Hello,
I run a mobile Disco & Events lighting business in South East England. I have used DJ style lasers for many years which are fine for what they do but I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the results I can get from them, either running their in-built programmes on sound to light mode or via DMX (I am competent DMX user, having run computer based light shows for many years) but never via ILDA.
Last year I bought what could be considered a high end DJ laser - a Kam Laserscan 1000 3D - which was my second RGB laser and by far the most capable I have had so far. It has many built in patterns, but again the access to them via DMX is less than ideal, making building anything like a coherent show almost impossible. After much thought and a demonstration by a fellow DJ of the same laser run with Pangolin Quickshow, I took the plunge and bought it. I ran my first party using it last night and was delighted with what the software can do.
Unfortunately, the laser is somewhat outmatched by Quickshow! Although you can run basic animations and abstracts, if you try and overlay a second or further images, the flickering becomes very noticeable, at whatever frame rate you set. There is also a very clear divergence of the blue laser from the red and green. When you project the ILDA test patterns the results are very poor. It was also very obvious, even in a relatively small room, that the blue laser was not easy to see making the balance of colours not that great.
So, although I am happy to keep the Kam as part of my arsenal, I think it is time to upgrade to something more suitable that will give the option to offer a serious laser offering to my lighting. I am therefore looking for suggestions of an ILDA RGB laser capable of smooth animation and text projection as well as decent beam shows. I suspect I would want it to be analog rather than TTL. I would reckon that I have a budget of around £1,000 to £1,200. I am happy to consider a used laser in good order but am not a great technician so nothing that might need any tweaking. I am very comfortable with the safety aspect of using a laser and never scan the audience, aiming the laser above head height. Of course with the ability to set projection zones within Quickshow this makes life even easier. Being a mobile DJ it is important not to be too bulky as it will need to be set up without the need of large trussing systems. and possibly set up upside down, or if that is not possible at least have a bracket that can be positioned below so it can sit on top of a truss column.
Can anyone offer sensible suggestions of what I should be looking at or even offer me something that is surplus to your requirements?