Digital dome theater inside UNIT.City’s industrial chimney

UNIT.City was founded on the site of an old Soviet motorcycle factory. In 2016, the UFuture investment group started transforming the shabby production facilities into a cutting edge ecosystem for software developers and IT entrepreneurs. A 60-meter brick chimney in the middle of the campus became a visual symbol that connected UNIT.City with its industrial past. To emphasize this connection, UNIT.City decided to launch a contest to turn the massive structure into a creative art installation.

The winning project – entitled ‘Beacon,’ by British architect Sebastian Kite – beat 158 entries submitted by artists from all over the world. The idea was to turn the chimney into a dazzling visual marker broadcasting a vertical beam of light. It was also decided to install a digital planetarium in the lower part of the chimney.

The Front Pictures engineering team designed and manufactured a custom negative pressure dome that neatly fit into the structure. To ensure 360-degree playback on the 3.4m hemispherical screen, we used 4 x Benq 1210 projectors driven by Screenberry Media Server. The seamless image is achieved with advanced automatic 5-stage camera-based calibration that perfectly blends and warps the projectors. The dome system can be controlled wirelessly via an iPad or Laptop.

Front Pictures studio created a 2.40 min promotional 360˚ film for the dome theater. The sci-fi video features the first manned mission to Mars. In the very beginning of his journey, the hero is intrigued by the light shining into the space by the ‘Beacon’ installation. After landing on Mars, he spots the same light which turns out to be a settlement of UNIT.City explorers who had arrived on the red planet earlier.