Ed Lantz is a media and entertainment engineer, inventor, scientist, artist and entrepreneur. He is internationally recognized as a pioneer and leading authority in large-format digital cinema and immersive experiences for mass audiences, and continues to nurture the development of the “fulldome” medium which has surpassed IMAX’s installed theater base by replacing film and analog star projectors with large-format interactive computer graphics projected onto domed screens.
Other areas of expertise include cable television, themed entertainment, photonics, virtual reality, events production, 3D animation and special effects for large-format film and video. Entrepreneurial activities include advanced digital mass media and e-commerce systems, interactive television, immersive video and film production, interactive place-based entertainment, real-time video/music performance, independent films with socially conscious themes, fine art visual music, and wellness applications exploiting the psychophysical effects of interactive digital media.
Mr. Lantz has a background in hardware and software engineering, quantum physics and electromagnetics. He spent 7 years leading photonic signal processing R&D at Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Florida. He was lured away from aerospace engineering in 1990 by the Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory in Cocoa, Florida where he led the development of the first polychromatic acousto-optic modulator (PCAOM) for laser graphics, an advanced DSP-based celestial motion control system, and design of Florida’s largest domed theater utilizing next-generation video graphics. In 1996 Lantz joined Spitz, Inc. (now merged with Evans & Sutherland) where he built a team that developed new products which transformed old-style planetariums into immersive visualization environments.
Ed is President and CTO of Vortex Immersion Media, an entertainment technology boutique focused on developing branded immersive and interactive entertainment venues and original programming. Mr. Lantz is founder of Harmony Channel, a broadband television network delivering mood-elevating digital media including MoodZones which has been described as “MTV for the Soul.” He also operates Visual Bandwidth, Inc., an immersive cinema and fulldome video advisory network, and is a partner in Spherical Media Group, an immersive cinema production and artist management group.
Mr. Lantz has published and presented numerous papers on VR and entertainment technologies, and is a regular contributor to ACM SIGGRAPH papers, panels and courses. He founded the International Planetarium Society’s Fulldome Video Committee and the first Fulldome Standards Summit held in Valencia, Spain in 2004, co-organized the first Immersive Cinema Workshop in Espinho, Portugal in 2005, co-founded the IMERSA trade association in 2008, and moderated the NASA Explorer Institutes focus group on fulldome video held at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, CA. He received an MS in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Tech University (1984), serves on the boards of the Center for Visual Music, IMERSA, and the Center for Conscious Creativity, and holds two US Patents on immersive video-based theater technology.
