Brisbane Unveiled:
First Fulldome Theater in Southern Hemisphere

Nashua, NH, USA – 20th March, 2004

The refurbished Cosmic Skydome at the Sir Thomas Brisbane* Planetarium, Australia was launched today – featuring SkyVision High-Definition Video and Real-Time DigitalSky systems.

The planetarium, an architectural icon in Brisbane, Queensland, is the first theatre in the Southern Hemisphere to install fulldome projection systems. “We’re immensely proud that our real-time and high-definition playback systems are installed in this landmark facility,” Sky-Skan President Steve Savage said today.

“The planetarium is a significant Brisbane landmark,” said Lord Mayor Tim Quinn, officially reopening the facility. “We moved to digital projection facilities to allow a more creative, informative and exciting venue. It will be a premier tourist and educational asset for the city.”

The 8-channel projection system is offset around the original Zeiss Spacemaster, allowing the theatre to present its traditional live shows as well as the world-class SkyVision productions, “Infinity Express” and “Secret of the Dragon.”

“Since 1978, the Cosmic Skydome has had a distinguished history of presenting the night sky to the people of Southern Queensland,” said Councilor Quinn. “In contemplating a new system, the importance of live digital presentations was paramount in our thinking. DigitalSky has answered that need perfectly in the fulldome environment.”

“The software used by DigitalSky and SkyVision provides a powerful way to manipulate the sky and demonstrate a wide variety of astronomical concepts, both visually beautiful and scientifically accurate,” Mr. Savage said. “The Cosmic Skydome will demonstrate twenty-first century astronomy in all its captivating glory.”

Sky-Skan will also provide expertise to assist the Cosmic Skydome’s first local fulldome production, to be presented in the second half of 2004.

Sky-Skan’s DigitalSky and SkyVision are the same systems recently installed at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, the new Eugenides Foundation Planetarium in Athens and aboard the luxury liner the Queen Mary 2. Sky-Skan’s SPICE Automation keeps the visualisations and sound effortlessly under control, providing simple, on demand access to the systems. Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium will be Sky-Skan’s 28th permanent SkyVision installation and the 8th theatre in the world to install the state-of-the-art DigitalSky system, with 8 other installations currently scheduled for completion during 2004 and 2005.

For further information:

Steven Savage, President Sky-Skan, Inc., 51 Lake Street, Nashua, NH, USA e: office@skyskan.com p: +1 603 880 8500.
Jack White, Director Sky-Skan Australia, 441 Spencer Street, West Melbourne, VIC, Australia e: white@skyskan.com p: +61 3 9329 5501
Glenn Smith, Director Sky-Skan Europe, Museumsinsel 1, D-80538 Munich, Germany e: smith@skyskan.com p: +49 89 6428 9231

Information on SkyVision, DigitalSky and Sky-Skan, Inc. may be found on the Internet at www.skyskan.com.
For more information about Brisbane and the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium visit www.ourbrisbane.com and click on the Brisbane City Council button.

* Sir Thomas Brisbane: Governor of New South Wales, 1821-1825. Sir Thomas founded and maintained the first significant Australian observatory, cataloguing star positions in the southern sky for navigational and surveying purposes.

About Sky-Skan

For over 35 years, Sky-Skan has been the world's leading provider of media technologies and facility design for domed theaters. Sky-Skan's products and services include their trademark SPICE Automation Show Control System, SkyVision fulldome video projection and DigitalSky digital planetarium systems, as well as complete turn-key facility design and construction management services.

There are over two dozen permanent SkyVision installations to date and over 250 SPICE Theater Automation systems installed in planetaria, large format film theaters, domed media theaters, museums and science centers around the world.

Sky-Skan is the only planetarium equipment supplier to maintain sales, production facilities and technical support services in Australia. Its other sales, production and technical offices are located in Nashua, NH, USA and Munich, Germany.