About Inflatables
Why inflatables?
Inflatables are portable. Giant Earthballs of enormous size can be easily shipped anywhere, and taken through normal size doorways for indoor display. Rigid shell globes require heavy shipping cases (and freight budgets), extra-wide doorways and trained technicians to setup & takedown.
Inflatables are authentic. Thanks to the advent of superwide inkjet printers and compatable-width material, the photographic authenticity of satellite imagery can be transferred onto the globe’s surface. (Large rigid-shell globes, limited in size, must be screen-printed or hand-painted.)
Inflatables are spherical. Orbis globes are perfectly spherical
& 100% wrinkle-free. Thanks to our Spherical Visions™ design
and production system, first-time viewers typically assume Orbis
Globes to be made of rigid material and are surprised to learn
otherwise.
Inflatables are lightweight. They deflate down to a small, lightweight
package for shipping. When deployed, a giant globe can easily be
carried by just a few children.
Inflatables can fly. EarthBlimps, like all lighter-than-air craft,
consist of a fabric 'envelope' inflated with helium or hot air.
Just like the real planet, an orbiting EarthBlimp can replicate
the dynamic weightless motion of mothership Earth through Space.
Satellite Imaging
Orbis was selected to design and build two 16 foot diameter world globes for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Through a unique collaboration with NASA, Orbis transformed the latest generation of satellite data into an incredibly accurate image of planet Earth.
Equidistant Cylindrical Projection (Plate Carrée)
This gigantic mosaic photograph consists of thousands of individual
images taken from an orbiting array of satellites, and features
Orbis Cloudforms™, the most photorealistic depiction of our
world’s atmosphere ever created.
Using proprietary digital cartographic tools, the Earth image is transformed into football-shaped segments-(gores) which are printed onto flat fabric material and assembled into giant spherical Orbis globes.
Twelve-gore Globe Projection
Six-gore Globe Projection