|
|
ILDA Awards Honor Artistic, Technical Achievements Zmorenski Elected ILDA President STUTTGART, GERMANY: Laser display professionals from around the world were honored this month with prestigious awards for artistic and technical achievement during the annual conference of the International Laser Display Association (ILDA). Companies from Germany, Australia, Italy and the USA were recognized for creativity and excellence in eleven artistic categories that represented how laser displays are used to celebrate special events, promote products and entertain audiences. Winners included LOBO electronic's Millennium celebration at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, Laser Rental's role in Houston's citywide "Sky Power" extravaganza, and Laservision Macro-Media's playful "Millennium Bugs" animation show in Australia. ILDA's Fenning Awards for Technical Achievement produced a first-place tie. The top honor was shared between AVI Imagineering with Lasers' Omnistar laser projection system and Pangolin Laser System's QM2000 Laser Display Processor Board. Omnistar is an inflatable sphere up to 30 feet in diameter that floats above crowds and incorporates AVI's patented 360-degree laser projector. Full-color laser graphics are projected on the inside of the balloon's surface, offering a projection system that can be easily and safely rigged in a wide variety of venues. Pangolin tied for first place with its new QM 2000 processor board, which allows for recording or playing back of laser shows. The new board combines high speed with small size and meets all major industry standards. The Third Place award for technical achievement went to Laservision Macro-Media for the development of Dot.Monkey software that converts and optimizes almost any image file for laser projection. The approximately 100 ILDA delegates attending the Oct. 6-8 conference selected a new president for their organization: Tony Zmorenski of Walt Disney World Co. First elected to the ILDA Board of Directors in 1997, Zmorenski is Walt Disney World's senior safety administrator and laser safety officer. He replaces Chris Ward of Lightspeed Design Group, who served as ILDA's president for the last four years. ILDA members also elected Robert Belfatto, vice president of Neos Technologies, to the board of directors. Other board members include: Steven Heminover of Aura Technologies and Craig Nelson of Logic Systems Inc./Laser Fascinations. Page Howard was reelected as Secretary. A complete listing of ILDA 2000 award winners can be seen by clicking here. Highlights include: -- LOBO electronic of Aalen, Germany, which received a total of nine artistic awards, including three first place awards for ISP (ILDA Standard Projector) Beam Module, Beam/Atmospherics and Indoor Show. -- AVI Imagineering of Orlando, Fla., was honored with six awards, including first place in the ISP Cell Animation and the ISP Graphic & Beam Module categories. -- Laser Fantasy International of Bellevue, Wash., took home four awards, including first place in the ISP Graphic Module and Abstract categories. With over 125 corporate and nonprofit members from 25 nations, ILDA is the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the use of laser displays in art, entertainment and education.
|
|
