2009 ILDA Career Achievement Award voting
All 2009 ILDA Members are eligible to vote for the 2009 ILDA Career Achievement Award.
About the Award
This award honors "an exceptional individual with a distinguished history of achievement in the laser display industry." The nominee does not have to be a past or present ILDA Member -- he or she can be anyone who worked or achieved in the industry. Past winners of the ILDA Career Achievement Award can be divided into three broad categories:
- People who helped build significant laser display-related businesses
- People who made artistic and technical achievements
- People who worked to improve ILDA and the laser display industry
In whatever areas they worked, the person should have made significant and lasting achievements in the field of laser display.
How to vote
Each 2009 ILDA Member can review the list of nominees (below) and pick their favorite. You must pick from this list; no "write in" votes will be accepted.
To vote, send an email to a special ILDA address, vote@laserist.org. In the email, put your ILDA Member name and the name of the nominee you feel is most deserving of an ILDA Career Achievement Award. (If you have trouble choosing, some additional information about factors to consider is here.)
Voting opens on Monday 18 May 2009 and closes on Monday 25 May. All emails must be sent by 11:59 pm, your local time, on Monday 25 May. Vote by email only once per ILDA Member. In your email, vote for just one of the nominees (listed below).
How the votes are counted
At ILDA's office, your nominee is given a certain number of votes depending on your Member category, as stated in ILDA's Bylaws:
- Corporate Level 1 (annual dues $1000): 4 votes
- Corporate Level 2 (annual dues $500): 3 votes
- Corporate Level 3 (annual dues $250): 2 votes
- Non-Profit (annual dues $125): 1 vote
- Individual (annual dues $125): 1 vote
- Student: Not entitled to vote
Note that only two persons will tally the email votes: ILDA's Executive Director Patrick Murphy, and ILDA's President and Awards Committee Chair, Tim Walsh. Of course, voting will be kept strictly confidential.
Announcement of the winners
The winner will be contacted privately on May 26. The winner's name will be publicly announced to ILDA Members at the 2009 ILDA Conference, at the climax of the June 7 Awards Presentation.
2009 Career Achievement Award nominees (listed alphabetically)
Click on a nominee's name, to jump to a brief biography:
- Lothar Bopp, LOBO
- Fred Fenning, Image Engineering
- Carl Hannigan, Precision Projection Systems
- Steve Heminover, Aura Technologies
- Greg Makhov, LSDI
- Chris Matthews, LCI
- Dick Sandhaus, Science Faction
- Cory Simpson, LFI/Lightspeed/Kohr Productions
- Bernd Steinert, spectrabeam.de
- John Tilp, Laser Images
Nominee brief biographies
The biographies below
were submitted either by the nominee, or by the person who submitted the
nomination. Biographies may have been shortened or edited for space
reasons.
Lothar Bopp
LOBO electronic GmbH
Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Lothar Bopp founded and leads one of the major players in the laser show industry. It is a company which is active in more than 65 countries and which is called by independent market analysts, like the economic scientist Prof. Dr. Hermann Simon, the market leader in its industry. With over 100 ILDA Awards his company leads the all-time ranking list of the industry’s most important award. No other company ever received more ILDA Awards than his team.
With the first two letters of his first name and his last name, he formed the name of the company: LOBO. With his name he stands worldwide for excellence in both, high-end laser show equipment and show production services, be it for permanent installations or for shows on a rental basis. LOBO is one of the industry’s driving forces, an innovation motor, a creative think tank as well as origin and model for many other companies which entered the market much later. Lothar Bopp opened many new markets for the whole industry and lifted the appeal of lasers among entertainment professionals on a new level.
LOBO has an astonishing
fan base, not just among laser freaks but also among competitors. Even
one of Lothar Bopp’s toughest competitors, Rüdiger Müller, founder of
tarm had nothing but praise for LOBO company: "I know the market unlike
hardly any other. In my opinion, no other company is fit to hold a
candle to LOBO in the area of show laser technology." No doubt; without
Lothar Bopp’s uncompromising commitment to technical perfection and
unconventional approaches, the laser industry would be different today.
