SCIENCE NIGHT LIVE PHOTO BY ROBERTO GONZALEZ
The Dr. Phillips CineDome at Orlando Science Center is on track to reopen by the end of May, and renovations are moving fast. I recently got a tour of the space mid-construction, and the transformation is already evident. New seats have been installed throughout the theater. I got to try one out, and they’re noticeably more comfortable than what longtime visitors will remember. The old film-based system is long gone, and the infrastructure for the new 8K full-dome laser projection array is taking shape overhead.
During the visit, crews were actively testing half of the theater’s new surround-sound speaker system. Even at partial capacity, the audio setup gave a clear sense of what the finished experience will feel like — which is to say, a serious upgrade.
As we reported last fall, the renovation is the CineDome’s first major overhaul since it opened in 1997. Beyond the new seating and sound, the redesigned theater will support live planetarium programs, lectures, and dome-casting with a system that lets the Science Center stream content to and from other dome theaters worldwide. We’re hoping for a screening of Cosm’s “Matrix” show, but we hear it’s a ways off.
Construction is expected to wrap up by the end of May, but no specific reopening date has been announced yet. If the pace of work we saw is any indication, the Science Center is well on its way to hitting that target.
