Company Profile - Evans & Sutherland
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Company Profile
Industry Pioneers
Evans & Sutherland’s (E&S) headquarters are in Salt
Lake City, Utah with offices in Beijing, China and Chadds
Ford, Pennsylvania.
E&S was founded in 1968 by University of Utah profes-
sors Dr. David Evans & Dr. Ivan Sutherland to develop
simulation systems, real-time hardware, and accelerated
3D computer graphics. E&S pioneered the use of high-
end visual display systems in both aviation and simula-
tion markets.
E&S led the development of the video cards that are now
common place in personal computers.
Today’s graphic user interfaces are derived from “Sketch-
pad,” a revolutionary computer program written by Dr.
Sutherland.
“The Sword of Damocles” an early VR interface developed by Ivan Sutherland.
In 2006, E&S restructured its business and sold its sim-
ulation division to Rockwell Collins. At the same time, we
acquired Spitz located in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania,
making us the world’s largest planetarium company.
The acquisition of Spitz, Inc. enables us to offer a one-
stop digital theater solution, unique in our industry.
“Sketchpad” a stylus based interface used to delineate vertices for 3D models. It is one
Dr. David Evans Dr. Ivan Sutherland of the very first graphic user interfaces.
Evans & Sutherland invented the digital planetarium in 1981
p. 2
Founded by legendary planetarium educator Armand Spitz in 1947, Spitz, Inc. began as a provider of affordable optical planetarium projectors for schools and small ed- ucational institutions. Since then, Spitz has grown to be- come the world’s leading supplier of planetarium domes. Spitz projection domes are chosen by the most discrim- inating customers including Disney, Universal Studios, Volkswagen, Griffith Observatory, and Zeiss. The expertise of Spitz’s talented team covers all aspects of dome theater design, implementation, and use, includ- ing engineering services, manufacturing, installation and show production. No other company provides such com- prehensive theater development services. Spitz is the world leader in projection domes, with over 2,000 installations worldwide. Despite enormous growth throughout our 60+ year history, Spitz has continued to maintain its focus on educational products and services.
Our Team and Experience Kirk Johnson
Executive Vice Scott A. Niskach David Sasich
set us Apart President &
General Manager
Director of
International Sales
Sales Account
Manager
Kirk has been with E&S for 30 years Scott has been with E&S for 17 years David has been with E&S for 12 years
Today many of our team members have 20+ years of planetarium and
digital theater experience, including five former planetarium directors.
Our exceptional team is here to get your project completed on time and on
Christophe Bertier Estelle Pacalon Kevin Scott
budget.
Sales Manager Show Distribution Digistar Product
and Sales Manager Manager
Digistar has always been, and continues to be, designed and built
completely in-house at E&S in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Christophe has been with E&S for 1 year Estelle has been with E&S for 1 year Kevin has been with E&S for 19 years
• Our engineering team designs the Digistar system in-house
• Our software development team (9+ software engineers) builds and
maintains Digistar software in-house. We have a strong partnership
with Dell to custom configure high-end graphics computer worksta-
tions engineered to specifically meet the needs of the Digistar system
and the demands of 24/7 theater operations
Ben Buckwalter
• We perform our own testing and quality assurance in-house prior to
Tammy Pfitzer
Project Manager Neal Mayer Software Development
shipment and installation Principal Engineer Manager
• We maintain a 24/7 support team and a full-time training staff, to en-
sure that our customers get the very most from their Digistar system Tammy has been with E&S for 20+ years Neal has been with E&S for 30+ years Neal has been with E&S for 20+ years
Our team places great importance and pride in independently designing,
building, testing, installing, and maintaining our Digistar systems.
