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Thread: Lessons

  1. #1
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    Default Lessons

    The Hermit and I hijacked Greg’s CYGN-B thread last week and took it on a wistful look at long ago. We realized it didn’t belong there and deleted our ramblings on that thread. I’ve created this thread to have a place to talk about the lessons that are sometimes learned years and even decades later. Or feel free to take this thread wherever it leads.

    One example of a lesson learned much later was the discovery that it wasn’t the audience moving on that killed Laserium. Back in 1973 Laserium had a marketing model that worked and planetariums were hungry for content. The problem – the marketing model had a half-life. Ivan tried a variety of things to chase the audience. Forty years later I found that audiences still loved the Laserium. Despite the sad fact that I wasn’t remotely as good a Laserist as I was back in the ‘70s.

    I worked as a Laserist for four years and then as management and an occasional Laserist for another year. I woke up one morning and realized that I took a promotion that moved me away from the part of the job that I enjoyed. I could have done shows at Griffith, but that would have taken money away from other Laserists. Two weeks before I quit we got the RUSH tour, and I wanted to do it. That didn’t happen. The interesting thing is the guy who did the tour was asked by the band to do their next tour. They wanted him, and said he could get the lasers from whoever he wanted. He picked Laser Media. I asked him how it was going while he was on that second tour – I still remember the gist of his answer. Well he said, I already knew how to run power and water, and it wasn’t really hard to learn how to press the start button. So the lesson – sometimes getting what you want becomes a boring grind.
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  2. #2
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    Default ..and imagine...

    ...how fewer "laserists" we would have today if, given today's "traveling tour" LED laser projectors, still required the power and water of yesterday, 220/440 3-phase power for each "head", step-up or step down power transformers along with running hundreds of feet 6/4 or 8/4 cables between projector power disconnects and the venu's power panels, along with 40 psi regulated/filtered water running through heavy duty supply hoses of similar lengths (but times 2, one supply and one return feed). The actual "show" was a blink of the eye compared to setup and tear-down, then travel by truck or bus to the next venue to do it again.
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  3. #3
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    That's kind of like the early days of micro computers. When it was first possible for an individual to own a computer, it might cost $4000 or way more. Only super nerds owned them and they usually had some idea about what they had, how it actually worked and how to make it useful. In hindsight, that didn't last very long before everyone had a computer to play games.

    On one hand it's amazing what kind of hardware you can get these days for a reasonable price. On the other hand there's nothing exotic about it anymore.
    Last edited by james; 12-08-2021 at 16:38.
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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by james View Post
    That's kind of like the early days of micro computers. When it was first possible for an individual to own a computer, it might cost $4000 or way more. Only super nerds owned them and they usually had some idea about what they had, how it actually worked and how to make it useful. In hindsight, that didn't last very long before everyone had a computer to play games.

    On one hand it's amazing what kind of hardware you can get these days for a reasonable price. On the other hand there's nothing exotic about it anymore.
    Yeah, buddy, you got that right.

    The Apple II started at around $700-800 as a base price, 6502 CPU, 48KB DRAM + 16K ROM and much more + $1-2K depending on add-on options. The IBM XT (5160), a much later entry to the Apple, circa 1983 with an 8088 Intel CPU was about $1,500 for a base model and up to $8K with 256KB of memory, modem, printer & com ports and a 10 or 20MB hard disk and 5/14" floppy with a hefty 8088 processor and MS DOS 2.0. The IMSAI 8080 pre-dated both of them, talk about "basic", but was quite versatile. As a kit with a whopping 1K of RAM, it was $439. This was the CPU Showco's laser department used for its first digital XY imaging capabilities along with a Summagraphics BitPad One, Micropolis 8" Dual Floppy drives booting MS-DOS 2.0. Photonbeam (not Photonlexicon as first written) used it a lot while at Showco. I had the privilege of doing 2 or 3 corporate trade shows with it after we bought Showco's laser department because my initial Apple II laser graphics didn't support blanking at that time. Good times
    Last edited by lasermaster1977; 12-15-2021 at 11:48.
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by laserist View Post
    The Hermit and I hijacked Greg’s CYGN-B thread last week and took it on a wistful look at long ago. We realized it didn’t belong there and deleted our ramblings on that thread. I’ve created this thread to have a place to talk about the lessons that are sometimes learned years and even decades later. Or feel free to take this thread wherever it leads.

