CYGN-B

[dougmcc]

I think I discussed Laserium's dimple tube with dougmcc way back when...

YES !!! I always enjoyed my interactions with you; you were an anomaly within Laser Images...a laserist who didn't feel compelled to toe the company line and who had a BIG picture perspective on what we were doing both technologically AND artistically. Fun times! (I really enjoyed your laser show performances - nuanced and highly skilled!)

[ronhip]

Doug!

Yes! Great to hear from you again! AVI was truly a great competitor to Laserium. You guys always pushed us to be better, which is what good competition is really all about.

I think the only ILDA meeting I've ever been to was the one where Ivan (god, I miss him...) got some sort of lifetime achievement award?

I agree with your selections of shows, and I'd add Crystal Odyssey and Laser Visions. Basically any show that Ivan got deeply involved in were top notch. Not that the other "commodity" rock shows were terrible (except for Nine Inch Nails, which I deeply despised - mainly for the music...). Scott Anderson and crew did a great job with their pacing and choreography on all the shows and gave us lasearists a fantastic place to start with OUR jobs of interpreting the music. I still can't believe that I did that job for 20 years. Who woulda thunk?

I've been giving science talks over at Chabot Space and Science Center, and I noticed that they are using one of your projectors for laser presentations (single laser with a fisheye lens - see attached photo - I'm not responsible for dusting this projector...). I have to say, I'm totally impressed with the amazing sharpness of the laser spots on the dome even after passing through the fisheye. I would think that the beams would be big blobs, but somehow you've designed the optics to keep them sharp. I'd love to hear how you did that if it would not violate any trade secret (the physicist in me is very curious!)

Good to reconnect,

Ron

Hi Ron, I'm Doug McCullough. Although Laser Images and AVI were fierce competitors, I had great respect for Laserium shows (the original Laserium, Laserock, Starship, Light Years, and Moonrock were among my favorites) and members of the Laser Images team including you. I particularly remember an enjoyable conversation with you at an ILDA "open house" event that we hosted at AVI back in the early '90s.

[dougmcc]

Doug!

Yes! Great to hear from you again! AVI was truly a great competitor to Laserium. You guys always pushed us to be better, which is what good competition is really all about.

I think the only ILDA meeting I've ever been to was the one where Ivan (god, I miss him...) got some sort of lifetime achievement award?

I agree with your selections of shows, and I'd add Crystal Odyssey and Laser Visions. Basically any show that Ivan got deeply involved in were top notch. Not that the other "commodity" rock shows were terrible (except for Nine Inch Nails, which I deeply despised - mainly for the music...). Scott Anderson and crew did a great job with their pacing and choreography on all the shows and gave us lasearists a fantastic place to start with OUR jobs of interpreting the music. I still can't believe that I did that job for 20 years. Who woulda thunk?

I've been giving science talks over at Chabot Space and Science Center, and I noticed that they are using one of your projectors for laser presentations (single laser with a fisheye lens - see attached photo - I'm not responsible for dusting this projector...). I have to say, I'm totally impressed with the amazing sharpness of the laser spots on the dome even after passing through the fisheye. I would think that the beams would be big blobs, but somehow you've designed the optics to keep them sharp. I'd love to hear how you did that if it would not violate any trade secret (the physicist in me is very curious!)

Good to reconnect,

Ron

Ron,

Gee, I thought you came to the ILDA Conference in Orlando in the early 90s. Oh well. Maybe it was the ILDA Conference in Seattle where we talked. As for Omniscan, I was one of the three inventors and as such, I supervised the fabrication of the original 180 degree lens. The key was obtaining as small a point size as possible with minimal chromatic aberration at the outer edges of the projection field. For our prototype we used a standard 180 degree full dome movie projection lens (Cinema 180) which I obtained from amusement park legend Fred Hollingsworth. Then I hired Dick Buchroeder (sp?) to design a custom lens for the first Omniscan system that was installed in the Hayden Planetarium in NYC in 1993 to premier the Star Trek: Orion Rendezvous show. Very cool! While this first lens was quite effective, Carol Seidel took over Omniscan development at AVI and came up with a significantly better version. Carol's lens design was used on most of the major Omniscan installations. After Carol and I "left" (to put it nicely) AVI in 1998, further improvements (including miniaturization) were made to the lens design by Aron Bacs (who was one of the original inventors of Omniscan). At some point Omniscan was rebranded by AVI as Skyscan which was essentially a smaller, solid-state version of Omniscan with less features. I'm assuming the system at Chabot is a Skylase. I was long gone from AVI when Skylase systems flooded the planetarium market. From what I know, the Skylase shows are very simplistic, consisting of almost all representational graphics, and do not resemble the multi-layered, visually rich laser shows that we produced at AVI in the 1980s and 90s. And to add insult to injury, somebody's ex-wife reneged on paying royalties to two of the inventors. Whatever happened to that pot-of-gold at the end of the rainbow? Ha! Ron, if you'd like to know more details about the Omniscan lens design and optical principle, I suggest you talk with Aron Bacs. He's DA MAN!