Fred Fenning
Laser Displays Inc./Image
Engineering
Fred Fenning began his laser show career while still an MIT undergraduate, when he joined Laser Displays, Inc., a 1976 start-up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There he developed the PMR-8, a digital/analog imaging and animation control unit (one of the first to incorporate a data tablet for image input). He left in 1979 to form Image Engineering Corporation.
At Image Engineering, he
developed many innovative laser systems, including: the first true RGB
projection control system; custom high-speed closed-loop scanner amps;
multi-channel FM encode/decode systems; a unique "XY-TV" display to
emulate scanning on a CRT monitor; digital-video storage of multiple
image sources with integrated hi-fi audio (in an era before digital
recording devices such as ADAT); and "The Hard Machine", a console for
analog control of digitally-stored graphics, which permitted real-time
performance of intricate animations.
Carl Hannigan
Precision Projection Systems
Carl Hannigan began his career in 1975 at Laser Images, Inc. as a laserist in St. Louis and Kyoto, Japan. He went on to become service manager, engineering manager, and laser safety officer. In 1983 he co-founded Precision Projection Systems, to provide high-quality optical and electronic components, projection systems, and information for laser projection. This made PPS one of the first laser display companies to provide equipment and services to other display companies.
Hannigan pioneered the
use of fiber optics with lasers, such as the 100% fiber optic system for
the 3D "Captain Eo" attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He
has designed installations for all Disney theme parks (at Alien
Encounter, Spaceship Earth, Circlevision, Star Tours, and Fantasmic),
Universal Florida (two attractions at the "Islands of Adventure"
expansion) and many other clients.
Steve Heminover
Aura Technologies
Steve Heminover has been working since the early 1970's with laser display, to make it a formidable alternative to conventional media. In 1975 he created LGRASS, an interactive computer language specifically designed to control laser displays. As the first high-end laser graphics workstation, LGRASS pioneered true 3D (1984), stereoscopy (1985), and full-color RGB control (1988). He was the first to introduce the concept of RGB laser projection systems in Europe, along with industry standards to support them. The company he founded and runs, Aura Technologies, has been a pioneer in providing laser "clip art", in addition to producing shows and installations.
He is a founding member
of ILDA, where he has been very active. As chair of the Technical
Committee for its first six years, he helped develop and evangelize the
first worldwide industry standards. He created the Advanced Technology
Workshop. He has served on the Awards Committee since its inception in
1988, helping create its rules and standards for excellence, and
presenting as Master of Ceremonies for ten years. He has served on the
ILDA Board of Directors for eight years, and was elected ILDA President
a record three times.
Greg Makhov
Lighting Systems Design
Inc.
Greg Makhov has made technologically sound, affordable laser equipment available to a many, many individuals and companies in this business - giving many their start in a successful manner. He has been an educator - literally teaching courses in laser safety.
He has been a tireless proponent of the safe use of lasers for display and has been instrumental in conferring with the FAA when issues (and misunderstandings) about the use of lasers have threatened our industry. Greg has been a long-time supporter of ILDA - volunteering much time, effort, and money for ILDA conferences and activities.
Greg's company, Lighting
Systems Design, Inc., has been presenting a wide variety of laser shows
since the early 1980s - growing to the point of producing major
multi-media spectaculars such as the opening of Lincoln Financial Field
for the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football (to rave reviews!).
Chris Matthews was one of the first to put lasers together with music, and he has continued to develop technology and markets. In 1977 he was Chief Design Engineer for The Who, a pioneer in concert lasers, being responsible for their laser effects and a new laser projection technology using miniature mirrors. In 1978 he co-founded Britain's first laser entertainment company, Laserpoint. He was instrumental in representing the industry to the U.K. Health and Safety Executive to produce the PM19 entertainment laser safety guidelines.
Since founding Laser
Creations International in 1979, his achievements have included the
commercial development of the first high-definition laser video
projector. LCI has produced many multimedia events combining water
screens and laser projections, such as Expo '92 in Seville and Expo '93
in South Korea. Chris is recognized as the founder and father figure of
the U.K. laser entertainment industry, and remains committed to further
development of laser and associated high technology.
