The planetarium has been operating since 1971 and is located in the city of Ceske Budejovice, in the Southern Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, in a busy waterfront setting popular with space fans. In 2019 as part of a renovation, a new dome screen was supplied in partnership with Sky-Skan Europe of Munich, Germany. The project led by Sky-Skan involved the refurbishment of the original Zeiss ZKP-1 star projector and the light source was also upgraded to LED and mounted on a lift. A new Sky-Skan Definiti 4K Compact projection system was installed providing over 4K pixels of screen resolution (10+ megapixels in total).
The company is pleased to be expanding into new settings. Yin Lei, responsible for international sales at Endurescreens says; “We have been working very closely with the entertainment industry over the past years. This dome screen we supplied in Ceske Budejovice is the first of its kind we have supplied to a planetarium. Endurescreens successfully entering the planetarium market is a milestone for the company and we hope to do many more”.
Because of the constraints on the project put in place by the size of the existing building, the screen is a custom size. The Pro+ dome screen sits on a ledge within the circular part of the building. The screen reflectivity is 43%, with an 8.3M diameter and provides a 180-degree field of view. The Pro+ screen is butt seamed – all the panels have been cut on-site to create near perfect joins with no overlaps.
