What's new with ILDA and the website
(2009 list)

This page has news from 2009. For older news, click to get news from 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
 

October 2009

Added the text of a 12-page paper, "Undergraduate Photons" by Malcolm Hignett of Thames Valley University. This was presented at the 2009 ILDA Conference in Amsterdam. The paper is available to ILDA Members (Members-Only password required for access). Here is a condensed abstract:

• Thames Valley University in London has been running laser display courses for undergraduate students and interested members of the public since 1996. This presentation will evaluate some of the successes and pitfalls of running courses in laser display and show examples of animation and beam shows arising from the final year animation degree students. A SWAT analysis of existing experience within TVU will offer a pointer to the future design, development and updating of courses, both within the higher educational sector and for industry.

At its October Board meeting, the ILDA Board of Directors, acting on a recommendation from the Ethics Committee, removed Scanergy (a Hungarian producer of laser shows and equipment) as an ILDA Member "due to unresolved Ethics complaints."

We are now using a completely new system for managing Members and ILDA products such as Conference registrations. An all-new database connects to a "Membership Management website" run by Avectra, a leader in association management software. By doing this, ILDA and our Members gain many useful and convenient features:

• The ILDA Member online directory is now searchable. Members and the general public can search for companies based on name, city, country, keyword ("Description") and other criteria. This should make it easier to find Members.

• ILDA Members can also update their contact information and description, on their own. If you are a Member, you do not need to contact ILDA in order to update your list.

• Memberships can now be automatically renewed online. As soon as your payment is registered, your Membership is updated to show the new status.

• New members can automatically join and pay their dues. As soon as the payment is registered, they appear on ILDA Membership lists.

This system is new to ILDA, so we expect there may be some initial "teething pains". If you have any problems or questions, please contact us by email or phone.
 

September 2009

The ILDA Board is working on future ILDA Conference locations. For 2010, we are looking at Orlando or a Miami cruise; ILDA Members are invited to vote via email for their choice. 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.

ILDA submitted to the CDRH suggested changes to a proposed U.S. law prohibiting laser interference with aircraft. As originally written, the "Securing Cockpits Act" would ban aiming lasers at aircraft or into flight paths. ILDA believes this is too broad. Also, the Act did not contain exemptions for FAA-reviewed laser activities. To help improve the Act, ILDA has submitted improved language to the FDA/CDRH.
     For intentional exposures, it would be an offense to use a laser to deliberately track, target or interfere with aircraft. For unintentional exposures, a person could be prosecuted only if 1) the beam irradiance at the aircraft exceeded FAA limits for the aircraft's location (flight zone) AND 2) if the pilot was sufficiently concerned so that he or she filed an official laser incident report with the FAA.
     ILDA is also seeking an exemption from prosecution for FAA-reviewed laser activities, including light shows, as long as the lasers are operated according to terms in the FAA's "non-objection letter". Finally, ILDA suggested changing the law's name to the more accurate "Protecting Pilots from Lasers Act".

A major Internet laser distributor, Wicked Lasers, is adding aviation safety information to its product labeling and website. Since August 2008, ILDA's website LaserPointerSafety.com has advocated this type of action. Specifically, we have called for a warning label on hand-held lasers such as "Do not point at aircraft". We also have suggested including a flyer with more detailed information about why users should not point lasers towards aircraft, and including this information on the distributor's website.
     Wicked Lasers has now taken these steps, in part due to ILDA's efforts. This helps avoid a possible ban on hand-held lasers, as well as "bad press" for misuse of lasers in general.

ILDA has published an analysis of the Tomorrowland Festival, held July 25-26 in Boom, Belgium. Two persons reported being injured by lasers. Authorities concluded the injuries were due to laser pointer misuse by audience members. The laser light show was found to be below ILDA limits for festival-type shows, and thus was not a cause of the injuries.

ILDA Executive Director Patrick Murphy was the invited guest speaker at the 14th Annual Laser Safety Forum, held September 8 at Loughborough University in the U.K. He presented two papers. One was on laser/aviation safety, and included ILDA's efforts to have an "aviation caution label" for laser pointers. The other paper discussed how audience scanning has resulted in "essentially no injuries" over 30+ years of laser shows. As a result, ILDA is proposing to allow audience scanning at levels up to 10 times the MPE under specified conditions to assure safety. Our thanks to ILDA Member John O'Hagan for the invitation.

