LDI 2007 is over, but
  you can read about
  it here...
   -- Review of ILDA activities,
         by Patrick Murphy
   -- Photos of laser booths,
         by Tim Walsh
   -- Comments by attendees

________________________
ILDA HOME PAGE:

  -- Return to ILDA website's
     home page


_________________________
FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES:

  Planning pages
  (used pre-LDI 2007)
    -- Overview
    -- Update (status)
    -- Laser Theater
    -- Sponsorship and
         participation opportunities
    -- Submit ILDA Award
         winning entries
    -- Seminars
    -- Laser Theater technical
         requirements
    -- Free admission to LDI exhibits

  LDI & IAAPA pages
  (not on ILDA's website)
    -- Main LDI 2007 page
    -- LDI exhibitor information
    -- LDI's hotel & travel service
    -- IAAPA Attractions Expo 2007
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A review of ILDA activities at LDI 2007
by Patrick Murphy

This is a review of ILDA's participation in the Lighting Dimensions International trade show, held in Orlando November 16-18 2007. It is written by ILDA Executive Director Patrick Murphy, and expresses his personal views. In addition, we have these other LDI report pages:

• Photos of LDI laser booths and the ILDA Laser Theater, taken by Tim Walsh

• Comments by attendees, telling how much they enjoyed the Laser Theater
   

ILDA Laser Theater

The ILDA Laser Theater at LDI 2007 was a tremendous success for ILDA and the laser show industry. While there were booths on the LDI show floor with lasers, if people really wanted to see large-scale high quality shows, the ILDA Laser Theater was the best place to be. The room, which was upstairs off of the main LDI exhibit floor, was large enough (30 feet by 50 feet) so the lasers did not feel cramped. And there was lots of room and seating for the audience as well.

ILDA Producers LaserNet, LSDI and Pangolin came together to create the smoothest and most professional ILDA laser presentation I have ever experienced -- including past Awards Banquets and Lase-Offs.

There were three main types of shows: graphics only, graphics plus flanking left-and-right overhead green beams, and direct audience scanning from a color projector mounted over the screen. (The photo at right shows the flanking green beams plus the center audience-scanning beams.)

• LaserNet provided the sound and LED lighting system, Pangolin furnished the playback equipment and show organization, and LSDI provided the projectors and room setup.

• The graphics scanners (tuned to 60K) were a pleasure to watch. Old shows looked new thanks to the added precision and total lack of tearing, rounding, etc.

• A few shows, most notably those from Tim Walsh, used all four projector sets. Perhaps for future ILDA Awards, we can have a laser-only category that would use multiple sets like this.

• On the third and final day of the show, Lightwave added seven more solid-state lasers with 46 watts of power. The spectacle was lifted to a new level. (The photo at right shows the Lightwave lasers along the bottom, plus the LSDI audience scanning laser at top center.)

• The final projector was donated to ILDA by Randy Johnson of BlissLights. This was a 50mW green laser projecting through rotating diffraction grating, to create a 180-degree panorama of slowly moving laser stars. Although conceptually simple, it produced a complex background which gave additional texture and depth (e.g., more interest for the eye).

Certainly few LDI attendees had ever seen this many lasers and this much power -- over 50 watts total -- in a room this size!

ILDA Award-winning shows on display

Before LDI, Bill Benner and I had gone through available tapes and files of past ILDA Award winners from 1999 to 2006. We ended up with 34 ILDA Award winners from 17 different companies. In addition, because we were weak in some categories such as beams-and-screen shows, we added 18 other shows, plus Sponsored Presentations from Tim Walsh, Pangolin and LaserNet.

This wide variety of high-quality shows added to the overall professionalism of the presentation. LDI attendees saw the best that ILDA and laser shows have to offer. In addition, the Laser Theater hosted the U.S. debut of legal, approved European-style audience scanning.

Those of you in Europe may not be impressed, since shows like SIB/Rimini and ProLight + Sound routinely have a number of huge booths with multiple laser systems doing audience scanning. However, this was the first time I had seen anything at a U.S. trade show which approached the European spectacles. I'm sure quite a few LDI attendees went home with a newfound appreciation for how much that modern lasers can add to their shows and events!

Two new products premiered

In the Laser Theater, two new products were presented.

• The first was from Mark Jacoby of Silver Sponsor Laser Dance (Mountain Megabytes). He showed "LazrBotz", which is a laser mounted under a DMX-controlled mirror. The idea is to use two DMX channels to program the mirror location; one channel for horizontal and one for vertical. A similar product, "BounzBotz" is just a DMX-controlled mirror (no laser included).
       In his presentation, Mark explained that he has spent lots of time on a ladder at shows, adjusting bounce mirrors. He invented the Botz to allow 1) remote aiming of the bounce mirror and 2) the ability to program a lot of different bounce locations by using DMX.

• The second new product was a prototype ILDA test pattern generator, shown by Tom Harman of LaserNet. It provides a handy signal source for laser projectors, so that no computer is needed to generate common and useful test patterns. Tom is hoping to keep the cost down so that "every laserist can own one".

Live performance by Tim Walsh

For long-time ILDA Members, the highlight of the Laser Theater was a live performance by Tim Walsh on saxophone, accompanying his laser imagery and music. The BlissLights projector covered Tim in moving green dots, with beams shooting off the shiny saxophone, as he played. The pre-recorded sounds were also the same signals being sent to the scanners. Such perfect synchronization, plus watching Tim play live, was amazing, and received a standing ovation.

If there was any downside to the Laser Theater, it was the location off the show floor and upstairs. While ILDA and LDI did their best to get people to attend -- and we did have standing-room only at times -- it still was a bit away from the main flow. We've already started to talk about doing a similar presentation on the show floor, the next time we attend LDI.
 

