Going way back in the domed video world, planetariums were the top of the pyramid. Then domed attractions and IMAX (and Iwerks) attractions started to turn up as centerpieces at world’s fairs. There was the domed IMAX Solido, an immersive 3D wraparound I saw at the Seville World’s Fair in 1992. The IMAX Magic Carpet was a novelty that projected onto the floor to extend the screen image underneath the viewers’ feet—I saw it at Futurescope in France in 1994. By 1999, with the opening of the groundbreaking domed Spiderman attraction at Universal Studios, it was clear that domed and immersive screens would dominate the future of screen experiences and so it came to pass. An essential arms race unfolded for on-screen canvases and the content world found ways to bend computer graphics into big immersive images.
As this trend built towards the current apotheosis at the Sphere, there was always talk of building standalone immersive theaters.— like IMAX or planetariums, but multipurpose spaces where concerts, sports, and new forms of movie entertainment could attract daily visitors in city center locations.
Of course, Sphere became that idea writ literally large. But what about more local theaters? What about a kind of a Sphere-like option that could be everywhere, or at least one in every city?
Given my background, I was interested to learn more about Cosm. The company is a fascinating collaboration. It encompasses two of the most esteemed companies of domed projection and computer graphics—Spitz and Evans & Sutherland with pedigrees that go back over 70 years. Merge this with cutting edge capture, replay, and immersive entities, and put this under the direction of executives with deep, relationships in professional sports out of Fox. Add venture capital. And architects.
Cosm works across the world providing technology and content for partners in planetariums and other immersive domed theaters. But most interesting to me are the company’s purpose-built venues, so far one in the stadium district near Hollywood Park in LA, and the other outside Dallas, both designed by HKS Architects. There are reportedly two more on the way in Atlanta and Detroit from architects Rossetti and Gensler. Cosm fills the buildings with marquee sports events drawing on relationships with top-ofthe-line sports entities, as well as custom created shows, a partnership with Warner Bros. on an immersive version of The Matrix and with Cirque du Soleil on an immersive O.
The mainstream press has found these venues, describing the experience as immersive stadium meets sports bar. I’ve not been, but the pictures look dramatic and do seem a worthy cousin to the spectacular Sphere. But what of the business case? That’s the part that I’ll be most interested to see play out.
In my career, the first Spiderman ride was an inflection point that fueled decades of innovation in immersive experiences. Sphere will be the same seminal moment for this generation. But will Sphere and Cosm realize the out of home potential? Cosm came together at the very start of Covid, and then succeeded in opening two compelling venues. So if the team could do that, will they finally crack the code of local standalone immersive experiences?
