L-H-S LEVEL SPECIFICATION OF PLANETARIUM CAPABILITIES REVISION 1.0

LOCH NESS PRODUCTIONS - JOE HOPKINS ENGINEERING - SKY-SKAN, INC.

A paper presented to the 1990 International Planetarium Society Conference, Borlange, Sweden, by Mark C. Petersen, Loch Ness Productions. Details follow and refer to the chart below.

Several years ago in the music industry, some major synthesizer makers -- all competitors -- got together and agreed upon a method for connecting each other's keyboards and playing them together. The specification they came up with was called MIDI, for Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

Recently in the computer industry, three of the major players -- Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft -- got together and agreed upon a method of using a PC's extended memory; they called it the L-I-M EMS 4.0 specification.

Now in the planetarium industry, three companies have combined efforts and agreed upon a method of classifying planetariums by their capabilities to present modern audio-visual planetarium programs. We call it the "L-H-S Level Specification of Planetarium Capabilities Revision 1.0", or simply the "L-H-S Level Spec". The L-H-S stands for Loch Ness Productions, Joe Hopkins Engineering, and Sky-Skan. The big question is, "Why have we done it?"

First, we wanted to create a detailed description of what we feel is essential for today's planetarium -- no such listing existed. The various levels we've come up with provide a picture of the state-of-the-planetarium-art, and we now have a point of reference.

With such a list prepared, we can now use it ourselves. For Loch Ness Productions, we can classify the shows we produce. For example, our show "More Than Meets The Eye" can easily be shown in a LEVEL 2 planetarium. A show like "The Mars Show" with 300 slides cannot, but it could be a LEVEL 3 show. If our show requires crossfading pans or all-skys, we could recommend it for LEVEL 5 planetaria.

When a new planetarium is being built, the planning committees get various proposals from different vendors, and often don't have a clear picture of all that's involved -- they just know they want a planetarium. With this document in hand, Sky-Skan can now say, "OK, here's what's involved -- what level of planetarium do you want to build?" It's a kind of shopping list.

Joe Hopkins can say, "Looking to upgrade your theater? Let's see what you'll need to move you up to a LEVEL 4: you've got this and this, but you need that and that." It's right here on the list.

You can use the L-H-S Level Spec yourself -- for support when you go to your administration for money to improve your theater. You can say, "Look, we're not even at a LEVEL 3 because we don't have a zoom or a slew, and we really could use this and this from LEVEL 4. And the planetarium in the next town is already a LEVEL 5 -- we need to get on the stick!" With it all in black and white, it'll be harder to ignore; it can simply plant the idea that there IS an upgrade path for improving your planetarium.

At the very least, it might stimulate YOU to investigate various ways you can enhance your theater's presentations -- and it lets you know what we vendors feel is important for you and your planetarium to have.

The way it works is simple. To see what level your planetarium is at, you start at LEVEL 1, and work your way up. If there's a line item in the Spec that your planetarium doesn't meet, then you're not at that level yet. You can have some of the capabilities of higher levels, but you need to meet all the requirements of a particular level to be considered at that level.

LEVEL 1: Virtually every planetarium is at least at this level. However, some feel this is all that should be necessary for a planetarium. Indeed, some proposals for new planetarium constructions have included no auxiliary equipment, specifying a star projector only. Of course, if our three companies didn't feel differently, we wouldn't be in business.

With the L-H-S Spec, people interested in building a new facility can see that there's more to a modern-day planetarium than the star projector alone. Maybe 40 years ago that was the case, and certainly effective planetarium demonstrations and star talks can be and are given without auxiliary effects. But it is incumbent on the planetarium of today to do more than the green-arrow shows of years past; we HAVE progressed and evolved since then.

LEVEL 2 calls for at least 2 slide projectors, and a tape playback system. We don't specify that they be a dissolve pair, although that certainly would be acceptable. We didn't specify a tape format; probably a cassette would be the typical example. There are many Starlabs that are at this level, and there may even be some at LEVEL 3.

LEVEL 3: Now it starts getting interesting. Again, if there's a line item at this level that a planetarium does not have, they are not at this level yet. We feel that a planetarium wishing to present effective audio-visual programs at this level needs at the very minimum these specified capabilities:

Three dissolve pairs, arrayed Left / Center / Right. Loch Ness customers are already familiar with this format. The screens don't overlap by halves or thirds in multi-image style, because the curvature of the dome prevents that. The dissolve pairs are just aimed roughly adjacent to each other.

A stereo sound system in the theater, fed by multiple sound sources. At a minimum, this means one player for entrance music, and a deck for the show tape. Stereo is mandatory -- if you have a monaural sound system, you are living in the 1950's; probably the 7-year-olds in your audience have more sophisticated sound systems than you do -- they certainly hear better sound on their Walkmans than they will in your planetarium.

You should have the basic tools of the trade for creating motion -- a zoom and a slewing mirror. Creative people might even aim the zoom at the slew. At any rate, both are as basic as the green arrow.

You need the ability to project at least a partial panorama; whether it be one dedicated projector with a wide-angle lens or several, this too is essential for setting scenes in a planetarium.

You need to have the capability for showing animated moving special-effects -- a comet, meteors, an orrery, rotating planets and galaxies -- the "stuff" of space. Note that you don't have to have all incandescent special effects: a video projector and special effects from a tape or videodisc can qualify for "having the capability"; Sky-Skan will be happy to sell you their special effects in either form.

You need to have a facility to mount and opaque slides. Without specifically dictating it, this implies having at least a light table, Wess glass mounts, and opaquing fluid with a paint brush.

