With the advent of LSST, SKA and other petabyte-scale data facilities, data storage and visualisation will pose new challenges for the astronomical community. The Iziko Planetarium 8K Digital Dome and the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) Visualisation Lab are two cutting-edge research facilities in Cape Town (South Africa) which are jointly exploring new approaches to handle the exploration of big astronomical (and multi-disciplinary) data sets, including 3D projections, Data2Dome initiatives and Virtual Reality Environments.