FAQs

Looking for a quick guide on how to use FDDB?

FDDB Membership

We are strongly committed to put no limits in front of creativity, passion and quality: institutions, planetariums and planetarians, science centers and museums, private companies, media artists, independent filmmakers, students… anyone can join and add content to FDDB.

Simply put, FDDB maximizes your chances to be found by people who may be interested on your work.

  • FDDB is deeply focused on fulldome content, venues and news
    With hundreds of fulldome shows listed, and a huge variety of industry organizations and digital dome venues, FDDB is an effective resource where people can get information about anything happening in the fulldome world.

  • FDDB is a very powerful tool
    Conceived and designed as a social network for fulldomers, FDDB provides a great environment where all existing fulldome shows can be browsed dynamically not only by title, but also by numerous parameters: “genre”, “content”, “video format”, “license type”, “target audience”, etc.

  • FDDB allows you to increase the visibility of both people and productions
    Planetarium Managers and fulldome enthusiasts can get a better picture of what’s out there on the market and will be able to quickly pinpoint their interests and explore new ones. Statistics show high traffic volumes from all over the world: all continents have made their way to FDDB.

  • … because it’s free!
    Wait… what?!
    Yes, it’s free – and it will always be.

Nothing. FDDB is a free service, both to users and producers.
Registering to FDDB is completely free: we don’t ask for your credit card details, we don’t make you pay for upgrades or pro accounts, and you won’t spend a penny to add your content to the site or search the database.
There are no hidden costs behind FDDB.

Easy! and create your own account to start enjoying FDDB at its best.
We recommend you to register to FDDB with your personal account, rather than your shared business one. FDDB accounts are user-based.

Managing Content

Easy:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Click on “+ Add Content” in the left sidebar, then on “Add News”
  3. Fill in the web form and submit it
  4. ... done!

Easy:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Click on “+ Add Content” in the left sidebar, then on "Add Fulldome Show"
  3. Fill in the web form and submit it
  4. Provide the required media material via our FDDB WeTransfer portal
  5. ... done!

Your colleagues can tag themselves on your entry once the show gets published on FDDB.

Easy:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Visit your production detail’s page and click on “+ Add Award”
  3. Fill in the web form and submit it
  4. ... done!

All dome venues listed on FDDB are provided by the World Planetarium Database (WPD): please contact Daniel Audeon to add your dome to their listing. Once your venue appears on WPD, it will appear on FDDB automatically.

If you manage a theater and would like to edit or add details to your listing, please do so through the WPD website.

WPD – a project endorsed by the International Planetarium Society too – is a planetarium search engine tool. The mutual partnership between WPD and FDDB allows us to provide up-to-date information about any dome venues to the planetarium and fulldome community.

Easy:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Make sure your company is not yet listed in our “Organizations” section: if it is, get in touch with us and claim its ownership if it’s not, follow the steps below
  3. Click on “+ Add Content” in the left sidebar, then on "Add Organization"
  4. Fill in the web form and submit it
  5. ... done!

Your colleagues can tag themselves on your entry once your organization gets published on FDDB.

Easy:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Make sure your industry association is not yet listed in our “Organizations” section: if it is, get in touch with us and claim its ownership if it’s not, follow the steps below
  3. Click on “+ Add Content” in the left sidebar, then on "Add Organization"
  4. Fill in the web form and submit it
  5. ... done!

Your colleagues can tag themselves on your entry once your organization gets published on FDDB.

Easy:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Click on “+ Add Content” in the left sidebar, then on "Add Event"
  3. Fill in the web form and submit it
  4. ... done!

Once your entry is published on FDDB, your colleagues and attendees can tag themselves there too!

Sure! All information at FDDB can be updated at any time by following these steps:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Go to your "My Contents" page, which can be found in the menu that appears after clicking on your profile image
  3. Open the page of the entry you'd like to edit
  4. Click on the pencil icon in the left sidebar
  5. Make all the changes you want
  6. Save it and… done!

Only content owners can delete tags from their pages.

If you are the content owner of the page you'd like to remove the tag from, just visit your page and click on the red icon on top of each tag.

If you tagged yourself on a content you're not involved with, please reach out to us – we'll take care of it.

To require – or transfer – the ownership of any content on FDDB, get in touch with us and we'll take it from there. Please do it from your business email address and provide details of why you think you're entitled to become the content owner of that particular entry.

In fact, every entry on FDDB has an owner and that's the user who first created the entry. This is true for any entry but for domes, whose control is in charge of the website administrators.

Media Material

Here’s the list of media files you are required to share:

Media File File format Resolution Audio
mid-res fulldome trailer MP4 (H264) fisheye, 2048×2048 stereo
low-res full length show MP4 (H264) fisheye, 512×512 stereo
flat trailer MP4 (H264) 16:9, 1920×1080 stereo
high-resolution poster PNG up to 20 MB     –

Sharing the poster helps you promote your production. Official posters provide full information about you, so they're a great way to promote both your work and your brand.

The FDDB web engine is built to bring higher visibility to entries that have a complet set of media files.

This is because such entries are more useful for planetarium managers to get the idea of what your production is about. This maximizes chances to get more people inquiring you about the show, increasing possible sales.

An entry listed with the low-res full-length preview will enjoy 30 times more visibility than one without it.

Send the videos to us via via our FDDB WeTransfer portal. Please make sure to indicate what entry are the files for.

We take the value of your productions very seriously and apply a variety of solutions to prevent any fraudulent use of your material.

In the first place, you are only required to provide the full-length preview of your show at the very low-resolution of 512x512px.

A standard FDDB mask will be used to cover everything outside the fisheye circle. In fact, timecodes and other items become unreadable and unsightly when watched with a 512x512 px resolution. Also, by applying the mask we ensure all videos appear uniform and consistent, allowing our user to focus on your content with no distractions.

An audio watermark will also be rendered into your show's audiotrack.

Even though you will provide the 512x512 px version of your full-length show to us, FDDB's final output resolution is 480x480 px – which would make the show look extremely bad even in smallest, portable domes.

About FDDB

FDDB stands for “Fulldome Database”, which is an exciting and friendly resource for people who are passionate about fulldome.

FDDB’s mission is to spread fulldome awareness and help incite fulldome innovation within and beyond the global fulldome community.

FDDB is for everyone interested in the fulldome medium: planetarians, media artists, science center & museum operators, private companies, independent filmmakers, students… you name it!

Anyone can join FDDB and connect with the international fulldome community.

Once upon a time (well, that's back in March 2011) a crazy Italian planetarian attended the Fulldome UK festival in Birmingham, England (which was also his first-ever international event). He was astounded to meet so many people interested in the fulldome medium and was delighted to encounter others who shared his view that domes are now able to transcend astronomy-related topics – inspiring and communicating in whole new ways.

All attendees left that event with one question in mind: “What can each of us do to help grow fulldome interest and fulldome audiences?”

The Fulldome Database was this Italian planetarian’s answer and, consequently, everyone lived happily ever after.

To become rich, of course. We have always dreamt of buying a Ferrari Tesla, building a nice swimming pool and purchasing a ticket to fly into space.

No, seriously, FDDB comes as a free service: although we support our costs by selling advertising spaces to companies involved in the planetarium and fulldome field, no money is involved with sharing information in the database – everyone can do it for free.

Let’s focus on keeping up the good work!