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A Look at Laser
Display Technologies
Honored with ILDA's 2000 Fenning Awards
ILDA's Fenning
Awards
The
Fenning Awards premiered in 1998, when ILDA renamed its award
honoring new technologies and products to commemorate the late
Fred Fenning, who pioneered laser display technology and standards
during his 21-year career in the laser field.
ILDA's
2000 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
2000 awards were judged by Andreu Ibanez, Dbmusic-AILD; Jay Parkinson,
Rockwell Laser Industries; and Tim Walsh, Laser Spectacles.
1st Place
(tie): AVI's Omnistar
Inventors:
Joanne Young & Ward Davis.
Omnistar
is a laser projection system and screen all-in-one. The screen
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.
Omnistar
was invented to address three recurring requests of laser show
users: (1)
The need for large and small screens that could be easily rigged
indoors and outdoors; (2) the need for viewing laser shows in
the round such as large festivals, fairs, and sporting events,
and (3) the need to safely project laser beams onto a screen
in all situations and meet the requirements of CDRH/FDA.
www.av-imagineering.com
1st Place (tie):
Pangolin's QM2000 Processor Board
Hardware
& Firmware Designer: William R. Benner, Jr.
Pangolin
wanted laserists to have a choice of recording or playing back
using the same device (computer board). The company also sought
the best balance of features that laserists asked for: power
(DSP-type processor, large memory), fast speed (over 100,000
pts/sec output), small size (small enough to fit in a PCI slot),
meeting all major industry standards (compatible with ILDA, DMX,
Windows and PC computers), having backwards compatibility with
older systems, and perhaps most important for laserists: being
affordable.
www.pangolin.com
3rd Place: Laservision
Macro-Media's Dot.Monkey
Concept
Development: Paul McCloskey
Software Development: Andrew Petersen
Interface Definition & Consulting: Lloyd Weir, John Eustace
Technical Support: Robert McRostie, Stephen McMahon
Laservision's motivation to develop Dot.Monkey was born out of
necessity and a desire to liberate Laserists (Dot.Monkeys) from
the repetitious non-creative process of image digitizing, coloring
and editing. Alternatives failed to meet standards sought by
Laservision's artists and those demanded by clients. Without
a viable quality alternative hand finished frames remain costly
and time consuming. Put simply, Laservision decided to automate
the digitizing process so that creative energies can be dedicated
to producing better, cost efficient shows. Dot.Monkey has increased
studio productivity by as much as 600%. The sofware batch processes
images (from a variety of sources) and formats them instantaneously
to provide truly presentation-perfect results.
www.laservision.com.au |