    One example of a lesson learned much later was the discovery that it wasn’t the audience moving on that killed Laserium. Back in 1973 Laserium had a marketing model that worked and planetariums were hungry for content. The problem – the marketing model had a half-life. Ivan tried a variety of things to chase the audience. Forty years later I found that audiences still loved the Laserium. Despite the sad fact that I wasn’t remotely as good a Laserist as I was back in the ‘70s.

    I worked as a Laserist for four years and then as management and an occasional Laserist for another year. I woke up one morning and realized that I took a promotion that moved me away from the part of the job that I enjoyed. I could have done shows at Griffith, but that would have taken money away from other Laserists. Two weeks before I quit we got the RUSH tour, and I wanted to do it. That didn’t happen. The interesting thing is the guy who did the tour was asked by the band to do their next tour. They wanted him, and said he could get the lasers from whoever he wanted. He picked Laser Media. I asked him how it was going while he was on that second tour – I still remember the gist of his answer. Well he said, I already knew how to run power and water, and it wasn’t really hard to learn how to press the start button. So the lesson – sometimes getting what you want becomes a boring grind.
    I started with this comment that follows to be in the CYGN-B post but think it best put here.

    As one who started out in "live laser performance art", of rotating knobs, sliding banks of slide pots, flipping switches and moving spatial effects into and out of RYGB beam paths, all of which controlled an intricate formulation of imaging magic, it was indeed challenging to thread a web of visual continuity in accompaniment to a music track. It was to a degree "hard work" in that it required a concerted, focused concentration of hand/finger, eyes on the (planetarium) dome/eyes down to the console coordination...all in the dark.

    But when it worked it was pure joy, and you knew it worked by the vocal audience reaction/expression to your "moves" in time with the music.

    Enter the desire for better, more consistent time/sequence automation of signal & control tracks. This made it a lot easier to "train" someone with a desire to be "in that console seat". As I've stated before, I felt the best combination of automation under control track or computer control vs. live hands-on control was best left up to the presenter, with maybe at most around a 60/40 ratio and no more than 70/30.

    "Less is more, simple yet elegant" is always a good guide to follow in visual expression. But that's just me.
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  6. #6
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    On that topic, I've been wondering if, past or present, there is anything that uses both control tracks and live performance in a laser show system other than the one of current consideration.

    It's been said that LII's essential achievement is the control data scheme, and that it survives un-mimicked. But to this day?

  7. #7
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    I have no idea. We all signed non disclosure and non compete forms. The statement "there's a data track that can control scan size and some rates and house keeping" doesn't give a clue how impactful it could be. Especially if anyone ever watched what the data did without the laserist doing the bare minimum to show off the union. Laserium created the 351 data system because it was 1973. Once you have a computer to hook up to the scanners a big complicated control system might just look like an expensive conceit. And everybody wanted to out do Laserium - not emulate them. Lasers are beautiful to some degree even when the show sucks. I saw a Laser Media show at 6 flags once. No reason to see it twice. They had all the technology you could ever ask for back then and it was an okay 5 minute show. The only problem is it ran for 30 minutes. By the 20 minute mark people were streaming out the doors. The other guys from Laser Images were laughing at the whole thing. I said, "Wait a minute, they have the technology, they just have to learn how to use it." Laser Images had really talented people designing hardware over the years, but then they handed it over to the laserists to create and perform the shows. I've annoyed any number of people here over the years saying that it's performing live in front of an audience and other laserists where you learn. The push back was strenuous. They say they're 4 levels to learning. Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence. Eventually I decided there was a fifth level - blissful incompetence - they don't know and they don't care.
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  8. #8
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    Two thoughts.

    1. Talent is inate. It isn't something that can be transferred between people.

    2. The true math and technology behind some of this is incredibly complicated.
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by james View Post
    Two thoughts.

    1. Talent is inate. It isn't something that can be transferred between people.

    2. The true math and technology behind some of this is incredibly complicated.
    I partially agree.

    1. Talent without practice may never surface.
    2. The math and technology behind an aircraft is incredibly complicated but one's awareness and understanding of these intricacies can be removed by orders of magnitude and they still can be a gifted pilot.
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  10. #10
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    Talent is either there to be nurtured or it isn't.

    One does not need to know how to build a clock to tell time. But someone does.
    Creator of LaserBoy!
    LaserBoy is free and runs in Windows, MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry Pi!).
    Download LaserBoy!
    YouTube Tutorials
    Ask me about my LaserBoy Correction Amp Kit for sale!
    All software has a learning curve usually proportional to its capabilities and unique features. Pointing with a mouse is in no way easier than tapping a key.

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