US Legal Audience Scanning Effect

[Pangolin]

Kick ass!

For shows actually designed to take advantage of what a video projector does, best, and what a laser does best (above heads) this would be the ticket.

Bill

[TechJunkie]

Doesnt some other laser software give you a video capture of the show you are working on? Or at least a full screen preview?

No one????

My thinking is if other laser software can put out a video file, or can play full screen, all you need to do is hook up your laptops projector port to a projector and instant laser show. No need to for Beyond.

[White-Light]

Looks very good.

The beams are the giveaway as they look barely visible but for fans, tunnels, sheets etc, its very convincing.

Nice demo of this functionality. Its nice to see a reasonably priced video projector being able to emulate the beams. I know when I tried this ~4-5 years ago using video recordings of shows, the relatively poor contrast ratios on my video projectors significantly diminished the effect. That Epson has a contrast ratio of "up to 320,000:1". Wow!

-David

That's now been discontinued and replaced with the 5030UBE with 600,000:1 contrast (twice as good!!!)

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/j...sku=V11H586020

Kick ass!

For shows actually designed to take advantage of what a video projector does, best, and what a laser does best (above heads) this would be the ticket.

Bill

Good use for the Universe and Derek's template I would think. That way you avoid sharp cross over by assiging different effects to the video and laser.

For those who don't know what i'm talking about, it Derek's universe can be seen here (screengrab from the tutorial vid as on my laptop - SSD failed on main PC last night!!!)

[buffo]

My thinking is if other laser software can put out a video file, or can play full screen, all you need to do is hook up your laptops projector port to a projector and instant laser show. No need to for Beyond.

If you wanted to try out the concept, this would be fine.

But to do what we did at FLEM, you wan to be able to assign projection zones to both the laser and the video projectors separately. That way you can apply geometric correction to them both so they mate up. Then you can also add a beam attenuation map if you want. Finally, everything will be syncronized in Beyond. Not so easy to do if you're just playing a video file using Microsoft Media Player on a second monitor...

Then too, most beam shows that include audience scanning are for live laser shows that are done with a band or DJ. Thus, you need to have live control of both projectors, so a pre-recorded video file isn't going to help you there. (And even if your preview window can be promoted to full-screen on a second monitor, you still don't have any geometric correction.)

The cool thing about Emulaser is that Beyond treats the video projector as if it were just another laser projector. The integration is seamless, so if you already know how to set up effects in Beyond, you can do them on a laser projector for overhead stuff (that would not be eye-safe) or on a video projector aimed at the crowd (which would be eye-safe) at the same time in the same show with minimal effort.

Adam

[drm916]

I set mine up and inverted the y axis on the video projector. And then sent both projectors the same cues. Then they overlapped a little bit at the top/bottom of the range, just above the horizon. Looks really cool. I don't own a projector bright enough to do this at shows and have it look impressive. But I am going to look around for a good deal on a video projector. Then maybe eventually I can use it as part of a show. I think I will get a lot of questions. Especially from one venue that knows the rules about NO audience scanning. I cant believe this was such a simple solution. yea its not as clean as laser beams but once you get the light down into the face.. you cant really tell that big a difference. I would say its similar effects to using the divergence increasing lenses on a lower powered projector.

[buffo]

I would say its similar effects to using the divergence increasing lenses on a lower powered projector.

At FLEM, the consensus was that the 2500 lumen projector looked roughly equivalent to a 500 mw laser projector with a safety-scan lens installed.

Adam

[TechJunkie]

The cool thing about Emulaser is that Beyond treats the video projector as if it were just another laser projector. The integration is seamless, so if you already know how to set up effects in Beyond, you can do them on a laser projector for overhead stuff (that would not be eye-safe) or on a video projector aimed at the crowd (which would be eye-safe) at the same time in the same show with minimal effort.

Adam

I agree, but its at a premium.

What I learned in art class is that people (both educated and non-educated) will naturally accept what is presented to them. Meaning that only you know where the mistakes are. By using a real laser projector you already have total control over synchronized visuals, and the focus of the crowd. The video projector is more of singular entity being used as a safe alternative to scanning audiences. You dont need total control. People will get off on the effect no matter what the sync.* The projector can be set to scan any zone you want by either physical placement, or its own controls. There is no need to use >$1200 software to do this.

*If you have ever watched The Wizard of OZ synced to Dark Side of the moon, or any other simular videos, you'll see what I mean. The timing in music is a constant, so running any kind of analog visuals are bound to sync numerous times no matter what the tempo, and thats what people catch. You can run anything through that video projector and still get the audience off. You could even pull laser show videos off of YouTube as long as the contrast is high enough. If it isnt there are many free programs to change saturation, and contrast to video.

So I have to disagree with you, you can try this without Beyond. Maybe not at a Lem where people know what they are looking at, but for general purposes the audience would never know the difference.

[Bradfo69]

TJ - I'll say it's worth a test if you want to try it out and report results but, for me, personally, if I'm collecting a bride or schools hard earned money for it for their prom or wedding or whatever, I'm using BEYOND. My situation is a little different though.

[TechJunkie]

Sorry if I'm coming off wrong. Obviously you're a professional. I would not expect less sir.

My point is you dont need Beyond to mess around with it. I dont agree you are limited to using just one piece of software to create effects through a video projector. In the past I've seen screensavers projected and they looked very nice. They didnt have the same intensity as a laser projector, but neither does the Beyond version.

I dont have a video projector, but I know how they work. They only do one thing, project an image. Beyond has controls, which is fantastic, but the output is still just an image. Bottom line you dont need Beyond to create simular visuals. Your only limitations are projector quality, and creativity.

[Bradfo69]

Professional?? That made me giggle. (And probably a few others on her too!) Professional hack... perhaps. I just figured out how to make a few extra bucks with this silly assed hobby and pretend I know some of what I'm doing kinda goodly.

Very true. As was said earlier in the thread, people have been experimenting with this for years and it's only now that consumer grade afforable (relatively) video projectors are catching up. I've not tried to play video of a show in a room with haze and see what happens. It's entirely possible that it will work other ways too. But, I know BEYOND is already designed to work for this application, (and I already own it) so, that's what I'll use for it. I just meant if I'm getting money for it, I kind of feel I need to use the best method possible which thus far, appears to be BEYOND.