Recently, the General Offices of China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) jointly released the 2026 List of Outstanding Cases in Culture and Tourism Equipment Technology Advancement. Broadwell Air Dome's "Changsha BroadiMax Immersive Air Dome Digital Entertainment Space" was selected. This national-level recognition provides authoritative validation of China’s independently developed "air dome + digital immersive projection" technology and its practical applications, offering a replicable, scalable blueprint for the nation's immersive cultural tourism industry.
Industry Recognition: Backed by National Endorsement, Proven Across Diverse Scenarios
The selected Changsha BroadiMax project represents a next-generation immersive digital entertainment space designed by Broadwell for cultural tourism performances, brand launches, and science education. Measuring 42 m in diameter and covering an area of 1,385 ㎡, the dome utilizes a factory-prefabricated, on-site assembly model that enables full delivery in just 15 days. Designed for non-destructive relocation and multi-city touring deployments, the dome has already been erected at two major venues—the Changsha Dawangshan Tourist Resort and the Changsha Meixihu Art Museum. There, it successfully hosted three landmark events: the Dawangshan Starlight Music & Trend Festival, the GAC Aion N60 new vehicle launch, and China Central Television’s (CCTV) large-scale themed promotional campaign, "Traveling with the Movies."
The project innovatively integrates multiple proprietary core technologies, including air-supported structures, 8K dome laser projection, AI-driven digital visuals, EchoGuard 360° acoustic optimization, and the AirFitX® micro-pressure oxygen system. Together, these technologies unlock versatile applications spanning music festivals, commercial brand launches, and national cultural tourism campaigns.
Notably, the GAC Aion N60 launch event swept eight individual honors at the 10th Kirin International Advertising Awards—including Gold in the Automotive, Brand Launch, and Digital Installation categories—and was featured in a special report on CCTV’s News Channel. Emerging as a phenomenal benchmark for the integration of technology and cultural tourism in China, the event fully demonstrated the high adaptability and brand-elevating power of air domes in commercial settings.
Pioneering Innovation: From Nanjing Happy Valley’s "Vision of Light and Shadow" to BroadiMax—An Industry Milestone Ahead of the Sphere
The technological DNA of BroadiMax traces back to 2020, when Broadwell created the "Vision of Light and Shadow" air dome theater at Nanjing Happy Valley. Measuring 42 m in diameter, it was China’s first immersive air dome theater. Completed in November 2020, it officially opened to the public on November 21 of that year—nearly three years before the Las Vegas Sphere debuted in September 2023.
The debut of "Vision of Light and Shadow" broke away from traditional venues' reliance on physical stages and flat screens. By upgrading the live experience across visual, auditory, and 360° wrap-around spatial dimensions, it set a new benchmark for next-generation immersive entertainment venues.
Building on this foundation, Broadwell brought its air-dome laser show technology to the global stage. Subsequent deployments included a private party dome laser show in Los Angeles, USA, a Super Bowl event pavilion in Las Vegas, USA, the Little Prince dome laser show at Jungle Island in Miami, USA, the Dome X Concert Hall in the Dead Sea, Israel, and a music festival dome pavilion in Shanghai, China.
Through this extensive global portfolio, Broadwell continuously refined core technologies such as structural safety, dome projection blending, and acoustic optimization. Years of iterative upgrades ultimately crystallized into the standardized, replicable, relocatable, and rapidly deployable BroadiMax product ecosystem.
Technical and Cost Advantages: Delivering High-End Immersive Experiences Through a Lightweight Approach
Compared to the Las Vegas Sphere, Broadwell’s BroadiMax charts a distinctly different technological path: proving that one does not need to build a massive, permanent megastructure to create a world-class immersive digital entertainment experience.
While the Sphere is a massive, permanent steel-structured building, BroadiMax utilizes an air-supported structure. With the membrane material weighing only about 2 kg/m², it drastically reduces the need for traditional building materials and cuts foundation engineering work by approximately 90%. Thanks to its factory-prefabricated, on-site assembly model, initial delivery takes roughly 45 days from contract signing, while secondary relocation and reinstallation require only 10 to 15 days. Whereas the Sphere took 5 years and $2.3 billion to build, BroadiMax costs only about one-tenth of a similarly sized steel structure. Furthermore, its modular design enables non-destructive relocation, resulting in exceptionally high reusability.
On audiovisual and experiential metrics, BroadiMax is backed by equally robust technology. The exterior can be outfitted with a flexible, conformal LED screen that wraps seamlessly around the curved surface for 360° visibility, delivering high brightness unaffected by daylight. The interior features dome laser projection paired with an 8K real-time broadcast control system capable of 8K at 60 fps real-time output. A single server can drive up to 164 projectors while reducing energy consumption by 75% compared to traditional setups, ensuring seamless edge blending and uniform color balance.
To counter the acoustic focusing and excessive reverberation common in spherical spaces, EchoGuard 360° acoustic optimization technology installs sound-absorbing elements around the lower perimeter, effectively reducing multiple echoes and ensuring crisp, precise spatial audio.
Even more remarkably, BroadiMax incorporates the built-in AirFitX® micro-pressure oxygen environment. By maintaining a positive pressure differential of 500 Pa to 800 Pa inside, the system not only supports the physical structure but also simulates a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, boosting blood oxygen levels and relieving fatigue for occupants. This dual value proposition of "wellness + entertainment" gives the air dome unique functional advantages in high-altitude tourism, family science education, and wellness leisure—benefits that traditional brick-and-mortar buildings simply cannot replicate.
Commercial Value: One Dome Activating Diverse Revenue Streams
The commercial viability of BroadiMax has been thoroughly validated across multiple real-world deployments. In digital art and immersive entertainment, the air-dome laser shows at the 2025 May Day DreamLand Electronic Music Festival in Shanghai and the National Day Dawangshan Starlight Music & Trend Festival both delivered standout performances. By extending visitor dwell time by two to three hours, they directly boosted secondary spending across dining, retail, and transportation, injecting vibrant momentum into the May Day and National Day Golden Week holidays.
In the realm of commercial brand events, the GAC Aion N60 launch utilized an "indoor launch + outdoor party" format. The exterior displayed brand logos, promotional videos, and dynamic emoji visuals akin to those of the Las Vegas Sphere, while the interior used laser projection to simulate driving environments. This approach elevated a traditional automotive launch into a city-wide cultural tourism event, generating massive social media exposure and buzz for the brand.
For science education and public cultural services, CCTV’s "Traveling with the Movies" event opened to the public free of charge. Screening mashups of hit films inside the dome generated national-level exposure for the venue at zero marketing cost, substantially enhancing its intangible brand equity.
From its pioneering exploration with Nanjing Happy Valley’s "Vision of Light and Shadow" in 2020, to the mature execution of the Changsha BroadiMax in 2025, and its inclusion in the joint ministerial list of outstanding cases in 2026, BroadiMax—anchored by air domes, driven by digital content, and differentiated by wellness technology—has proven that high-end immersive experiences do not require heavy-asset investments. A lightweight approach can equally support world-class immersive imagination.
Being selected as a national outstanding case not only validates Broadwell’s technological roadmap and business model, but also offers a fresh paradigm for upgrading China’s cultural tourism equipment technology and broader immersive industry.
