What's
new with ILDA and the website
This page has news from 2010. For older news, click to get news from 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.
In addition to the news items listed below, you may also want to check out the following webpages for news from ILDA Members:
Laser shows and projects page
New products and services page
Press releases page
August 2010
ILDA has lost a Charter Member, and the laserist community has lost a pioneer. On August 9, Daniel Cohn of Technological Artisans in Pleasantville NY passed away. Daniel had been involved with lasers since the 1970s. In 1981 he founded Technological Artisans, which did hardware, software and shows. He signed up for ILDA in its first year (1986) and at the time of his passing was Technical Committee chair. He had been ill for the past few years and yet still continued working on his company and on the Technical Committee. ILDA extends our sympathy to his family, many friends and co-workers.
ILDA Members are reminded of the
upcoming Board of Directors election and ILDA Business Meeting,
to be held September 7 during the ILDA Conference on board the Carnival
Destiny. All Members are eligible to vote, whether in person at the
Meeting or by "proxy" if you cannot attend the Meeting.
This year, three of the five Board of Directors terms
expire. Anyone may run for these seats on the Board. Board service is
for two years. If you are interested, details of directors' activities,
duties and responsibilities is
here.
For more information on how to run for the Board
of Directors, and how Members can vote in person or by proxy at the
Business Meeting, see the page Information
for candidates and for voters.
July
2010
ILDA is now taking applications for
the ILDA Professional program.
Applicants are listed on the new
IAPLC directory
page.
Any company -- not just ILDA Members -- that is interested in
applying can
read more about the purpose
and requirements of this program,
and can
download the Accreditation
Form spreadsheet.
All 2010 ILDA Award winners -- Artistic, Technical and Career Achievement -- have now been notified. If you did not receive a notification, but think you should have, contact ILDA.
The ILDA-cosponsored website LaserPointerSafety.com was called a "gold mine of laser safety information specific to aviation and tailored to pilots and laser pointer users" by the Flight Safety Foundation, in a favorable review published in the April 2010 issue of their magazine AeroSafetyWorld. (The review came to ILDA's attention in July.) LaserPointerSafety.com is co-sponsored by ILDA and Dr. Chuck Maricle of ILDA Member Aixiz.
ILDA will be holding a Laser Safety Officer course, during the Sept. 6-11 cruise and ILDA Conference. Since this is our first time offering this, the price is just $395 for Members. To sign up, contact ILDA directly.You can still attend the ILDA Conference, September 6-11 on the Carnival Destiny. Although July 7 was the cut-off for guaranteed rooms at ILDA's rate, there still are cabins available. Check Carnival's website for availability. Be sure to register using Booking Method 1 on this page, where you reserve by phone at 866-721-3225 or 305-599-2600 ext 70204 and you MUST give ILDA's Group Booking Number 77P1Q2.
June 2010
The New York State Class B Mobile Laser License fee rose from $60 to $150, according to a report from John "Ivan" Borcherding. He also notes that the new license requires that a photo be taken at an official New York State Department of Motor Vehicles office: "This can make renewal a little more difficult for laserists who live out of the state."
ILDA is very sorry to report about a light airplane crash on June 16 near Rochester, Minnesota that claimed three lives. The pilot, Christopher Livingston, had a laser light show company "Fascination Laser" (ex-ILDA member) and had worked for Orlando's well-known laser company AVI. His girlfriend, Heather Nichols, and their friend and Lasertainment employee Dan Lauritsen ("laserboy") also died in the crash. Our deep condolences go to the many friends and relatives of Chris, Dan, and Heather.ILDA supported testimony to the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health made by ILDA Member company X-Laser. In its statement, ILDA noted that "we support the CDRH's regulatory authority, but our U.S. members are extremely frustrated with CDRH's slowness in issuing variances, and lack of enforcement against rogue manufacturers, importers and laser show operators." ILDA supported X-Laser's statement "in order to improve public safety and fairness for responsible laser users."
ILDA has been
working with interested parties on laser safety aspects of laser diodes
and handheld devices in the 1-watt range, which have recently
been introduced at affordable prices. These have been used to make the
first Class 4 handheld laser sold to consumers. ILDA has long been
involved with laser safety, through work by persons such as Safety
Committee chair Greg Makhov with ANSI, IEC and especially the SAE G-10T
aviation safety group. The work on laser pointers, while not directly
affecting light shows, has the goal of keeping a positive public
attitude towards lasers in general, and being a way to give back via
public service to society and government.
More information is at the
"June 2010 alert" page at
LaserPointerSafety.com.