Boyd Whiting Greg Goates Robin Sip
Senior Engineer Service & Support Director of Show
Manager Production and Content
Boyd has been with E&S for 30+ years Greg has been with E&S for 19 years Robin has been with E&S for 7 years
p. 4
The Digistar Community Includes over 400 Theaters Worldwide
First widely used Model A3P & “Spitz First Dome IMAX First digital Powder coated dome First seamless
planetarium projector Classroom” planetarium projection dome
Spitz creates the first dome Becoming the standard for
Armand Spitz‘s revolutionary The workhorse Spitz A3P IMAX theater: a tilted-seating The E&S Digistar offers the IMAX Domes around the Spitz NanoSeam™ is the first
Model A1 made the will become the world’s most Spitz STS Planetarium which first 3D starfields and complex world, Spitz electrostatically projection dome with no folds,
planetarium affordable for popular planetarium projector, includes a new IMAX dome wireframe animations in a applies epoxy powder coating overlaps, or irregularities,
schools and museums of all with nearly 1,000 installations projector. To this day, IMAX planetarium, launching a to deliver a perfectly uniform making seams invisible under
sizes. worldwide. uses Spitz domes exclusively. revolution in immersive visual optical finish that conventional projection. Over 200 have
display. paint can’t achieve. since been delivered.
1946 1966 1973 1981 1990 2008
1962 1968 1977 1982 2006 2019
First graphical First VR headset First animated, E&S powers Star Trek Spitz joins the E&S DomeX LED dome
computer interface textured computer II SFX family
E&S demonstrates virtual model E&S is leading the revolution in
Ivan Sutherland invents reality with a prototype Digistar provides tactical Evans & Sutherland becomes shared immersive experience.
Sketchpad, considered to nicknamed Sword of The groundbreaking 3D “E&S bridge displays for USS the first full-capability dome DomeX provides brightness
be the first computer-aided Damocles, in reference to Hand” also becomes the first Enterprise, as well as 3D theater provider, delivering and contrast far exceeding
design (CAD) program – a a component suspended computer graphic shown in moving starfields which open inner and outer domes, conventional projection,
major breakthrough in the somewhat ominously above a Hollywood movie – 1977’s and close the film. projection and computing, heightening the sense that
development of computer the operator. Futureworld. content, theater design, and You Are There.
graphics. integration of all elements.
p. 6
Show Production
E&S is the largest producer of fulldome shows in the world.
We have content production facilities in Salt Lake City,
Pennsylvania and The Hague, including a green-screen
film studio. We have a full-time production team which is
supplemented with contract and freelance staff to meet
production and scheduling needs.
E&S began show production with Digistar II after seeing
the need for high-quality content that was scientifically
accurate. With the launch of Digsitar 3 and fulldome col-
or visuals, we expanded our production team to meet the
new demands of fulldome theaters and beyond. Today we
produce full-length shows as well as custom projects for
individual customers.
Our team produces both 2D and 3D, 8K video for hemi-
spherical and spherical playback. We use the latest CGI
techniques and software to meet customers’ content and
resolution needs. We have also filmed 8K live-action video
and time-lapse video for our productions. In addition, our
team creates video clips and custom real-time models and
scenes for Digistar theaters. Our team has pioneered many
of the techniques used in VR and fulldome production
p. 7
We Build Lasting Relationships
with Producers & Theaters
Connect You With the Right Shows Hit the Ground Running
Our Show Support team will help you choose We can help you develop a marketing plan that en-
the shows that fit your mission and draw gages your local community.
audiences.
Educational Materials
Custom Formatting & Delivery
Expand the impact of your show programming with
Each show is formatted for optimal playback educational activities. Perfect for school groups.
in Digistar and can be easily loaded within
minutes.
Show Distribution
E&S has been distributing fulldome content for over 30 years and offers the largest
catalog with over 200 shows. We have well-established relationships with fulldome
and giant screen producers like National Geographic - Cosmic Pictures, NSC Creative,
Softmachine, MacGillivray Freeman and Mirage3D and are committed to serving the
Estelle Pacalon Jenn Davis Matthew Allred Bryce Buchanan
industry’s content needs. Our team is ready to help you through the entire process,
Show Distribution & Licensing, Delivery & Marketing Manager Show Formatting &
from show selection, to licensing and delivery. Sales Manager Customer Service Delivery
p. 8
Service and Support
We have a dedicated team of service and support professionals performing system
installations, upgrades, and providing ongoing support for all our customers.
Standard support is coordinated by a web application where users can submit
support tickets and interact by email. For emergency service, we maintain a call
center that is staffed by a real person 24 hour a day and 7 days a week.
We maintain a large inventory of support hardware including parts to support
systems dating back to the 1990’s. Our team regularly receives training from our
suppliers, so we can be up to date on new hardware and service techniques.
Greg Goates Brian Klepper
Service & Support Field Service
Manager Engineer
v. 1.0 p. 9
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