IMERSA Days - Simulating the Dome in VR

 What do you do if you can't get access to a dome? Or, if you need a space online to teach a class, and you need more than what Zoom or other 2D applications can offer?

We brought these innovators for our second virtual IMERSA Day event at 10am MDT, April 30th 2021.

Eighty participants who are experienced in immersive production and education witnessed a unique blend of VR and immersive dome production tools and VR space during the most recent IMERSA Day, held April 30th, 2021. The event heralded the first-ever “simulcast” of an IMERSA Day meetup in both Zoom and VR. The IMERSA Day agenda featured three presentations that focused on the question: what do you do if you don’t have a dome to work in? It’s a question as relevant during “normal” times as it is during a pandemic.

IMERSA has a number of software creators and producers tackling those questions and many others, as the world moves into its second year of pandemic shutdowns and capacity limitations. Both VR producers and dome educators have gotten very creative as they reach out to audiences.

Would you like to watch IMERSA Day videos?      Learn more here

We invited three innovators who are blazing new flat screen and VR pathways to benefit content creators and educators.

First up was Toshiyuki Takahei from Orihalcon Technologies, Inc. in Japan opened the session with an in-depth look at a tool he created called Amateras Dome Player. It is familiar to many in the fulldome community as a dome player, enabling users to put pre-recorded content onto their domes fairly easily. It can also enable production of fulldome content. In particular, Amateras offers producers a way to work on content without having to gain access to a dome to test scenes and storylines. 

Toshi demonstrated several ways the software works, and pointed out additional capabilities for producers at various price points. In an age of pandemic, this software package allows creators to continue their work while waiting for domes to reopen. His software is very popular in Japan, and is starting to capture attention around the world.

 Following Toshi was the VR/Zoom simulcast, featuring the chance for attendees to watch from within the Engage platform using their VR headsets, if they so wished. The event was also piped into Zoom via the OBS package, so that people could watch in 2D. Aaron McEuen of Starlight Productions (www.starlight-prod.com/), Tony Butterfield of Fishtank Software, and Chris Madsen of engagevr.io, provided a brilliant demo of the Engage VR event space. 

It included a chance to rove the surface of Mars in VR, stand under a virtual dome, and see a streaming virtual sky streaming from Evans & Sutherland’s Digistar system, OpenSpace, and Stellarium. As part of the demo, attendees experienced the power of domecasting live content from planetariums to students using virtual reality.

Finally, Ruth Coalson, and Phillipa Day of Festoon Software (www.festoonsoftware.com/) presented an in-depth look at their production software that crosses boundaries between immersive dome work, HD large-format productions, and VR productions. Coalson and Day presented a number of scenarios available to producers who are stymied by a lack of access to domes or other immersive venues for content testing. 

 Essentially, this tool -- in a way similar to Amateras -- eliminates the need for a physical dome, or even for a team to be in the same place for production or teaching. For people working from home, whether teaching or creating content, having such connective software tools gives them ultimate flexibility.

This latest iteration of IMERSA Day was produced and hosted by IMERSA Board member Carolyn Collins Petersen (CEO of Loch Ness Productions). She was joined by board member Michael Daut, who suggested bringing the VR platform to an IMERSA event. “During this time of venue shutdowns, slow reopenings, and delays in production, producers and educators have had few alternatives for production and teaching spaces,” Petersen said. “We were incredibly pleased with all three sets of presenters, the time was right for a look at technologies available to both producers and educators trying to do their work during a time of pandemic.The tools we saw during Friday’s event naturally lend themselves to a range of uses for people in the immersive community. This was a complex technical challenge to bring off, but thanks to the hard work from our presenters across several rehearsals, we did it!”

Michael Daut, (MichaelDaut.com), an independent immersive producer, first brought the Engage platform to the IMERSA board’s attention earlier this year. “Aaron McEuen invited me to a VR demo on my Oculus Quest, and I was amazed at the flexibility of Engage as a virtual immersive event space that could both entertain and educate. Our IMERSA Day technology enabled us to share this with our community,” he said. Daut, also an IMERSA board member, worked with McEuen and his team, under Carolyn’s direction, to produce the Engage VR demo.

Feedback from attendees was immediate and enthusiastic. Ben Shedd, a producer who teaches immersive media in Singapore, and a long-time IMERSA participant, spoke for many. “It was good to have this session for the IMERSA world dome community,” he wrote afterwards.

Dan Neafus, executive director of IMERSA, said, “I continue to hear from many attendees that our feature presentations have fired their imaginations. I am so proud of our team and grateful to all the presenters for coordinating this watershed international event.”