Pacific Space Centre ( H.R. MacMillan Planetarium) Vancouver, Canada
One of Commercial Electronics’ larger installations, the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre, posed some rather unique new challenges for our very own Omni Q product. The first and most demanding was the need for both automatic and manual control over more than 300 pieces of audio, video and projection equipment at the same time. They wished to have live and automated presentations available at any time. This interactive approach, they felt, would be more responsive to visitors’ questions. To further explore the interactive possibilities they also wanted random access of produced show segments. Omni Q helped them achieve this by developing a new playback module. Now the lecturer can access these “Acts” (short show segments) via 16 presets at the console or an RF remote control. The system is unique in that it allows the lecturer to move about freely with the RF control and interact with the audience.
Clark Planetarium Salt Lake City, Utah
The Grand opening of the Clark Planetarium in the spring of 2003 saw the newest and most innovative change in the structure of a planetarium presentation with the introduction of
an all-dome all-sky projection system known as the Digistar III. Designed and manufactured by Evans and Sutherland, the Digistar III allows for full motion imaging in a 360º planetarium dome,
along with a deluxe Dolby 5.1 audio system.
With Omni-Q as the automation system and a sound system of over 20,000 watts of planet shaking sound, Commercial Electronics was proud to have been
the presentation and automation designers and suppliers of the sound system to this project.
Pamplona Planetarium, Spain
In early 1993, the staff of the Pamplona Planetarium in Spain decided they needed to upgrade their show control system. After extensive research into the options offered by various suppliers, Commercial Electronics Ltd and our Omni Q® system were commissioned to design and install the new control system. This was the first installation to utilize our latest control module, the SVM™ for Kodak Ektapro slide projectors. Due to the combination of high brightness and excellent image quality, the slide projector is still considered the workhorse of planetarium shows worldwide Our Module was also designed to take advantage of the latest features of the new Kodak Ektapro line. We developed the SVM™ Ektapro module after extensive research into the type of special effects the producers needed for their shows. The short time required for the completion of the design is a testament to the flexibility and modular design of the Omni Q system. Subsequent to the design and assembly, the entire system was pr-tested at out factory. The staff of Pamplona planetarium performed most of the prewiring. Only one Omni Q engineer was required to supervise the final installation. The project was completed on schedule in the Fall of 1993.