Hong Kong! (Bet you haven't heard that before)

[Stiffler]

You just need a computer for Quick Show.

[Bradfo69]

As mentioned, check Omar at Eightonlight. I think you will end up with a much better product versus Linna. I'm not saying that as a knock on Linna... well maybe I am. I have projectors from both of them and the overall build quality is far better. The Pluto II from Omar is a great projector. The suggestion to go with X-Laser and perhaps a mobile beat is also very good and I really should be suggesting that, over getting something from China but, for what you are looking for, and your intended use, Eightonlight is worth looking into.

[White-Light]

I think a few people are missing a point here, unless I'm mistaken you're intending to audience scan.

Despite what you may have seen in your rave experience, lasers do damage eyes even at 200-300mw (http://www.laserist.org/2009-07_Belgian-incident.htm), and to do this safely is both complex and expensive. I would suggest you either make sure the beams are overhead, or given that I'm guessing you want to audience scan given your previous rave parties, learn to do this properly. That means a safety course, a suitable laser power meter and probably a safety lens set up.

I don't want to come across all heavy especially on a new user but its very easy to think that you're safe becuase others have got away with it in the past or becasue injuries have gone unreported - they back of the eye has no pain sensors so doesn't "report" damage and the brain is quite clever at covering holes in the vision up, it tends only to be missing text or certain backgrounds that give the damage away this side of a retinal check at an optician.

To give you an idea, for personal bedroom testing / playback use, I'm currently looking for something blue only in the 20-50mw range and even then I'm going to measure and lens it as I already know thats way over MPE from 2 metres! You can calculate MPE here: http://mpe.laserextreme.nl/ (never rely on quoted powers as often lasers exceed these). Also MPE is often dim which is why safety lens are a good idea, they allow much more power thus allowing bright beams but make it safer by spreading it over a larger area and thus enabling you to keep the values within MPE at these higher levels.

As for lasers there are some good suggestions above and I too would suggest Pangolin Quick Show as a control package not least of which because it has Beam Attenutaion Maps - also a good safety feature (allows the laser to dynamically turn the power down as it scans certain areas) and Virtual Live Jockey (VLJ) a very good automated system for sound to light displays.

[kecked]

Buy the rgb diode kit from DTR. Get three flexmods when they come in a few weeks. Buy dichro from onestop laser shop. Buy scanners of your choice. Add supplies and breadboard. About 1k less scanners. Depending on scanners 2k-4k.

[planters]

If audience scanning is your only goal then I would seriously reconsider doing this at all. However, overhead scanning with bright, sharp lasers in haze is impressive and if you are still trying to figure this whole DIY projector thing out you have a lot more margin for error here.

One big advantage of the Pangolin software is that it allows you to control multiple projectors. Nothing unique here, but they allow you to seamlessly substitute a high power video projector for one of the laser projectors and use this non-coherent source to scan your audience while the true lasers scan the upper part of the show overhead. 2500 lumens of optimized video output is similar in brightness to a 1 W RGB laser projector.

[Stiffler]

One big advantage of the Pangolin software is that it allows you to control multiple projectors. Nothing unique here, but they allow you to seamlessly substitute a high power video projector for one of the laser projectors and use this non-coherent source to scan your audience while the true lasers scan the upper part of the show overhead. 2500 lumens of optimized video output is similar in brightness to a 1 W RGB laser projector.

Can you elaborate on this feature? This is the first I've heard about it, I would like to know more!

[silentgloves]

I think a few people are missing a point here, unless I'm mistaken you're intending to audience scan.

Despite what you may have seen in your rave experience, lasers do damage eyes even at 200-300mw (http://www.laserist.org/2009-07_Belgian-incident.htm), and to do this safely is both complex and expensive. I would suggest you either make sure the beams are overhead, or given that I'm guessing you want to audience scan given your previous rave parties, learn to do this properly. That means a safety course, a suitable laser power meter and probably a safety lens set up.

Actually, I was never at a rave where the audience was scanned. Most if not all of the promoters in my area used legit LJs (I guess that's the term). Lasers were always well above the crowd's noggins.

I don't want to come across all heavy especially on a new user but its very easy to think that you're safe becuase others have got away with it in the past or becasue injuries have gone unreported - they back of the eye has no pain sensors so doesn't "report" damage and the brain is quite clever at covering holes in the vision up, it tends only to be missing text or certain backgrounds that give the damage away this side of a retinal check at an optician.

To give you an idea, for personal bedroom testing / playback use, I'm currently looking for something blue only in the 20-50mw range and even then I'm going to measure and lens it as I already know thats way over MPE from 2 metres! You can calculate MPE here: http://mpe.laserextreme.nl/ (never rely on quoted powers as often lasers exceed these). Also MPE is often dim which is why safety lens are a good idea, they allow much more power thus allowing bright beams but make it safer by spreading it over a larger area and thus enabling you to keep the values within MPE at these higher levels.

As for lasers there are some good suggestions above and I too would suggest Pangolin Quick Show as a control package not least of which because it has Beam Attenutaion Maps - also a good safety feature (allows the laser to dynamically turn the power down as it scans certain areas) and Virtual Live Jockey (VLJ) a very good automated system for sound to light displays.

Thanks for the input and advice. I certainly don't want to cause any injury. My intention is is not to crowd scan, more in the realm of overhead aerial effects. I'll do some more research.

[planters]

Can you elaborate on this feature? This is the first I've heard about it, I would like to know more!

Stiffler,
This definitely works because I have been doing this for about a year for the high video bandwidth advantage rather than the audience scanning benefit, but B. Benner presented this feature primarily for the audience scanning advantage. I don't have access to the Beyond program from this comp and so I can't give you the step by step, but it goes something like:

Install the video projector and connect through standard HDMI to the computer running Beyond.

Find the menu in the start up that allows you to identify each projector and select say # 2 as the video projector.

You will be able to define the scan areas, but most of the projector setting "tuning" will not apply to this projector. The display in the window on the work page will be what outputs to the video projector.

I am sure someone with Beyond in front of them could flesh this out for you. It's very simple.

[Stiffler]

Will this actually 'fool' people into thinking they are being scanned??? I had no idea this could be done in beyond, it sounds realllly cool. Do you know where there might be some videos of this in action?

[silentgloves]

I would like to see video of this as well, just out of curiosity.