August 2009

A new page lists any Ethics complaints filed against ILDA Members. It should be noted that the filing of a complaint does not necessarily mean that the complaint is justified or that the problem is severe. However, it does inform Members and the general public that there has been a complaint filed.

ILDA attended the South East Laser Enthusiasts Meeting (SELEM), Aug. 15-16 in Newton, North Carolina. Executive Director Patrick Murphy gave a presentation to the laserists about ILDA's audience scanning safety activities.

Added information on U.S. federal laser laws and regulations. The page includes links to appropriate CDRH forms.

REMINDER FOR U.S. LASERISTS WITH VARIANCES: All U.S. variance holders must submit an Annual Report by September 1. If it is not submitted, the variance will expire on December 31.

Posted Tim Walsh's report on the ILDA Technical Workshop, held in June at the ILDA Annual Conference near Amsterdam. Also, added photos of the Lase-Off and the ILDA Awards.

Added an online Ethics Complaint Form, for persons wanting to report violations of the ILDA Code of Ethics.
 

July 2009

Updated the online ILDA Membership listings for Corporate (A-K and L-Z), Nonprofit, Individual and Student Members, so that only 2009 Members are listed. Also updated the Geographic listing of Corporate Members.

The ILDA List mailing list was purged of anyone not a 2009 Member. (If you were a 2008 or earlier Member, we welcome your renewal, hint, hint...)

Mailed the final batch of ILDA Membership Certificates. After this last batch of 25 arrive via postal mail, all current 2009 ILDA Members should have a printed certificate from ILDA. If you are a 2009 ILDA Member and you do not have a certificate, contact ILDA.

Revised the ILDA Accredited Professional Lasershow Company application form. It is slightly easier for companies to gain accreditation, compared with the first draft sent in January 2009. This is still in draft so discussion and suggestions are welcomed.

June 2009

Updated various pages to reflect activity at the 2009 ILDA Conference, June 5-7. These include: the list of all-time ILDA Award winners, the list of Board members (including the chart at the bottom showing Board service terms), and the ILDA history page. Also, added a sample contract between the host and ILDA, which will be of interest to companies considering hosting future ILDA Conferences.

The list of 2009 ILDA Award winners is now available. This includes Artistic, Technical and Career Achievement Award winners. Congratulations to Greg Makhov, who received the 2009 CAA. Also, anyone can download a PDF file with detailed photos and descriptions of the 2009 Artistic Award winners. ILDA Members can download an expanded version with the 2009 Artistic Award winners plus all entries.

May 2009

All 2009 ILDA Artistic, Technical and Career Achievement award winners have been privately notified by email. The public announcement of the winners will be 7 June during the ILDA Conference in Amsterdam (at the Awards Dinner and Presentation).

Two companies have joined the Member Discount Program, to provide savings to ILDA Members. Here is a summary of their discounts. Details are at the Member Discount Program page.

• spectrabeam.de offers discounts of 5-20% on lasershows (showware), hardware, software, music CDs and similar products. Plus, if you order during the ILDA Conference June 5-8, you get an additional 5% off.
• Laser Production Network (LaserNet) of Miami FL offers any ILDA Member dealer pricing on all products, even if they are not a listed dealer of LaserNet. This represents a savings of 15-40%.

For the 2009 ILDA Artistic Awards, we received 112 entries. Nineteen of these were in laser, the rest were in video format or prints/JPGs. There were 19 ILDA Members who entered the Artistic Awards. Details about how many entries were in each of the ten categories is on this page.

The ILDA Artistic Awards judging takes place this coming Sunday, May 24, at LSDI's studio in Orlando. Any ILDA Member interested in attending is welcome. You can see the entries, and observe the judges as they deliberate. Of course, you can't participate in the discussions or judging. But if you've ever wondered how the entries are viewed and how the decisions are made, here's your opportunity.
       We are trying this as an experiment this year. Normally, judging is closed simply to avoid distractions. This year, we thought we'd try allowing ILDA Members to quietly observe and see how it works out. If things go smoothly, perhaps we can do this at future judging sessions.
     If you are going to come, contact ILDA. We'll start around 10 am, and will probably go until 4-5 pm. You don't have to stay for the whole process; all we ask is that you not talk or be a distraction while you are in the room.

