D theatre • It accepts fulldome shows longer than 15 mins and produced in 2012 or later, of at least 3k by 3k resolution in 2D or 3D, to enter into festival competition • Since its announcement in early Jan this year until the closing at end of Feb, 68 show entries had been received

• This demonstrates a very fast growing industry with lots of interest into this area

MORE IN FULLDOME • Comparing to traditional theatres and IMAX theatres, digital fulldome offers much more advantages • Emerging from traditional planetarium usage, planetarians require real-time control of both the objects and the pace of presentation of the show

• Digital artists can write own codes to control the system to perform visual effects in real time • With digital input mounted on the seats, audiences can response to questions and challenges in the shows • In short, a fulldome theatre is much more than just a theatre

CHALLENGES AHEAD • A good digital fulldome system is still expensive to install, and also expensive to run • Awaiting next generation of cheaper projectors with longer lamp life • Most of the titles are digital animation effects, some with time-lapsed photography and some with partial video • Awaiting the first high resolution video camera (4k by 4k with 30 fps) for capturing in 3D

QUESTION POSTED: WILL DIGITAL FULLDOME THEATRE BECOMES AN IMPORTANT REVENUE SOURCE FOR SCIENCE CENTRES? • IMAX takes more than 30 years to transform from science centre based theatre into commercial theatre • Are you expecting fulldome theatre to be the same? When? • When will the technology be reap for the system to be more commercially attractive?

Looking forward to welcome you in Macao: 18-20 June 2014 for new challenges and creative usages.

THANK YOU