|
|
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 run a part-time planetarium initiative like Mario, so he asked to rent Mario's 5m inflatable dome to launch his own sideline 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.
Original logo
|
|
|
June 2003 / June 2009 / December 2013
Mario's Planetariums in the International Planetarium Society Journal
Mario launched and for three years managed the Glasgow Planetarium, then the UK`s most expensive planetarium (2001-2004); after which he launched and for eight years managed the Birmingham Planetarium, the UK`s first purpose-built digital planetarium (Thinktank Science Museum, 2005-2013). Some notable accomplishments of these planetariums appeared in the June 2003 (page 25) and June 2009 (page 23) issues of The Planetarian magazine.
After taking the reins at Immersive Theatres, a unique collaborative mobile dome art project of Mario's appeared on the cover of the December 2013 issue of The Planetarian (described on pages 77-78)
|
|
|
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 obtained 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.
2013 Immersive Theatres presenters (from left): Joe, Mario, Yaz, Zee and Mohammed
|
|
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).
|
|
|
15 September 2014
Immersive Theatres Moves to Bristol
In September 2014 Mario Di Maggio left Birmingham and relocated Immersive Theatres to Bristol.
Mobile planetarium equipment in the company's first small Bristol storage unit.
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
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 employee of the company) had ever earned in one month - made him wish he'd left the exploitative and underpaid museums sector earlier in his career.
The LinkedIn article Mario published regarding this milestone.
|
|
|
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 at lower right, wearing blue-lit headphones).
More details here. This project was delivered by Dome Club, the art and entertainment side of Immersive Theatres.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
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 show in 2013.
|
|
|
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 due to thegreat 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.
|
|
|
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 (originally named the ScottishPower Space Theatre) on 30th January 2002, where Mario was the planetarium's first manager.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
30 March 2023
Immersive Experiences immersive-exeriences.co.uk
Competitor Attempts to Register Our Business Name
Despite having trademark registered our logo in November 2017 (which includes our name Immersive Theatres); an unethical mobile dome competitor attempted to trademark register our well-established business name Immersive Theatres, as well as the variation Immersive Theatres Mobile Planetarium Experience.
Fortunately, the IPR Protection office alerted us, allowing us the opportunity to register these variations ourselves.
|
|
|
01 November 2025
Immersive Experiences immersive-exeriences.co.uk
Competitor Steals Our Customer Reviews
Unbelievably, a mobile dome operator STOLE SIX BRISTOL-BASED CUSTOMER REVIEWS FROM OUR WEBSITE and added them to their Bristol and Cardiff web pages:
bristol-planetarium.co.uk
and
cardiff-planetarium.co.uk
(screengrabs here and here)
Below are the stolen testimonials, lifted word for word from our feedback page (direct links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6)
Mario delivered all six of these school visits, and the feedback was for his planetarium performances.
How unethical.
|
|
|
16 June 2026
Immersive Experiences immersive-exeriences.co.uk
A 'bait' domain that cost us £6 was transferred to a new owner (and it cost them £900)
Tired of continually being harassed by our irritating nemesis competitor (see numerous examples above and below); as an experiment we decided to register the domains immersiveexperiences.co.uk and immersive-experiences.uk
Immersive Experiences regularly describe themselves using the trade names of their competitors (thereby benefiting from online search algorithms). From their website (Terms and Conditions -> Services Provided): "Planetariums (aka mobile planetarium, science dome, dino dome, star portal, exploration dome), Star Domes, Immersive Theatres, 360° Digital Domes"
(follow the links to visit the companies they are mimicking)
In a long website article they even describe themselves as 'immersive theatres' 24 times! (clearly to benefit from our high Google ranking); and note the URL they've chosen:
immersive-experiences.co.uk/immersive-theatres-the-ultimate-guide-to-a-world-without-a-stage
Seeing as we most certainly deliver 'immersive experiences', we decided to justifiably register the domains immersiveexperiences.co.uk and immersive-experiences.uk ... just to see what happens.
As expected, when they eventually discovered we had registered the first domain, they cried foul and took legal action.
In other words, Immersive Experiences believe it's OK for them to mimic the trade names of their competitors - but it's not OK for others to mimic their trade name.
So they forked out £900 for a £6 domain.
Whatever.
We made our point.
PS - they are now also aware of the other domain, but it seems £900 is a bit much to cough up a second time. So instead they've made a meal of their first 'legal win' and are trying to paint us as the bad guys! 🤣
|
|
|
22 July 2026
Mario Featured on Local Experiences Marketplace Yuup
Soon after launching our holiday Family Space Days in the summer of 2022 (under the name Dome Club Planetarium), we teamed up with the dynamic publicity company Yuup.
Yuup have been very supportive of our family planetarium experiences at each and every venue we've attended.
Over the past year, a strong three-way partnership has developed including Aerospace Bristol museum, for which we've created the unique interactive dome show Cockpit Command.
Read the Yuup blog describing Mario's career and future plans here
|
|
|
18 September 2026
Immersive Experiences immersive-exeriences.co.uk
Competitor AGAIN Steals Our Customer Reviews
Unbelievably, the same mobile dome operator STOLE TWO MORE REVIEWS from our website and added them to their School Select profile page.
Below are the stolen testimonials, again lifted WORD for WORD from our feedback page (direct links here and here).
Mario delivered both these school visits, and the glowing feedback was for his planetarium performances.
Yet this unbelievably unethical competitor stole them for himself!
This was once again reported to both the British Association of Planetariums, and the International Planetarium Society.
|
|