Added a page with information on how Members can run for the Board of Directors, and how Members can vote for Board nominees. Even if you can't attend the Business Meeting at the annual ILDA Conference, this page describes how to get your vote counted. (And if you are interested in running for the Board, don't forget our older page which tells what to expect if you run for ILDA's Board of Directors.)

ILDA Members can now vote for the 2009 Career Achievement Award recipient. This is the first time that Members choose the winner, instead of a panel of three judges. A list of CAA nominees, and voting instructions, are on this page. Voting closes on Monday 25 May, so vote soon!

April 2009

ILDA's analysis of audience scanning was one of two papers highlighted by the Laser Institute of America. The March/April 2009 issue of LIA TODAY magazine noted the recent International Laser Safety Conference in Reno. Summaries of two papers were then presented, one about changes to ANSI Z136.1, and the other ILDA's proposal.
     This shows the interest in the general laser safety community in ILDA's paper, which discussed the safe record of audience scanning. The paper also proposed allowing higher-than-MPE audience scanning in return for additional safety measures. Click here to see the summary of ILDA's paper, as it appeared in LIA TODAY, and click here to see the full paper as presented at the ILSC in Reno. [April 2010 note: The full paper has been revised, click here for the latest version.]

Registration is now open for the 2009 ILDA Conference which will be held June 5-7 in Amsterdam. There are two registration forms, one for 2009 ILDA Members, and one for non-Members. There is currently an early-registration discount of $50.
 

March 2009

ILDA made presentations at the 2009 International Laser Safety Conference, held in Reno, Nevada March 23-26. Executive Director Patrick Murphy gave an overview of two papers published in the Proceedings of the 2009 ILSC; one on Lasers and Aviation Safety, and one on Audience Scanning.
     The audience scanning presentation was especially well-received. It discussed the fact that around 110 million people have attended audience scanning laser shows, and have been exposed to around 11 billion laser pulses, with a very low number of injury reports (around 2.5 injury reports per decade for safe shows with continuous wave lasers). A proposal was presented to allow audience scanning at safe powers, ten times the MPE, if certain procedural measures are implemented and warning signs are posted.
     ILDA Safety Committee chair Greg Makhov did three laser shows during the conference, and gave an update on the Aquamarine incident last July in Russia.
     Other ILDA and lasershow persons who attended included Roberta McHatton, John O'Hagan, Jay Parkinson, Ben Smith, Casey Stack, and Tony Zmorenski.

ILDA attended the 2009 Florida Laser Enthusiasts Meeting, held in Tavares on March 21. ILDA Members in attendance included Adam Burns, Jon Robertson of DayStar Lasers, and Bill Benner of Pangolin Laser Systems. ILDA Executive Director Patrick Murphy gave a presentation to the group about outdoor laser safety. To help support the meeting, ILDA donated an Individual Membership to FLEM's raffle; this was won by Edson Rusca of Miami, who is now ILDA's newest Member.
 

Doug Adams of Laser Design Production and Pyrotek discusses laser and pyro at Metallica's world tour. A short excerpt, and a link to the full interview is on the Laser shows and projects page.

Added information on laser damage to cameras, camcorders and video projectors. Recently, there have been some private email messages from audience-goers and ILDA Members regarding this topic. To help provide more information, two pages have been added to the ILDA website:

• One page is public, for audience members who are using their cameras and camcorders at audience-scanning laser shows. It notes that sensors may be more sensitive than the human eye to laser light, and that laserists do not know where the audience's cameras may be located. Therefore, laserists cannot be expected to protect against sensor damage.
• The other page is in the password-protected Members-Only section. It discusses how to avoid damaging clients' expensive cameras and especially DLP video projectors. Ways of avoiding damage are listed. All ILDA Members doing shows where client cameras and video projectors are used should read this information.

Added SAE documents on aviation safety to ILDA's page with safety-related information.

Added Chinese and Japanese translations of William R. Benner Jr.'s article "Projector Connections", from the Summer 2008 Laserist magazine. The article is a "guide for projector manufacturers on the best way to assemble components to create a laser projector conforming to the ILDA Standard Projector (ISP) specification. It may also be interesting to many laserists, as it provides a good insight into how projectors work and the components involved."

