Outside Laser display NZ
Hi everyone, its been a while since posting.
I have just done a laser show here in NZ , outside for the first time.
Over the past years I have always done inside shows. My setup is such that it is very capable for venues up to say 100 meters long ( give or take).
When asked to do this event I was not at all sure it was a good idea given some of the opinions given here on PL .. ( mostly about the size..... But hey decided , as with all small things its about how you use it that matters, so I am told )
The scenario was a public park at the lakefront here in Rotorua.
Distances were of the order of 100 to 150 meters to audience area.
Audience was estimated to be about three thousand plus or so.
Step one, talk to the authorities about losing the street lights behind the lasers... Done no issue
Dousing all other lights that were able to be so.
There was still plenty of ambient light due the proximity of a major hotel an a temp ice skating rink
Setup lasers such that people were looking at the lasers with the lake behind ( dark)
This was in conjunction with pyros (in front of lasers) but I scheduled to be in between bangs most times.
We were sitting together and had control of sound and pyros.
We used the pyros, and two large smoke machines... ( manned)
We started with an intro, with two spots and two attention grabber pyros.. Then into laser show one.
Then ran the two side by side for the next two shows then finished up with a 5 min laser show and a really big pyro bang at the end....tolal time about twenty minutes.
The outcome... I was very pleasently suprised, it was a high impact ( for NZ , so Hugo does not need to lose any sleep) show with just heaps of crowd ravings.. Interestingly many people were intrigued by the lasers hitting the trees and the effects that generated. (worth remembering as a future feature)
What I did learn is the need for heaps of smoke and as much near the crowd line as you can get.
Where the beams cut through the pyro smoke this was very effecive.
So having read over the years of all sorts of comments about large laser sizes required for outside what I can tell you is that it can work if you have some control over the scene as I was lucky enough to have. By the way the weather gods were amazingly kind, cold ( about 4 degrees) and calm it may have been a different story in high winds.
This was all done with no individual laser projector over 4 watts. There was a cluster of five lasers all grouped together with a combined max output of about 14 watts ... ( one RGB and four greens)
I did notice during setup tests that just two watts of green was highly visible and effective on its own.
So it appears under good conditions grouping the projectors into a single "pile" does help.
There was a pro photographer there so when I get the pix I hope to post a couple.
The main reason for the post is just to share the fact that even with modest power levels and good conditions a very good show outcome can be achieved.
Cheers
Ray
NZ
Ps yes we did talk to CAA (FAA) and the tower before starting and a few weeks prior...
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Originally Posted by Pitts
....and armed only with his trusty 21 Zorgawatt KTiOPO4...
)
