Starting Laser Show Business

[dsli_jon]

Hi all!!! Here in my country we have kinda fog/smog these winters,so just wanted to know what would be the impact of fog/smog(fog+pollution particles) on an outdoor laser show being done on scrim screen.I mean would it make Laser beam more weak or would it help to better project graphics images on screen or in air?

Hey Sudhir -

Unless the fog/smoke is SO dense/thick, that you cannot see your HAND in front of your face- see pix below for answer - in fact, see most of these clips http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=dslasers -especially the SNOW one...

Naturally-occuring fog/smoke/haze is a great BLESSING cause then you don't have to fight wind/etc to try and keep those particulates in the air to SEE your beam - really, you NEED dust/smoke, etc to even SEE a laser beam - in a total vacuum, a visible-laser beam would be invisible... so the rule for laser-shows, is 'the more, the illumin-errier' (sorry, bad joke! Naturally-occuring haze/smoke is defintely your friend, my friend!

The reason why we like to shoot rear-projection thru a scrim, is so the audience can SEE the graphix very clearly, but they also get that great 'pass-thru' effect (proper term is "Atmospherics") of those rays/waves/beams going out over their heads...the lower you can get (BUT still SAFELY above their eyes, if your laser is outside of established power-limits and techniques for safe audience scanning - ie: a 20W Argon laser, etc) the more they'll feel 'immersed' in it - there are few more enthralling fx like a slowly-crawling color-cycling sinewave just above your head, that is so visible, it feels like you can get up and climb on top of it and roll away! - sounds like your climate there will have you making killer laser shows in no time!

PS - wondering if you got my last email with all those pix and answers to your questions.. lemme know... peace..

- J