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15 June 2011
Immersive Theatres is Born
In June 2011 Mario Di Maggio and Zee Dinally were employed full-time at Thinktank Planetarium, Birmingham (UK) as Planetarium Manager and Planetarium Presenter respectively. Mario also worked part-time as the European distributor for Discovery Dome (selling mobile planetarium equipment). Zee wanted to be like Mario, so he asked to rent Mario's 5m inflatable dome to launch his own part-time business visiting schools. Mario agreed and allowed Zee to develop his part-time business during down-time office hours at Thinktank. Mario even suggested the name 'Immersive Theatres'. This is how Immersive Theatres was born.
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Original logo
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15 August 2013
Change of Oversight for Immersive Theatres
In August 2013 Mario Di Maggio was made redundant from Thinktank Planetarium (despite having made it the busiest planetarium in the UK and one of the best-known small planetariums in the world). Zee Dinally decided to leave and not contest the single remaining planetarium position. Zee acquired a job at Winchester Planetarium and asked Mario to oversee Immersive Theatres in his absence - which Mario did between August 2013 and July 2014. By then Immersive Theatres included a number of freelance presenters.
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2013 Immersive Theatres presenters (from left): Joe, Mario, Yaz, Zee and Mohammed
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12 July 2014
Immersive Theatres is Sold
On 12 July 2014 Zee Dinally (while still employed at Winchester Planetarium) sold Immersive Theatres to Mario Di Maggio for the equivalent of £3,000. The sale did not include equipment (assets) but only the business name and branding (shares).
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15 September 2014
Immersive Theatres Moves to Bristol
In September 2014 Mario Di Maggio left Birmingham and relocated Immersive Theatres to Bristol.
Right: mobile planetarium equipment in the company's first small Bristol storage unit.
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15 December 2014
Project: To Infinity and Beyond
A project funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to take a digital dome experience to 35 of Birmingham's Community Libraries from October to December 2014.
A total of 2,863 people (2,084 children and 779 adults) were reached in 166 performances at 35 libraries over 27 days.
"You ought to be dragging people in here it's so good!" - visitor comment to Ward End Library member of staff.
Find out more here
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31 March 2015
First £10,000 Monthly Turnover
Immersive Theatres enjoyed a monthly turnover of £10,000 for the first time in March 2015.
This being the most Mario Di Maggio (the only staff member of the company) had ever earned in one month, it made him wish he'd left the exploitative and underpaid museums sector earlier in his career.
Right: the LinkedIn article he published regarding this milestone.
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15 November 2015
Project: E-x-p-a-n-d-i-n-g
A unique shared immersive experience funded by Arts Council England, Expanding: the History of the Universe in 45 minutes appeared at a number of literary festivals in the Midlands in 2015.
Poets Nadia Kingsley & Emma Purshouse; Professor of Astrophysics Trevor Ponman and musician Giancarlo Facchinetti delivered a live performance to a reclined audience inside our large 7m digital dome (performers and reclined visitors visible on the right, wearing blue-lit headphones).
More details here. This project was delivered by Dome Club, the art and entertainment side of Immersive Theatres.
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1 December 2015
Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge
On 1st December 2015 Immersive Theatres became the first UK mobile planetarium provider to receive the UK government's Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge.
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1 June 2017
135th Show Added to Catalogue
Phantom of the Universe, a CERN film about dark matter, became the 135th fulldome (360°) show to be added to the Immersive Theatres catalogue.
Mario Di Maggio appears in the credits of this film, for making Thinktank Planetarium available as a test facility during early production of the film in 2013.
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12 April 2019
To the Moon and Back
On 12 April 2019 (58th anniversary of the first person in Space) - and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of first Apollo Moon landing in July 1969 - a photo of one of our 7m domes (on the right) was transmitted to the Moon and back as part of the Opticks SciArt project by artist Daniela de Paulis and Astronomers Without Borders.
The 'noise' in moon-bounced images is caused by the great distance travelled by the signals on their return trip to the Moon (approximately 800,000 km), and by the poor reflective qualities of the Moon's surface.
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15 January 2021
210th Show Added to Catalogue
Oasis in Space, one of the first immersive planetarium films ever made (recently updated and re-released), became the 210th fulldome (360°) show to be added to the Immersive Theatres catalogue.
Mario Di Maggio appears in the credits of this film, for his editorial contribution to the original narrative script.
Oasis in Space world-premiered at the opening of the Glasgow Science Centre planetarium (ScottishPower Space Theatre) on 30th January 2002, where Mario was the planetarium's first manager.
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27 March 2023
Hosted an Entire Combined School from Reception to Year 13 in One Day
Our large domes and diverse selection of shows make it possible to deliver the full range of presenter-led and 360° film programme content, from infants to Sixth Form.
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30 March 2023
Pressured into Trademark Registering the business names:
Immersive Theatres
and
Immersive Theatres Mobile Planetarium Experience
Despite having trademark registered our logo in November 2017 (containing our name Immersive Theatres); an unethical mobile dome competitor attempted to trademark register our business name Immersive Theatres, as well as the variation Immersive Theatres Mobile Planetarium Experience.
Fortunately, the IPR Protection office was alerted and informed us of this, allowing us the opportunity to register the business names ourselves.
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