Dick Sandhaus has made a long career out of opening up new markets for laser displays by creating new applications for laser technology. For example, Dick introduced large scale outdoor laser displays to world's fairs and expos, he installed major laser installations in discos world-wide, he developed a 360 degree scanning system, and he innovated the Laser One travelling display in a custom outfitted vehicle. All of these efforts resulted in an expansion of ways that lasers could be utilized in the marketplace.
Sandhaus founded Science Faction in 1978, where he specialized in the creation of large-scale, outdoor laser performances and installations. He created the first long-running outdoor laser graphic and beam show, at Expo '82, as well as nightly programs at Expo '86 and the 1998 Winter Olympics. In 1984, he created the "Laser, Son et Lumiere" at the Quebec Parliament building -- the first and only laser work to receive the "Lumen Award" of the Illuminating Engineering Society. In 1992, Science Faction was selected to represent the U.S. in the "Mondial du Laser", the first international laser competition. Sandhaus's work was awarded the Gold Medal and has subsequently been seen by more than ten million people. The “Mondial” show and other works have also won ILDA Awards, including the "Tower of Light" in Miami, a collaboration with sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
Sandhaus was one of the
founding members of ILDA in 1986. He served on the ILDA Board of
Directors for its first five years and was elected ILDA President in
1989.
Cory Simpson
LFI / Lightspeed / Kohr
Productions
Cory has over 20 years into the Laser Display Industry and has solved many problems, over the years, to keep the laser show alive! Starting in 1986 Cory joined Laser Fantasy International. Hired by Floyd Rollefstad. He was set to task under Robert Mueller.
Cory quickly learned LGrass Script cteated by Steve Heiminover based on the then popular Zgrass script video software. He quickly became a software resource as well as a team leader. Two years after the hire Cory brought together a team of artists to animate and digitize 20 minutes of material to be displayed on the largest surface possible. The 1 mile wide Grand Coulee Dam. This show has survived 18 years. The longest running laser show.
Cory went on to show the
world that lasers are here to stay: San Rio Pourollando in Japan, San
Roi Harmonyland In Japan, Universal Studios Ghostbusters, Universal
Studios Spectacular.
Bernd Steinert owned his first laser system in 1980. He continued to explore laser displays by building his own system at home and programming his own shows. Bernd became an important member of the laserist community, and is organising regular regional meetings and workshops of laserists with up to 30 participants. It was in 2005 when Bernd decided to turn what had been a hobby until then into a profession. He founded spectrabeam.de; an online shop dedicated to the distribution of laser shows irrespective of manufacturer, programmer or system. Entrepreneurial skill and a feel for the needs of laserists worldwide made spectrabeam.de a success story that is still continuing.
The range of products quickly extended, and now includes more than 80 laser shows for several systems (Pangolin LD2000 and MediaLas Mamba Black, other will follow) and the work of several programmers. CDs with the respective tracks for all shows and laser show hard- and software complement the range of products. Full length video previews and "trailers" for the respective laser system are available for all shows. All this is realised with a state-of-the-art internet site that makes visits to spectrabeam.de a pleasant experience.
With the creation of
spectrabeam.de, Bernd Steinert provided laserists worldwide with a much
needed resource for showware. Customers can now choose single shows,
bundles or subscriptions without being limited to a single manufacturer,
programmer or laser system. For show programmers, spectrabeam.de
constitutes a convenient way to make their shows available to a large
audience. This worldwide connection of show programmers and show
organisers is the unique achievement of Bernd Steinert.
John Tilp
Laser Images (Laserium)
John Tilp is the unsung hero of abstract laser imagery. Back in the 1970s he worked at Laser Images in the creation of the imagery for the classic Laserium planetarium shows. He is the one who literally invented the language of how to visually represent music in abstract laser imagery (what should drums look like, what should horns look like, what should a lead guitar look like, etc. etc.). ALL of the laser shows with abstract imagery that followed have been built upon the foundation of John's work. He wrote the "dictionary" which defined the language.
As if that weren't enough, John worked on introducing advancements in programming technology (digital image synthesizers, etc.) well into the late 1990s.
