Multimedia Dome, the ultimate surround-sound theater

You think you have surround sound in your home theater? What if the sound really enveloped you, putting you at the center of the action? Enter the "Multimedia Dome," the "first digital dome theater to feature natual spatial sound." Fraunhofer, the maker of this aural hemisphere (and creator of MP3, among other things), says that films are shown with six projectors (including one at the pinnacle of the dome), and nearly 100 speakers to create a bubble of dynamic sound. Each projector also comes with its own PC, using software to seamlessly blend the borders of each image. If we were in Berlin at this year's IFA, we'd definitely be spending our days kicking back and watching every other company's video product demo in here.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 6th 2006 3:23AM]

Now, isn't that a totally sweet multimedia theater? :) Can't wait.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2006 5:16AM]

Imagine youself being the dummy, you will suffer neck pain no more than 15 minutes :)

[suncho Posted Sep 5th 2006 5:53AM]

From the link "IFA 2006: Multimedia Dome – 3600 vision and 3D sound in the first digital dome cinema with natural spatial sound".
What means 3600 Vision? That I could turn 10 times around while watching it?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2006 10:34AM]

Does anyone else think this would be a better use for the Millennium Dome in London than the casino they want to build?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2006 8:19AM]

Has nobody ever heard of Omnimax? I've been watching Omnimax movies since I was a little kid, and I'm 28 now. People confuse all things digital with being better. Omnimax, like IMAX, uses larger film and camera speeds to achieve more resolution. I seriously doubt this looks as good as film, digital has a long way to go to overthrow film at that scale.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2006 9:54AM]

it looks about the same as some of the movies in walt disney world in florida, from the picture. I don't know if they had surround sound or not. But I would much rather an Omnimax film (or IMAX) than hurt my neck standing in that position. Let's mix, surround sound and Omnimax. Omnimax has some surround sound but I don't remember how surround-ey.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2006 10:45AM]

So it's a planetarium with movies?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2006 12:43PM]

In real life, the dummy will be stretched out in a lazy boy. Probably one that swivels.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 13th 2006 9:28PM]

ha! I'm kinda surprised more folks aren't aware of what's going on in what they call the 'fulldome' community. Many of the cooler planetariums aren't just showing more traditional star shows, but are producing animations and other artistic content.
(And some of the companies involved design systems for much smaller environments -- a bit expensive for home use, but...)