LASERS

[jonnyfive1985]

Does anybody know anything about lasers my boss told me he wants us to figure out how to use them in our christmas show but i dont know the least bit about them, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[NickJones]

Depends, some are simply stand alone, you plug it in and it makes prettyfull patterns. Some are DMX controlled, some high end ones get complex. Have a read of the manual for the Martin RGB Laser 1.6's manual, should give you an idea on how to use it.

Nick

 

[Sony]

Becareful...there are certain Lasers (I think the Martin RGB Laser is one of them) that you absolutely cannot shine into the audience due to their power. You could blind someone if you hit them in the eyes, generally you should never point ANY laser directly at the audience. Keep it above peoples heads or straight down vertically onto the floor and you should be fine.

 

[soundlight]

Lasers are something I never use because I don't want to be liable if the laser happens to scan the audience at all. You should read up on variances and on what classes of lasers you can use with what variance.

 

[DaveySimps]

To me, this sort of sounds like it falls into the department of "If you have to ask, you should probable hire someone to teach you how to do it right". Somethings you can lear by expirmentation. I do not think that is the safest thing to do here, in my opinion.

I remember reading an article in a trade magazine a while back, where a lighting company in another country had to move an event under a tent due to weather. They used the same programming they had for the original outdoor venue. Their lasers (only two or three in the rig I believe) ended up causing sevear vision damage to several quests / spectators.

~Dave

 

[shiben]

Dave: the event was in russia, and I believe that like 60 people had temporary vision impairment. I agree with the above that hiring someone to do this is probably the best idea. Also, keep in mind that you need to haze the area for lasers to be effective, so that may or may not play into your consideration of the topic. Personally, I would recommend that unless you have a very specific design intent for the lasers, that you find another cool effect. We had a DJ come in a while back, and he had a few laser type devices from Elation making random patterns in the air, and they just looked silly.

 

[DaveySimps]

Just found a link to the story I referred to.

~Dave

Russian Laser Show Leaves 61 Partially Blind - PLSN

 

[shiben]

Yeah that was straight up bad. Makes me not want to ever use lasers in a show without hiring in someone who makes their living programing and operating them. Its a lot of responsibility.

 

[DaveySimps]

I could not agree more. I saw a print ad where a company is renting one of these lasers to community theatres and high schools as part of their effects package for Peter Pan (the laser is Tinkerbell). The potential for inexperienced / amateur users to do harm in a scenario like this is high.

~Dave

 

[Fred]

Used them in a college production, with a rep from the company as the expert/tech assist. Even with said expert, an actor managed to stumble into a beam and have some pretty serious vision issues. From what I recall, the power output involved was several orders of magnitude stronger than the average handheld (presentation type) laser pointer, with similarly increased risks.

Similar to the above, find someone who knows the equipment and what they are doing, and get them onboard.

 

[shiben]

And as Fred said, never forget the awesome power of the talent to get injured by things.

 

[mrb]

Lasers (in the USA) are regulated by the CDRH which is a federal government regulatory agency (a division of the FDA). Public display of anything over 5mw requires a permit (called a Variance). There are a TON of safety regulations.

The unfortunate part is, due to the cheap import lasers and all of the people buying them off ebay and using them illegally and unsafely, there are 20 or 30 illegal operators for every legitimate one.

There are many local jurisdictions which also require a permit for public display of a laser -usually obtained through the fire department.

 

[eternalfire1244]

I know this is a bit late to help you for your show, but there is a good resource www.laserfx.com that is operated by L. Michael Roberts (One of my mentors) and gives you a fairly good level of basic info.

 

[Dionysus]

I know this is a bit late to help you for your show, but there is a good resource www.laserfx.com that is operated by L. Michael Roberts (One of my mentors) and gives you a fairly good level of basic info.

Haha, I know L. Micheal Roberts, interesting fellow. He's based right here in Goderich.

 

[len]

Lasers are just like a lot of other things such as rigging and pyro. They are a powerful tool which, in the proper hands, can be a great addition to any event. But if you don't know what you're doing, keep your hands in your pocket and shut up.