And you need to be able to dub a tape, since at the very least, you have to make an insurance copy of your show tape masters. This implies more than one tape deck, and while you could plug the cables from one to the other to meet the Spec, you'll probably want a mixer and additional audio equipment as well. While we don't specify that here, it is specified in LEVEL 4.

LEVEL 4: Now here's where we actually take a stand that might be considered controversial. We feel that if you're going to present a modern audio-visual planetarium show to today's audiences effectively, your theater needs to have epicentric or unidirectional seating.

Now the debate over concentric versus unidirectional seating has been raging for the last few centuries, and will undoubtedly continue. But we feel so strongly about this point that we included the following statement in the Spec: "The ability to present the same show information (audio and visual) to all seats of the theater equally is paramount to professional presentation."

With concentric seating, from an audio standpoint, you simply can't present stereo sound to your audience -- everyone's ears are pointed in a different direction.

Visually, you have two choices: either you project one image that's upside-down to half the audience, or you double up the images and everybody sees two images with one of them upside-down. Either choice is a compromise; neither makes for an effective program.

No matter how much equipment you have, the audience deserves to see and hear it used to its full advantage. To achieve L-H-S LEVEL 4, in today's planetarium, concentric seating is history.

You have at least one screen area that is 3 or 4 projectors deep, so you can do multi-image style animation, or at least a fast lap-dissolve sequence. This means the slide projectors have to be in stackers that allow for precise alignment.

You need an automation system that synchronizes your slide projectors and effects with your show tape. We're not specifying which system to use, and you might still run zooms, the star projector, etc., manually; but, some projectors are controlled from the tape.

By specifying a "multi-channel, multi-speaker professional-quality sound system", we've left it open to interpretation. Obviously, stereo sound takes two channels; and to synchronize to tape, you'll need a third channel to store the automation data. By specifying "professional-quality", that will pretty much rule out cassettes as the primary sound source.

You have more than one zoom, and more than one slew, and the ability to project a full horizon panorama, or as much as your tilted-dome will allow.

Video projectors have been here for a number of years; it's time to jump on the bandwagon if you haven't already.

In LEVEL 3, you just had to have special effects capability; here at LEVEL 4 we say you should have multiple special effects, including rotators, revealers, polarizers, and the ability to do whole-dome effects: snow, clouds, etc.

If you're doing audio-visual programs, you need an audio studio, and we've specified some of the basic equipment to have.

Your visual studio has a camera and copy stand (which implies lights, a meter, filters, etc.). You need to be able to duplicate slides, either on your copy stand, or with a device like a Repronar or Illumitran. And you need to be able to mask and align slides. This implies that you have the capability to develop Kodalith and LPD-4 film, which implies a rudimentary darkroom setup -- at least a developing tank and a sink. Of course, a clever planetarian will probably have a Wess Variable-registration mounting system and a goodly stock of VR slide mounts; but that's implicit in the specification to "align slides".

If you've achieved LEVEL 4, you've already got a pretty good setup, and you may even have some of the capabilities of LEVEL 5. Nonetheless, we've spelled them out for you.

You have the 6-projector, fish-eye lens, pie-wedge style All-Sky system.

You're at least two projectors deep on your panorama systems.

In LEVEL 4, you had to have at least one screen area that was 3-deep in projectors; at LEVEL 5 you have more than one.

Your automation system is based on SMPTE (or equivalent) time code; at LEVEL 4, you could have a simpler beep-tone style of automation to control projectors.

You have a videodisc player, and an Oxberry or Forox type of pin-registered camera and animation copy stand.

Even if a planetarium is at a LEVEL 5, it's certainly not the end of the line. Some have been at LEVEL 5 for many years now, and we'd surely hope we haven't stopped evolving, growing, and improving. We've created the various levels to give all planetaria something to strive for, and LEVEL 6 specifies even more avenues to explore.

LEVEL 6: If a planetarium is going to do video and do it right, then it will need to equip a video studio: a camera, a switcher, editing VCRs and an edit controller, time-base corrector, monitors, effects units, etc.

Computers are used to generate artwork and graphics, and you'll have a film recorder to transfer the computer image directly to film. Digital audio is here to stay, and the analog tape recorders of the 1960's and '70's are going to be replaced by DAT's, and digital multi-track recorders.

You might wish to add the interactive audience-polling systems and programs currently in use in several planetarium theaters to provide your audiences with more reasons to return to your theater more often.

There was a proposal made a while back for "standardization", with details down to what format tape to use and even what channels to record the narration on. That is not what the L-H-S Level Spec is about. You can see it's general enough to allow for various configurations, yet still includes the basic categories of what we feel is important to have.

This is best part -- if you disagree with the levels we've devised, or don't like where your planetarium falls in the L-H-S Spec, no problem. You can always ignore it. No one's going to force you to accept our plan. Our companies have already come up with it, and we're giving it to you. It's done -- here it is.

Of course, we hope that you WILL accept it and that you'll find it useful. If it becomes a kind of "industry standard", or at least an accepted guideline that everyone will know and refer to, great -- so much the better. Our three companies are going to use it, and we hope you will too.

Copyright 1990, 1998 Loch Ness Productions.

This document was originally presented to the planetarium community at the biennial convention of the International Planetarium Society in July, 1990.

For further information, contact:

Mark C. Petersen
Loch Ness Productions
P. O. Box 1159
Groton, Massachusetts 01450-3159 USA

Joseph M. Hopkins
Joe Hopkins Engineering
4301 32nd Street West, C-1
Bradenton, Florida 34205 USA

Steven T. Savage
Sky-Skan, Inc.
51 Lake Street
Nashua, New Hampshire 03060 USA