[lasermaster1977]

Ron,

Gee, I thought you came to the ILDA Conference in Orlando in the early 90s. Oh well. Maybe it was the ILDA Conference in Seattle where we talked. As for Omniscan, I was one of the three inventors and as such, I supervised the fabrication of the original 180 degree lens. The key was obtaining as small a point size as possible with minimal chromatic aberration at the outer edges of the projection field. For our prototype we used a standard 180 degree full dome movie projection lens (Cinema 180) which I obtained from amusement park legend Fred Hollingsworth. Then I hired Dick Buchroeder (sp?) to design a custom lens for the first Omniscan system that was installed in the Hayden Planetarium in NYC in 1993 to premier the Star Trek: Orion Rendezvous show. Very cool! While this first lens was quite effective, Carol Seidel took over Omniscan development at AVI and came up with a significantly better version. Carol's lens design was used on most of the major Omniscan installations. After Carol and I "left" (to put it nicely) AVI in 1998, further improvements (including miniaturization) were made to the lens design by Aron Bacs (who was one of the original inventors of Omniscan). At some point Omniscan was rebranded by AVI as Skyscan which was essentially a smaller, solid-state version of Omniscan with less features. I'm assuming the system at Chabot is a Skylase. I was long gone from AVI when Skylase systems flooded the planetarium market. From what I know, the Skylase shows are very simplistic, consisting of almost all representational graphics, and do not resemble the multi-layered, visually rich laser shows that we produced at AVI in the 1980s and 90s. And to add insult to injury, somebody's ex-wife reneged on paying royalties to two of the inventors. Whatever happened to that pot-of-gold at the end of the rainbow? Ha! Ron, if you'd like to know more details about the Omniscan lens design and optical principle, I suggest you talk with Aron Bacs. He's DA MAN!

Utterly fascinating!! I was familiar with and had heard of Skyscan back in the day when I was the lead tech at the Ft. Worth Omni Theatre and Noble Planeterium, but had no idea of its origins. Thanks for jumping into this thread!

[swamidog]

i just want to very briefly interrupt this awesome thread to state i'd give my right arm to spend a day in the same room with the lot of you.

i have so much to thank for you guys paving the way and inspiring me. just.. thank you. thank you.

[ronhip]

Christopher,

It's YOU, the "next generation" of laser artists who are inspiring. For anyone on this thread who is NOT following Christopher Short on his YouTube channel, run - do not walk - and subscribe!

https://www.youtube.com/@swamidog

Ron

i just want to very briefly interrupt this awesome thread to state i'd give my right arm to spend a day in the same room with the lot of you.

i have so much to thank for you guys paving the way and inspiring me. just.. thank you. thank you.

[Greg]

Christopher,

It's YOU, the "next generation" of laser artists who are inspiring. For anyone on this thread who is NOT following Christopher Short on his YouTube channel, run - do not walk - and subscribe!

https://www.youtube.com/@swamidog

Ron

I second that. 15chr

[laserist]

Hi Doug & welcome!

I can toe the company line if it's drawn in the right place. The non-competes and non-disclosures Laser Images insisted we sign were stupid. I don't really care for competition for competition's sake. I agree with whoever said, "Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people." It's a weird world where Sturgeon's law seems to dominate.

I'll end with this:
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman's Odyssey.

Thanks for your kindness down through the years.

[Greg]

Here's another photo of Rock Around The Clock. This time, it may be noticed that two image sources are present. The blue is a digital circle and the other colors are an analog triangle. This is a demonstration of the software switching between live input and pre-recorded image signals.

[Greg]

This photo makes it easier to see the use of different image sources on different channels.