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SELEM V wrap-up
Wow, what a weekend! Once again, SELEM was bigger than ever. Expanded to 3 full days this year, we had more time for shows than ever before. And despite a few hiccups early on, everything really did seem to go a lot smoother this year than in past years. We were able to run shows in several configurations, and though there was a lot of cable swapping (and more than a little swearing), in the end it worked out quite well.
I'd like to thank everyone who came into town early to help with the load-in. It was a *lot* of gear to move, and I definitely appreciated the help. A big thanks needs to go out to Jeff (RGB-gas) for providing the scaffolding and the power cabling again this year. Likewise, a big thanks to Matt (DJMatt) for helping to set up the power distribution, both to the stage and to the audience.
Johanthan (Platinum) was a big help early on in getting everything laid out correctly, and he also performed above and beyond the call of duty when we decided to try taping off the smoke detectors to stop the constant fire alarms. (There's no way in hell I would have climbed that ladder!)
Len and Brad put on a fantastic feast for us. We had meatball sandwitches and spaghetti on Friday, and cold cut sub sandwitches over the weekend. We also had home-made garlic bread and fresh salad. Very tasty!
Frank (Flecom) showed up with an enormous sound board that we used for the entire event. In fact, I think Jeff actually bought it from him at the close of SELEM, so it looks like we'll have it back again next year. Likewise, Mario (Ragdoll) showed up with a ton of gear, incluing 6 large powered subwoofer cabinets and four trapezoidal powered monitors. We had better sound this year than ever before! (Thanks Mario!)
This year we also had something new: a large aluminum truss that spanned the entire stage, thanks to Mario. Although we only hung one projector on it this year (Frank's 6 + watt RGB monster), I think next year we'll be making better use of the truss. Note also that Mario is a professional DJ, so he brought his turntables and part of his music collection with him, allowing him to spin for us on Friday and Saturday night while we played along using LivePro and Quickshow. That was a lot of fun, and I really look forward to doing that again next year!
While I'm thanking people, I'd also like to thank Neil (Icecruncher) for agreeing to ferry Steve Roberts (MixedGas) to and from the Charlotte airport. That was a huge help. Then too, I have to give credit to Greg (Displaser) for setting up the dinner meet at Bistro 127 on Thursday night. That was pretty cool.
A big thanks is owed to Marc (Gottaluvlasers) for coordinating the effort to get Steve to SELEM this year. I know everyone was happy to see him there, working away in the ion workshop we had set up in the woman's dressing room. Speaking of that dressing room, how many of you poked your heads in there to see some of the Pangolin shows running on a white light ion laser with PCAOM color control? Pretty cool, eh? I hope we can do that again next year. (Thanks to Jeff and Matt for bringing all that extra ion gear!)
The buy and sell area was a huge success this year. In fact, that men's dressing room is becoming so crowded we may have to move the buy and sell area to a larger place! MechEng3 sold an RGB projector and an empty projector case within 30 minutes of his arrival, and I noticed that by Sunday morning there was a lot less gear in that room than there was Friday morning...
One of the most amazing things in that room was the honeycomb aluminum plate that Lenny (No-esc) brought with him. That stuff was as light as cardboard, and as strong as stainless steel plate. Johnathan put a sheet of it between two chairs and dared anyone to jump up and down on it in an attempt to bend it. Several people tried (including DZ), and while the chairs began to flex, the honeycomb structure never moved a bit. Amazing stuff!
This year we had several special guests, including Tim Walsh (current ILDA president), Mike Dunn (the renown artist/laserist behind FirstLight Laser shows), Bill Benner (president of Pangolin Laser Systems), and of course, Sam Goldwasser of Sam's Laser FAQ.
Tim didn't arrive until late on Saturday, but on Sunday he treated us to several shows that he created using his LaserGraph DSP controllers. In particular, he played a number of shows where the sound we heard from the speakers was the same signal that the scaners were scanning. Truly an amazing set of shows!
Mike Dunn also arrived late on Saturday, and on Sunday he played some of the shows from his considerable show library. One in particular, "Lucy in the sky with Diamons", by the Beatles, was claimed to be a "work in progress", but the general consensus among SELEM attendees was that it's ready for prime time! We all enjoyed the shows, and were very grateful that Mike was able to attend.
Bill Benner gave a very interesting and informative presentation on Saturday concerning the newest Pangolin product, the "Beyond" software. This software runs on both the QM-2000 board and the FB3 controller. It adds a number of new features, including unlimited tracks, unlimited effects, and real-time manipulation of just about everything, including abstracts, via both DMX and MIDI signal inputs. It also has an extensive 3D modeling environment, complete with all the tools needed to create virtual 3D worlds that can be displayed in laser. Peiter (MasterPJ) was also present during the presentation, and he showed us some of the advanced 3D capabilities of Beyond.