ILDA Seminars

ILDA held three seminars in the Theater. These were well attended. The first one, which gave an overview of lasers, was standing-room only. I counted around 85 people in the audience. The other two seminars were on safety and audience scanning, and on "advanced laser topics". These were about 1/2 full but it was clear the audience members were very interested and involved.

The seminars did not get as much pre-show attention as the Laser Theater planning. For future events, ILDA will provide more details to the speakers about the overall goal of each seminar. Even with this limited planning, there was a lot of good and interesting information imparted to the attendees.
 

ILDA Cash Bar

To help boost attendance, LaserNet sponsored a Cash Bar in the Laser Theater each afternoon. Having drinks in the booth worked out well and was popular with both laserists and LDI attendees.
 

ILDA Booth

At the ILDA Booth on the LDI show floor, our two main goals were to direct people upstairs to the ILDA Laser Theater, and to hand out ILDA and Member literature.

• For directing people, we had a handout with information about the Theater and the room number.
• For the literature, we had ILDA-imprinted bags which contained the Complete Guide to Laser Shows for Event Producers, a 20-page magazine which was ... well, a complete guide for event producers!
        In the center spread was a list of all current ILDA Members (see photo at right). The bags also contained literature from ILDA Members, mostly sponsors who had brought their brochures to the show.

The ILDA Booth was sponsored by Lightwave International. Their equipment included three "beacon lasers" that beamed out over the show floor to draw attention to the booth, plus additional lasers and controllers. (Ordinarily ILDA would have a more subtle display of sponsor equipment. However, due to various behind-the-scenes considerations, we allowed more equipment than normal for this one time.) The booth was very busy most of the time, and it accomplished its main purpose of getting people to 1) find out about the Laser Theater and 2) receive ILDA's literature, including a Membership list.
 

ILDA Meeting

On Friday afternoon, ILDA held an informal meeting for Members and other interested laserists, to go over some ILDA business. ILDA President Tim Walsh presided as we discussed the upcoming Code of Business Practice, which is currently in draft form. Members seemed to support the idea of clarifying the existing Code of Ethics in this way.

We also discussed potential sites and times for the 2008 ILDA Conference. More information will be released shortly on this, by the Board.

It was good to see so many Members who were able to attend the meeting, and network informally afterwards, at the Cash Bar.
 

Thanks and appreciation

In summary, ILDA's participation at LDI 2007 was a great success. It was wonderful to see so many ILDA Members volunteering their time, equipment and funds to help promote ILDA and the laser display industry. I especially want to thank...

     ...ILDA Laser Theater producers LaserNet, LSDI and Pangolin for putting together such a smooth show. Tom Harman, Christine Jenkin, Greg Makhov, Phyllis Monahan, Bill Benner, and Hayden Hale all worked hard to make this a success.

     ...ILDA Gold Sponsor Lightwave International, led by George Dodworth with Martin Potoczny and the Lightwave staff. First, Lightwave was the lead sponsor for both the Booth and the Laser Theater, which helped our finances tremendously. Then, at the site, they provided "laser beacons" in the booth, and on Sunday in the Laser Theater showed what seven lasers of 46 total watts could do in synchronization. George and Lightwave took an already-impressive show and turned it over the top.

     ...The many other ILDA sponsors who generously supported us by underwriting the costs involved in such a large undertaking: Silver Sponsors Neo-Laser (Jim Hardaway) and Mountain Megabytes/Laser Dance (Mark Jacoby); Bronze Sponsors Pangolin (Bill Benner), Image Engineering (Joe Suehle) and Laser Spectacles (Tim Walsh); and Cash Bar sponsor LaserNet (Tom Harman & Christine Jenkin).

     ...advertisers in the "Complete Guide to Laser Shows" magazine that we handed out. This included most of the sponsors (Lightwave, LaserNet, LSDI, Neo-Laser, Laser Spectacles, Image Engineering and Pangolin) as well as Laser Entertainment (Alberto Kellner) and LOBO (Lothar Bopp and Alex Hennig).

     ...Steve Heminover of Aura Technologies, who served as the Laser Safety Officer that ILDA provided to LDI, and who also spoke at the first seminar.

     ...Seminar presenters Alex Hennig (LOBO), Steve Heminover (Aura Technologies), Tom Harman (LaserNet), Greg Makhov (LSDI), Bill Benner (Pangolin), Tim Walsh (Laser Spectacles) and George Dodworth (Lightwave International).

     ...Other ILDA Members who helped with setup and manning the ILDA Booth, including Doug McCullough (Laser Show Design), Don Wenzel (Pangolin), and Paul Berthot (Clandestine Systems). Karen Benner helped by renting a saxophone for Tim and bringing it to the Theater so we could use it.

     ...ILDA Members and friends who spent time with us, including Aron Bacs (Bacs Design), John Birchman, Melissa Chisholm (former ILDA Secretary), Robert Harper (Hollywood Pro Lighting), Carlos Kelisek (Mundo Odnum), Alberto Kellner (Laser Entertainment), Walt Meador (Laser Rentals), A.J. Moussa (NewAje), Craig Nelson, and Todd Rogers (Beamin' Lasers). If I've missed others, my apologies!

     ...finally, my deepest appreciation for Christine Jenkin of LaserNet. She brought LDI and ILDA together, and was instrumental in making arrangements and planning the event. Without Christine's assistance, this would not have occurred. In recognition, she was given a well-deserved standing ovation of thanks at the Friday afternoon meeting of ILDA Members.