Alsone
05-24-2008, 08:51 PM
Hi,
I live in the UK and I'm wanting to buy a laser for home use such as parties and BBQ's.
I'm hearing good things about the Purelight Tri-Beam Laser 260ms so have been thinking about this as a possibilty. I've also looked at the Prolight Ares II.
However, I'm hitting a big problem on the safety issue that:
a) you might be able to help me with and
b) probably needs addressing through the organisation in relation to pressuring governments towards legislation.
The problem I'm having is that anyone buying such a system for home party use / mobile disco use / small pub disco use or BBQ's is likely to be audience scanning - laser systems are becoming very popular in the UK with the drop in price that has occurred and everyone uses scanning. I have several friends with lasers in their houses for parties.
However, its practically impossible for anyone wanting to be responsible who's a low budget user to determine MPE.
The British Standard document costs £168+VAT prohibitively expensive, and then only sets out how to calculate exposure - something complex and not suited to the amateur / unqualified professional disco operative. Laser MPE software is prohibitively expensive and again relies on user input. MPE Power meters are very expensive and beyond most users pockets.
I've spoken to some professional mobile disco users on a forum and most are scanning but have not made any MPE checks - it seems they want to, but like me cant find a means of doing this.
Checking Youtube shows plenty of videos of lasers such as the Ares II being used for audience scanning but again without checks - one guy I asked about this said "its safe because the laser uses galvos not stepping motors!" - I know this to be untrue. (He was using 2 x Ares II 180mw mounted about 7ft and scanning into the audience with both wide patterns but also tight animation beams.)
Anyway what I want to know is:
1. Can anyone recommend a laser in the UK that has preset patterns that have been tested and the MPE data is supplied along with the laser? Basically so I can just plug and play based on the distance data in the MPE. My budget is as little as possible for a good RGY but limited in any event to around £250 max.
2. Does anyone else think (- and maybe here the IDLA can pressure governments into requiring this) like me that for lasers containing pre-set patterns, MPE data should be compulsory to supply in the manual along with the laser so as to accommodate home users / small professional outfits. I would think data based on a minimum exposure distances of 2m and 3m respectively would cover most situations as this deals with most home venues / small pubs and mobile discos.
Everyone loves audience scanning so it shouldn't be banned, but at the moment many UK small professional users and home users are being forced to risk people's health simply because getting MPE data is so expensive and complex as to make it impossible for a low budget user to obtain.
To my mind supplying some basic data for all the presets in typical small venue setups along with the laser would be the obvious way around this whilst leaving decisions on custom patterns to those with large budgets and thus a means to calculate MPE for their own specific usages.
I live in the UK and I'm wanting to buy a laser for home use such as parties and BBQ's.
I'm hearing good things about the Purelight Tri-Beam Laser 260ms so have been thinking about this as a possibilty. I've also looked at the Prolight Ares II.
However, I'm hitting a big problem on the safety issue that:
a) you might be able to help me with and
b) probably needs addressing through the organisation in relation to pressuring governments towards legislation.
The problem I'm having is that anyone buying such a system for home party use / mobile disco use / small pub disco use or BBQ's is likely to be audience scanning - laser systems are becoming very popular in the UK with the drop in price that has occurred and everyone uses scanning. I have several friends with lasers in their houses for parties.
However, its practically impossible for anyone wanting to be responsible who's a low budget user to determine MPE.
The British Standard document costs £168+VAT prohibitively expensive, and then only sets out how to calculate exposure - something complex and not suited to the amateur / unqualified professional disco operative. Laser MPE software is prohibitively expensive and again relies on user input. MPE Power meters are very expensive and beyond most users pockets.
I've spoken to some professional mobile disco users on a forum and most are scanning but have not made any MPE checks - it seems they want to, but like me cant find a means of doing this.
Checking Youtube shows plenty of videos of lasers such as the Ares II being used for audience scanning but again without checks - one guy I asked about this said "its safe because the laser uses galvos not stepping motors!" - I know this to be untrue. (He was using 2 x Ares II 180mw mounted about 7ft and scanning into the audience with both wide patterns but also tight animation beams.)
Anyway what I want to know is:
1. Can anyone recommend a laser in the UK that has preset patterns that have been tested and the MPE data is supplied along with the laser? Basically so I can just plug and play based on the distance data in the MPE. My budget is as little as possible for a good RGY but limited in any event to around £250 max.
2. Does anyone else think (- and maybe here the IDLA can pressure governments into requiring this) like me that for lasers containing pre-set patterns, MPE data should be compulsory to supply in the manual along with the laser so as to accommodate home users / small professional outfits. I would think data based on a minimum exposure distances of 2m and 3m respectively would cover most situations as this deals with most home venues / small pubs and mobile discos.
Everyone loves audience scanning so it shouldn't be banned, but at the moment many UK small professional users and home users are being forced to risk people's health simply because getting MPE data is so expensive and complex as to make it impossible for a low budget user to obtain.
To my mind supplying some basic data for all the presets in typical small venue setups along with the laser would be the obvious way around this whilst leaving decisions on custom patterns to those with large budgets and thus a means to calculate MPE for their own specific usages.