Bill discussed several other projects that are going on at Pangolin, including a new set of diverging lenses that can be affixed to projectors at the aperture to make audience scanning shows much safer. I understand that our very own Jeremy (Jem) has been working with Bill to bring this idea to fruition. Bill also talked about a new scanner design that Pangolin will be releasing soon (possibly by the end of the year) that will compare favorably with the fastest designs from Cambridge for a very reasonable price. An actuator (similar to a GM-20) based on this new technology will also be available by the end of the year.
Finally, Bill talked a bit about his involvement in a business association that led to him being a co-author of a new book called "Game Changers - The World’s Leading Entrepreneurs". This book was just released last November, and it has already made Amazon.com's best seller list!
Andrew Kibler (DrLava) put on an impressive demonstration of his new LaserShow Express software, and while I was only able to attend part of the presentation, it certainly looked interesting. Several people mentioned that they were quite impressed with the number of advanced features that the software came with.
Dr. Sam Goldwasser spent most of the event moving from one area to another, talking with different laserist and trying to take it all in. Truthfully, I think we overwhelmed him a bit at first, but towards the middle of Saturday I found him in the ion repair workshop, deep in discussion about some facet of multi-line ion lasers, so I think he was in his element by then.
Gary (Johnyayas) was on hand for most of the event, and he brought some cool T-shirts to give out. (There's a back-story behind the whole hinged-newt thing; it's related to the original name of his website...) While I didn't get a chance to play with the latest version of Spaghetti, I know a few people were running it. (At least I got to see the "It's time to Start" show, by Blue Man Group.)
Aaron (allthatwhichis) brought some new beam shows to share with the group, and I think they were some of the highlights of the event. We also had a number of RGB projectors set up (I think as many as 14 on stage at one point), along with several beam rails and a few monochrome projectors as well. Over the course of the event we modified the projector layout several times, and at one point we had shows running in the auditorium and behind the curtain on-stage at the same time!
We also had numerous lumia displays set up in the hallway behind the entrance to the auditorium (behind the sound booth). Len (Hakzaw1) had several different effects on display, including a classic glass doorknob, several different shower glass effects, and a few diffraction gratings as well. On Saturday, a few members from LPF set up an impressive display of as many wavelengths as possible using individual lasers (both modules and pointers). One of the most unique wavelengths was a DPSS yellow laser at 556 nm. It was an incredible yellow-green color that I had never seen before.
Chris (Cfavreau) had his prototype open-source USB-to ILDA DAC on display, complete with a built-in set of test patterns that you could call up at the touch of a button. He had it working with Andrew's LSX software. Chris mentioned that the bare parts needed to build the DAC cost less than $100, which is really good news for hobbyists on a budget. I hope to hear more from Chris in the future about this project.
We certainly set the fire alarm off a lot this year. Part of that was due to the large number of people we had. (Every time the doors were opened, fog drifted out of the auditorium into the hallway, triggering an alarm.) Even after we completely disabled the smoke detectors in the auditorium, we still had alarm issues. Once, the fire department actually showed up, but as it turned out it was because a fire alarm strobe was flashing in one of the connecting buildings, and a concerned resident phoned in the alarm. (We had previously contacted the fire alarm monitoring company and instructed them not to call the fire department, so at first we were very surprised to see the fire department arrive.)
We had a number of great door prizes this year, including a $200 gift certificate from CT lasers (thanks to Marc) and a $200 gift certificate to X-laser (thanks to Dan). Johan (Edison) donated one of his quad-combiner kits, and Dave and Adrian at Lasershowparts.com donated a number of items, including an 8-output DMX-to-TTL decoder board and 3 sets of diode blocks, adjustable mounts, and baseplates. Chuck over at Aixiz.com donated several laser pointers with diffraction grating tips, along with a few fixed laser diffraction grating display units and a 100 mw green lab unit. Finally, several PL members donated door prizes themselves, including a free copy of LSX from Andrew.
Pat Bishoff (Laserman532) agreed to machine some custom medals to give out to the attendees of SELEM again this year. We had the Most Ghetto-Fabulous projector award (which went to Len for his home-made lumia), the Smallest Projector Award (which went to Brad - MassiveSound - for his tiny 2-watt blue projectors), and a number of other medals, including a Lifetime Laser Achievement Award, which went to Tim Walsh. (I still need to put together a complete list of the winners, but I want to be sure it's accurate before I post it.)
Finally, in closing let me offer my deepest thanks to those brave souls (you know who you are) who stayed late on Sunday to help us clean everything up after it was all over. It was a lot of work to pack all that stuff up, and the rain only made it worse. Thank you so much for sticking around after everyone else had left. I would have been there until midnight without you guys!
So, now even if you didn't attend SELEM, you've got at least some idea as to what happened. But there was much more going on that I didn't touch on, and I still haven't said a word about the LSO class on Monday (which was a fantastic event all on it's own!). And for those of you who didn't make it this year, I hope this post gives you a few good reasons to try to attend next year.
Adam
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Originally Posted by masterpj