February 2009

Lightwave International is offering a 10% discount to all active ILDA Members worldwide on Arctos solid state laser rentals. Lightwave is the exclusive dealer for Arctos products in the Americas (Canada, USA, Central and South America) and has a substantial inventory of most power levels available for immediate shipment. Lightwave's website is www.lasershows.net; information on the rentals is at http://www.solidstatelaserrental.com/content/view/70/90/.
    A complete list of discount offers available to ILDA Members is on the Discount Program page.

A new book features the laser art of ILDA Member Manick Sorcar. You may remember that his award-winning "Reflection" was the cover of the most recent Laserist magazine, and he was featured in an interview inside the magazine.
     Authored by Roma Sur, the 210-page hardcover book extensively documents Manick's artworks, cartoons, animations and laser art. There are 60 laser-related pages with laser-only images as well as many works where laser is incorporated into dance or other art forms.
     Interested ILDA Members can order a signed copy of the book at a discounted price of USD $35. Details about the book and the special offer are at this page.

ILDA is presenting two technical papers at the International Laser Safety Conference, "the premier gathering of laser safety professionals". This once-every-two-years conference is being held March 23-26. ILDA's papers are:

• Lasers and Aviation Safety  ILDA Executive Director Patrick Murphy presents a 17-page  comprehensive overview of laser hazards to aircraft, ways of reducing the hazard, current regulations, and a history of incidents.
• Scanning Audiences at Laser Shows: Theory, Practice and a Proposal   Murphy and ILDA Safety Committee chair Greg Makhov worked together on this 21-page paper, which covers why audience-scanning shows are popular, how to easily set show power levels (irradiance), and the lack of injury reports and possible reasons for this. Of greatest interest to laserists is an ILDA proposal to allow audience scanning with irradiances up to 10 times the current Maximum Permissible Exposure, in return for additional safety and liability features. The link above is to a longer, expanded version of the ILSC-submitted paper.

     Incidentally, former ILDA Board Member Casey Stack will also be at ILSC presenting a paper, "Comparison of Real World Ocular Hazards Presented by Unregulated Consumer Short-Arc Video Projectors as Compared to Highly Regulated Laser and OPO Illuminated Video Projectors With Similar Emission Values".

The 2009 ILDA Conference will be June 5-7, at a 17th century estate in Leiden, near Amsterdam. The host is Peter Broerse's company, DMXLASER. Registration is not yet open but we do have a page with additional information.

ILDA attended the SAE G-10T Laser Safety Hazards Subcommittee meeting in Melbourne, Florida. ILDA Executive Director Patrick Murphy gave a presentation on the www.laserpointersafety.com website, which ILDA sponsors. Attendees were impressed with the quantity and depth of information at the site, which attempts to educate consumers about safe laser pointer usage.
     Leon McLin, representing the U.S. Air Force, showed a new 22-minute video intended for pilots and others learning about laser pointer hazards. The video contains footage from ILDA Members. The narration summarizes outdoor laser shows as follows:

Laser strikes have become increasingly common events since the 1990s. Many earlier incidents were accidental illuminations from laser light shows. That problem was solved by the laser entertainment industry, the FDA and the FAA working together to establish regulations and procedures to minimize the probability of laser exposures to aircrew from these shows. Regulations were implemented restricting laser shows to project into critical zones around airports. Laser shows are now required to obtain a letter of non-objection from the FAA and are required to plan their shows and control their lasers to prevent aircraft illuminations. Unfortunately, the gap in laser incidents left by regulation of the light show industry has been more than filled by persons in the private sector shining lasers at aircraft. [Emphasis added]

The video's credits include "International Laser Display Association, Timothy Walsh, Orlando, FL".

January 2009

An ILDA publication is listed as a reference by the International Congress and Convention Association. The ICCA has just published a 24-page guide to international association conventions. One of the links in the guide is to the publication "So You Want To Host An ILDA Conference", written by L. Michael Roberts. Congratulations to Michael for providing information that the ICCA highlighted!

ILDA is 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.

Reminder: The 2009 ILDA Awards deadine is Friday, January 16 2009. Information on entering is here.

Dues renewal time is here! 2008 ILDA Members, you can renew your membership anytime up through January 31 2009. 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.