Eye damage at Tomorrowland ?

[colouredmirrorball]

Been on the news here two minutes ago.
"This was a class III laser that shouldn't be used for this application etc."
if it was a laser from the show, it is class IV
unless the spokesman from Tomorrowland was right and it was a laser pointer from the crowd, but still then it is a class IIIa or b
They better inform theirselves right before informing us!

[carlos3621]

Hopefully they conclude, that this was indeed a laserpointer, i hate hearing about these accidents, whether its here or in europe, not a good thing for us!

on a side note: some of the best laser shows ive seen (from pics and video) , are from Hugo / Laserimage, but its all relative, since he has access to 100's of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and he does audience scanning effectively and hopefully safely!
my .02

[platinum]

Been on the news here two minutes ago.
"This was a class III laser that shouldn't be used for this application etc.". . .

This made me laugh out loud. It never ceases to amaze me how these news agencies convey news to the masses with a tone of confidence when they haven't even fact-checked their info.

Entertaining on one side; enraging on the other.

-Jonathan

[highvolt]

Guys, I live in Boom and I was there at Tomorrowland for the two days and I think I know which laser they are talking about.
Tomorrowland is an outdoor house/techno/hardcore festival, with about 200 DJ's, 11 stages, some outdoors, some in tents.
You can see a plan here:http://87.239.12.3/events/Tomorrowla...lan_LowRes.pdf

btw, I'm only an amateur playing with lasers in my garage, but i've been following this forum for about 2 years, so I have a bit of an idea what is acceptable and what is not.

On most of the stages in Tomorrowland they did audience scanning, but in a way that I think is acceptable. They had large distances between the laser and the people(=divergence), the beam was always moving, and the frames were always spread over a wide angle. I certainly never felt uncomfortable there.

This was NOT so in one Tent. The KOZMOZZ/GREATEST SWITCH Tent had a stage with a laser shooting out that was almost always on the audience and from less then 10m(30ft) away. It even looked like the laser was pointing downwards, because outside the tent, you could see the laser shining on the ground all the time.
I remember discussing with my friends that this looked dangerous, and we walked away from it.
Now, I cannot confirm that this is the laser that caused the eyedamage to the girl, but it certainly looked that way.

Anyway, It's hard to judge a picture, but my buddy took an exclusive picture from that laser: http://tomenmieke.be/highvolt/IMG_1335.JPG

ID&T claims that a green laserpointer was the problem, but that's not true I think. I only saw one guy with a green laserpointer at the festival, and it looked like mine, a 30mw one. It was hardly visible compared to the stage lasers and I also never saw him pointing to people.

ID&T is trying to cover their *** I think.

[White-Light]

TBH I see nothing inherently dangerous in the set up. Many club use lasers in a similar position and distance to the crowd as those. Its the set up in terms of power and divergence that matters.

What would concern me is the apparent extreme brightness (not that its easy to judge as sensitivity and exposure time have a part to play in how bright a laser looks). That said, it looks as if you camera or friend in his editing program has boosted saturation levels looking at the skin tones and red jumper making any kind of meaningful comparison impossible.

[andyf97]

I must put my pennies worth in.

First of all the lasers in the main area look quite safe and not so powerful as a lot have suggested, it is a very dark space most of the time. Also the beam quality is very good and usually with higher power the beams tend to get a bit dirty at a distance. These beams are nice and thin even at a distance but the power looks week near the camera indicating a lower power device. If the power was strong and the beams being so low divergent, they would be very bright at the video point as well.

On the other hand the lasers in that tent look very over powered for the distance no matter what power they are; also to have them going at direct eye level into the audience is an accident waiting to happen. I wonder why in the photo http://tomenmieke.be/highvolt/IMG_1335.JPG there is a single beam on the right laser and not on the left side which seams a little odd when the effects look mirrored.

There is a clear difference in quality which leads me to believe two different suppliers are at work and the area I would be looking at for any damage would be in or around the tent.

[mccarrot]

Here you can find a video of the lasers.

Also notice the strange static beams the right laser is giving randomly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlAY-...eature=related

[andyf97]

That looks pretty much right in the eye direction if the camera was not in the way.

[mccarrot]

You can also see the scanrate is slower in the last part of the movie when the pencil beams are visible.

[Soulstorm]

And most of the crowd in that picture is green from reflection or what?? Damn...