May 2010
ILDA Members may now vote for the Career Achievement Award recipient; votes are due via email sent to ILDA, on or before Tuesday, 8 June 2010. The nominees for this year are (in alphabetical order): Lothar Bopp, Steve Heminover, Olesya Kazantseva, Cory Simpson, Bernd Steinert, and John Tilp. Full voting instructions and nominee biographies are on the 2010 ILDA Career Achievement Award nominees page.
Added suggested judging criteria for the ILDA Artistic Awards. These criteria were first developed by Malcolm Hignett at Thames Valley University.
Updated the "Places to see ongoing laser shows" page to add a new summer show at Dixie Landin' amusement park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Qualifications for Board of
Director candidates have been added to the ILDA Bylaws. In
addition, Article VIII, Section 9 details additional requirements for
Board Members. These changes were voted on by the Board at their May 11
2010 monthly meeting. ILDA Members must ratify the changes at the next
annual Business Meeting, which will take place 7 Sept. 2010 during the
ILDA Conference on board the Carnival Destiny. The changes have
been highlighted in yellow on the Bylaws, to make them easy to spot.
The Bylaws are available
here as a webpage in the
Members Only section. Note that you must have a username and password in
order to access this section. If you do not know the current username
and password, please read the
"Password help" information first.
Results of the March poll about
ILDA voting were sent via email to Members on May 10. The
online poll asked questions about proxy voting, quorum requirements, and
online voting. Twenty-seven Members responded to the poll. By a
significant majority, the respondents wanted to keep these voting
procedures unchanged. Many respondents also added comments. All Members
were sent the final spreadsheet including all comments.
Based in part on the poll results, the ILDA Board decided to
make no changes in voting procedures. The Board did note and appreciate
the comments, and is keeping these in mind for any possible future
proposals.
The proxy poll is
here, and the results are
here, as webpages in the
Members Only section. Note that you must have a username and password in
order to access this section. If you do not know the current username
and password, please read the
"Password help" information first.
This
is the best month to reserve your cabin, and register for the
2010 ILDA Conference,
to be held 6-11 Sept. on the Carnival Destiny, sailing
from Miami.
Early registration rates are lowest during May. Rates
go up to regular price in June; late registration beginning in July will
be even higher, so book in May if at all possible. There are two booking
methods to get a cabin. You can
book
directly with Carnival (preferred), or you can
pay ILDA
online and we will book for you. In addition, you can
register for the
ILDA Conference events online. If you want to
exhibit at the
Tabletop Tradeshow, you can also do this online.
Enter your designs in the 2010 ILDA Conference t-shirt logo contest. The winner receives $125 off of ILDA products (dues, registration, etc.) plus a t-shirt. Since this is the 50th anniversary of the laser, we suggest this as a design element or theme. Entry guidelines and rules are here.
We have finalized the schedule of events for the 2010 ILDA Conference. Details are here.
April 2010
Laser
Artist Co. of Moscow has joined the ILDA Member Discount Program.
ILDA Members receive a 10 to 40%
discount on custom laser show creation (showware) and artwork for
Lasergraph DSP. The discount varies depending on the work complexity.
They have an Express Show Service to create laser shows in three days or
less, and an Express Logo Service to do logos in 24 hours or less.
Examples of works (portfolio) are at:
www.laserartist.ru/portfolio2.html
.jpg)
148
lasers were used for an artistic installation in London,
created by United Visual Artists with technical support by ILDA Member
ER Productions.
ER not only supplied lasers and assistance, but also developed an
infra-red curtain. It prevents access to the beams, without barriers or
staff, by shutting the laser down within 20 milliseconds of being
breached. More information on the art exhibition "Speed of Light",
created for Virgin Media, is on the
Laser shows and
projects page.
New statistics and recommendations for audience scanning are in an updated version of a paper first presented in March 2009 at the International Laser Safety Conference. The revision notes that over the past 30 years, about 109,500,000 persons have been exposed to audience scanning, receiving an estimated 10,950,000,000 pulses in their eyes. Yet despite these large numbers, there has been only a handful of injury reports from deliberate audience scanning using continuous-wave lasers. ILDA recommends allowing powers up to 10 times the Maximum Permissible Exposure for audience scanning shows that have certain additional safety features. In the updated version, ILDA additionally recommends that such "10x" shows be videotaped for safety and legal compliance reasons.
March 2010
We are asking for volunteer Corporate Members to help test the application form for ILDA Accredited Professional Lasershow Company status. We want to work with just a few companies at the start, to ensure that our process goes smoothly. If you are interested, please review the certification page and application form, then email us to confirm your participation. Note that you must have access to Microsoft Excel 2003 or later in order to fill out the application form. (There is no fee during the form-testing phase but if you wish to go ahead and get Accreditation, there will be a fee. The exact amount has not yet been set.)
ILDA emailed a poll to all Members, asking for their views regarding proxy voting rules, quorum requirements, and online voting. The poll is also available at this page in the Members-Only area. Deadline for Members returning the poll is Wed., March 31.
