This week a Leicestershire based company had two reasons to
celebrate. The first a nomination in the Enterprise
Through Innovation category of the Leicestershire Business Awards
and the second the passing of a financial milestone as the seven
man team see £1.5million in revenue from national and
international markets coming into the county over the past five
years.
Having recently returned from the industry "Oscars" ceremony for
a second successive year with an award under their belts, NSC
Creative, the creative team based at the National Space Centre in
Leicester, have also secured another major contract ensuring their
credentials as one of the biggest producers and distributors of
planetarium shows in the world.
Launched in 2001, NSC Creative has produced ten fulldome
planetarium shows that are currently playing in 150 venues in 20
countries in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australasia
.
In 2008 the team beat off international competition to create a
30 minute fulldome show to launch the new $60million Sudekum
Planetarium at the Adventure Science Centre in Nashville . In
addition to this show the team pulled out all the stops and created
We Are Astronomers, narrated by David Tennant, for a consortium of
seven Science and Discovery Centres in the UK .
In 2009 NSC Creative fought off stiff competition to create a
new UK science centre 4D show for Our Dynamic Earth in Scotland.
The unique show takes the next step in technology and immerses the
audience with smells, temperature changes, rain and even snow!
High definition 3D stereoscopic CG visuals and surround sound
complete this memorable experience
At the International Planetarium Society convention in Chicago
in 2008, the NSC Creative's show Astronaut was declared one of the
two most-watched planetarium shows in the world. 2009 has
seen NSC Creative picking up an armful of awards. At the 2009
Domefest in New Mexico , the show Stars won the 'Domy' - the
industry Oscar - for best narrative. At the European Film Festival
they walked away with four awards in total, including the much
coveted award for Excellence and Outstanding Quality.
Martin Traynor, Managing Director of Leicestershire Chamber of
Commerce, said, "It is an extraordinary achievement for this small
team of bright young people to take on the world and win. They are
beating off challenges from the biggest production companies out
there to win commissions and must now be considered one of the
biggest producers and distributors in the world themselves.
Leicester is very proud of their achievements".
Paul Mowbray, Head of Projects for NSC Creative, said, "We are
really pleased with the reaction to our shows wherever they are
presented. I think people assume that a planetarium show is going
to be a boring lecture about the night sky, so to wow them with
great films using the latest computer generated imagery techniques
and top quality narrators is pretty cool."