OCC Planetarium Opens!

Construction on this new planetarium at Orange Coast College in California began on June 16, 2016, and opened to the public last month. This planetarium features a 129-seat state-of-the art Presentation/Lecture Hall/Dome Theatre, a Focault Pendulum, a NOAA Science on a Sphere Globe, an Exhibit Hall with interactive touch displays, and a gift shop. The architects at HPI Architecture headed this project. MCH provided full-scope acoustical and AV consulting throughout.

The Dome Theatre is the centerpiece of this new facility, featuring 129 uni-directional reclined seats beneath the 50-foot, 12 degree-tilted, domed projection screen. Powering the Theatre is a state-of-the-art Digistar 6 platform working in concert with six Sony GTZ 270 Laser Projectors to deliver immersive 8K resolution photo and video.

MCH's Acoustic team was heavily involved, ensuring suitable acoustics public spaces. The Dome Theatre has a reverberation time of 0.75 seconds in the mid-frequencies, and background noise reaches an appropriately quiet Noise Criterion of NC23.

MCH's AV team was also heavily involved, working with NOAA on designing and deploying the Science on a Sphere and SOS Explorer exhibit pieces.

Visit their website here to learn more.