360º Dome Projection in Madrid

Since last December, Sony installed an spectacular dome in Plaza de Colon, at the very heart of Madrid.

Inside they are performing the projection in 360º of a film, a documentary movie about dinosaurs produced by National Geographic with music by Peter Gabriel. Projected through 4 different projectors separated 90º inside the dome, the show offers an excellent immersive experience with images moving all around your head. Inflatable sofas are available to comfortably enjoy the impressive show.

The dome consist actually in two different fabric domes: the external structure, designed to project the interior, and an slightly smaller inner dome, the surface where the film is projected. This inner dome is in fact suspended in the air, not fixed with ropes or wires, but being constantly hoovered up by a complex air system. This no-wired method provides a perfectly smooth hemispherical shape, without tension areas.

Technically, the 360º image is compose by 4 images projected through 4 synchronized projectors, covering 90º of the dome each. An extremely accurate color calibration of the projectors was needed to ensure an unique neat 360º image without noticing the seams between projections. The final image size is almost 3 times the size of an IMAX.

The show begins with a full 360º short movie, entirely computer generated render, that is the only full 360º projection, while the documentary is a composition of CG dinosaurs over real filmed footage, that limits the scope of the capture and projection to something around 270º.

The dome will stay in Madrid until the 6th of January, when it will move to Barcelona and continue a tour across Europe.

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