Through a partnership between Chicago’s Adler Planetarium and the Kavli Foundation, CIERA’s Shane Larson will give a highly unique lecture this fall that will be live-streamed to planetariums and individuals world-wide. This talk series couples leading scientists with the Adler Planetarium’s Space Visualization Group to bring astronomy research to the public via “domecast technology” and YouTube 360.
One of the goals of the series is to maximize the audience for these lectures, while maintaining the power of the immersive visualizations created. To accomplish this, the lectures are streamed to occur simultaneously at planetaria around the world with the planetarium content synchronized across the various domes. Larson’s will be the sixth lecture to be simulcast to 30 sites across North and South America, Europe and Africa.
To further extend the reach of the presentations, the Adler uses “VRcasting”, the live streaming of 360 degree video to be viewed in Virtual Reality devices. According to Laura Trouille, Vice President of Citizen Science at the Adler Planetarium, “VRcasting has the potential to break down geographic barriers. People in areas of the world without planetaria (such as much of Africa) can participate. VRcasting can also break down mobility barriers; for example, people in our own community of Chicago can view the lecture from their hospital beds.”
Learn more about the Kavli Lectures