Digital Visualization Theater

The sky’s the limit when it comes to learning at Notre Dame. The Digital Visualization Theater (DVT), housed in the Jordan Hall of Science, offers the ability to immerse viewers within and fly through high-resolution, high fidelity immersive images projected on a 50-foot diameter dome. For example, teachers can take their students within 3D models of complex molecules, DNA, or cancer cells; view the internal structure of the human body as revealed by CT or MRI medical imaging technologies; or fly to the edge of the observable universe. At present, we believe that Notre Dame is the only research university in the world to have invested in the technology necessary to display such visualizations with the primary purpose of using them to enhance the academic mission of the university in fundamentally new ways.

The software allows astrophysicists to project images of the nighttime sky as seen at any time—past, present, or future—and from anywhere on Earth. Instructors and students can produce their own spectacular star shows by creating their own scripts in accordance with the lesson for the day. With the Digital Universe plug-in for Sky-Skan’s technology shows can go beyond earth, taking students around the milky way galaxy and to the large scale structure of the universe itself.

The Digital projection system provides state-of-the-art visualization opportunities for all disciplines. Not only a planetarium, the theater offers unique opportunities to illustrate anything from the inside of a cell to a city that exists only in the mind's eye of a Professor of Architecture. It can be used to display three-dimensional data sets from research projects (measured or simulated), molecular structure models, the contents of King Tut’s tomb, the workings of a flow valve, or the interior of the heart. In short, students from every college or department—from Chemistry, Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences to Art, Art history and Design and Architecture can experience their studies in a whole new light.

The Facility Information

At the north end of Jordan Hall, the 136-seat hexagonal Digital Visualization Theater boasts one of the newest projections systems available today—the Sony SRX-S110. Through the Sony’s innovative technology, students are enveloped in a 360-degree visual experience as they lean back in theater-style seats. Images flash above them on the 50-foot-high domed ceiling with unprecedented clarity and resolution.
Some facts about the theater:

• Sony’s technology projects images at 16 million pixels and at a brightness level of 20,000 ANSI lumens.

• The JBL 9,000-watt 5.1 surround sound Dolby system adds to the realism of the experience.

• Ten computers allow for real-time rendering of 3D objects – 8 For graphics, 1 for sound, and 1 for systems control.

• The dome has a ring of LED’s in a red-green-blue formation allowing a soft cast of any color on to the dome, without the main projectors.