Updated the laser safety links and articles page with new and improved links, to better help Members and the general public find information.
ILDA Award entries are now coming in and are being listed as they arrive, on the 2010 ILDA Awards page. Entries are logged in every few days, so if you do not see your entry listed right away, wait a few days. Note that the deadline to mail your entries is 31 March 2010.
LaserAnimation Sollinger was recently honored by Coherent, for being the first company to sell more than 200 Taipan high-power (>3W) laser modules. This was achieved just four months after reaching the 100-unit mark. More information is on the press releases page.
Lasers
featured prominently in the February 7 Super Bowl halftime show,
where The Who was backed by 400 watts of power from sixteen
lasers. We now have
details about what went into creating the Super Bowl halftime laser show,
produced by Laser Design Productions of Markham, Ontario and Las Vegas.
The information includes a
press release from LDP, plus a
larger version of the photo at right.
(Photo
credit: Touchdown Entertainment Inc./Brad Duns)
February 2010
Added a list of places to see laser shows. (This is intended for ongoing shows, not one-time special events.) If you want to have a site or venue added, please contact us.
ILDA's
annual conference has been set for September 6-11, 2010.
Join laserists from around
the world, aboard the Carnival Destiny. This is an Eastern
Caribbean cruise, leaving from Miami Florida. ILDA has reserved cabins
as low as $359 per person double-occupancy, making this a very
affordable work-and-play vacation. For details:
It's renewal time for ILDA Members. We are using a new automated system this year. Renewal instructions are here. Thanks very much to all Members who are renewing!
January 2010
ILDA took a poll of Members, on
behalf of U.S. laser regulators. The FDA's Center for Devices
and Radiological Health had contacted ILDA looking for data about the
operating systems used by laserists. The information would help them
plan updates for their "CeSub eSubmission" forms-filing software.
ILDA's poll results showed that for most respondents,
it would not be a problem if the software was available only for Windows
computers. However, comments about the CeSub software were uniformly
negative. Respondents said it was "inefficient", "complicated",
"convoluted", "cumbersome" and "tedious". Two Members suggested it be
replaced with a web-based form that could be filled out by any browser.
The results were sent to CDRH for their further use.
Added another ILDA
Member-discount on lasershow services.
LaserTech
Canada provides a 10% discount on their
Logo Express service. They will convert logos or other drawings into
laser format, usually in 24 hours or less. This is ideal for laserists
who don't have the time or interest in painstaking digitization to make
professional-quality laser logos.
For a complete list of participating merchants, visit the
Member Discount Program webpage.
Added a press release about ILDA Member and 2005 Career Achievement Award recipient L. Michael Roberts. Back in October, he received recognition for an article he wrote on magnetic induction lighting, in the expert-only Google Knol online encyclopedia.
Rules
and entry forms for the ILDA Awards are now available. To
find out more about how to enter the Artistic, Technical and Career
Achievement Awards, visit the 2010 ILDA
Awards page. This page also lists changes to the 2010 Artistic
awards categories and rules.
Revamped the ILDA Directory system, to make it easier for prospective clients to find Members. In addition to the new database (which has the master information for ILDA), added two older-style single-page directory listings:
-
ILDA Membership Directory, listed by membership type (Corporate, Nonprofit, etc.)
-
ILDA Membership Directory, listed geographically by country
Because these listings are updated manually, the database will always have the latest information. However, it is easier to skim and scan the two new directory pages.
ILDA is re-introducing the
"ILDA Accredited Professional Lasershow Company" program.
Experienced lasershow companies, organizations and individuals can be
accredited by ILDA, and thus be certified as "professional". This is an
important way that companies can differentiate and market their
experience. It also will help improve the laser display industry since
clients will be able to identify and select companies with more
professional experience.
You can now
download the draft Accreditation Form. This is an Excel spreadsheet
which lists all required information, and automates the process of
collecting points in various activity areas. ILDA is asking Members and
other interested companies to "try out" the draft form, and
contact us with suggestions on the points,
activity areas, and other aspects of the program.
ILDA hopes to add more certification programs, in areas
such as laser show equipment. Click here for
an overview of ILDA certification
and accreditation programs.
Dues renewal time is here! 2009 ILDA Members, you can renew your membership anytime up through January 31 2010. You can pay online by credit card or PayPal, or you can request an invoice to be sent to you. The quick and easy renewal process starts here.
The Board is working on
future ILDA Conference
locations. For 2010, we are
looking at a Miami cruise in the August-September timeframe. For 2011,
we have tentative offers for Hamburg, Munich and Moscow. In 2012, Laser
Spectacles will host in San Antonio, Texas. And in 2013, LOBO will host
at their location in Aachen, Germany.
