Need input: what do you want to see & do at SELEM 2010?

[300EVIL]

Oh Boy,,, Youz opened up a can of worms!

Okay, frankly, SELEM 09 sucked compared to 08. Not anyones fault, just an organization issue. This may not be possible but I'd like to see SELEM turned into a 3 or 4 day event to fit everything in. I personally think shows should take priority as that's what it's all about in the first place. The idea of having such an awesome venue is to blast some beams is the key! On the other hand, I love talking with PL members in person, having tech sessions and seminars too. Unfortunately, this event gets bigger every year and it's just so hard to fit all of this into 2 days. If we can't have 4 days, I'd suggest Sunday being nothing but shows.... And barbecue for lunch!

As for scaffolding, Jonathan and I stopped by a rental place less that a mile from the venue that rents scaff for $15 for a week if I remember correctly. All we'd need is someone with a trailer and a few helping hands to get this in place. My hands are free.

Also, last SELEM had a many large frame ions that needed expert hands. Steve, being the resident expert, had them all thrown in his lap for the cost of $0. I'd highly suggest that if anyone brings an ion they need Steve to look at, there should be a $50 bill taped on top of the head housing for expert tuning and repair.

As much as I hate to conform to a set of rules, I really think we need an itinerary for day to day events. Allowing only so much time for seminars, a time for lunch, and shows. If we are running over, we need to move on.

I have more to say but I think I'll start with that. If anyone disagrees, that's fine. I'm just throwing my opinions out there for everyone to consider.

[sugeek]

As for scaffolding, Jonathan and I stopped by a rental place less that a mile from the venue that rents scaff for $15 for a week if I remember correctly. All we'd need is someone with a trailer and a few helping hands to get this in place. My hands are free.

Also, last SELEM had a many large frame ions that needed expert hands. Steve, being the resident expert, had them all thrown in his lap for the cost of $0. I'd highly suggest that if anyone brings an ion they need Steve to look at, there should be a $50 bill taped on top of the head housing for expert tuning and repair.

I agree with the above quote, as well as mophead BBQ (I don't eat meat, but respect well prepared yummy stuff). I have no clue if I can make it to SELEM this year, although I hope I can! Scaffolding is easy to setup, watch your fingers, make sure to get the platforms for each level. Watch your heads it hurts when you bang them on the X supports .

-another Adam

[buffo]

Okay, frankly, SELEM 09 sucked compared to 08. Not anyones fault, just an organization issue.

I completely agree, Adam. Though I disagree about who's fault it was. I'm the one that planned it, so it's my fault that the organization sucked. That's why we're talking about the 2010 event now, so we can avoid the same mistake.

I'd like to see SELEM turned into a 3 or 4 day event to fit everything in.

I can get the time off, so I'm cool with making the event longer, but I wonder how many others can get the extra time off? I agree that a 3 or 4 day event would be great, but don't forget that the ILDA cruise is just a few weeks after SELEM... Some people might end up having to choose which event they want to attend.

Also, I think that the ILDA meeting is definitely more of a "conference" type event, what with all the seminars, the trade show, and so on. Maybe we shouldn't be competing with that? I dunno - but I'd like to hear from more people on this specific issue. (That is, should we strive to continue having presentations?)

I personally think shows should take priority as that's what it's all about in the first place. The idea of having such an awesome venue is to blast some beams is the key!

I tend to agree with you, and the feedback I've received as a whole tends to support this. However, every year we still try to schedule "presentations", and every year we end up herding people into the auditorium when it's time for the speaker to present. People seem to express great interest in the presentations here in the forums, but once they get to SELEM and start having fun with their lasers, they couldn't care less about the presentations. This is a dichotomy that I'd like to get to the bottom of before the next SELEM.

As for scaffolding, Jonathan and I stopped by a rental place less that a mile from the venue that rents scaff for $15 for a week if I remember correctly. All we'd need is someone with a trailer and a few helping hands to get this in place. My hands are free.

Got any idea where it was? How about a name? I'd like to contact them ahead of time and reserve some scaffolding for the weekend of SELEM. I'll have a trailer with me, so I can pick it up... (I'll need help setting it up and taking it down though!)

Also, last SELEM had a many large frame ions that needed expert hands. Steve, being the resident expert, had them all thrown in his lap for the cost of $0. I'd highly suggest that if anyone brings an ion they need Steve to look at, there should be a $50 bill taped on top of the head housing for expert tuning and repair.

I completely agree with this, with the understanding that Steve is under no obligation to provide such services (even if he does get tips!). After all, I'm sure Steve would like to watch some laser shows as well. Really need to hear from Steve on this one.

I really think we need an itinerary for day to day events. Allowing only so much time for seminars, a time for lunch, and shows. If we are running over, we need to move on.

We did have this for 2008, but we didn't follow it. The one time we tried to "move on", we ended up causing a shitstorm, remember? (Sorry James... That wasn't the way it was supposed to go down.)

The only way a schedule will work is if everyone is committed to following it. Not that I'm against a schedule per se, but I do have to admit that don't want to be the guy watching the clock and telling people what to do. That's just not me. (Anyone else want to volunteer to be the timekeeper this year?)

I'm just throwing my opinions out there for everyone to consider.

I'm glad you did. You've raised some issues that are at the very heart of the problem with SELEM. And I don't have the answers to these problems. I'm really looking forward to more input.

Adam

[platinum]

I can get the time off, so I'm cool with making the event longer, but I wonder how many others can get the extra time off? I agree that a 3 or 4 day event would be great, but don't forget that the ILDA cruise is just a few weeks after SELEM... Some people might end up having to choose which event they want to attend.

I'm all for extending SELEM by a day or two since I'm already there for said days. (I make it a point to show up on Thursday and leave on Monday, so there's absolutely no rush like I had to deal with in '08, missing dinner and such.)

I completely understand that others might not have the time available to do this, so if we do end up stretching SELEM out a bit, maybe that extra time can be spent tinkering on projectors or practicing shows etc.

Got any idea where it was? How about a name? I'd like to contact them ahead of time and reserve some scaffolding for the weekend of SELEM. I'll have a trailer with me, so I can pick it up... (I'll need help setting it up and taking it down though!)

Gaston Rentals, Inc
910 Conover Boulevard West
Conover, NC‎ 28613
(828) 464-4357‎

As I recall, they had some smaller square-shaped scaffolding that might suit our purposes.


On another note, I think we could do much better organizing the final laser show as far as projector arrangement. While it looked really cool having all of the projectors going at the same time, they were all just generally pointed out into the auditorium. Steve's idea of reversing the colors on one or more of the projectors (or a similar modification) is a good idea too.

-Jonathan

[buffo]

Hey Johnathan,

Thanks for the info on the scaffold rental place. I'll give them a call and get some more info.

I'd like to have several sections of scaffold across the front of the stage this time. And the buffered ILDA splitter we'll have will allow me to reverse the X on half the projectors to add a little variety. I also think we'll have pre-set locations for projectors, so that there is more "balance" with regard to where the projectors are placed on stage.

But what would really help is if folks would consider trying to create a new show to bring to SELEM. And if you've got Pangolin's LD-2000, you can write it for multiple projectors even if you only have one projector to watch it on. This is what Aaron did with his "City of Groove" show. (And a few others too.) So if everyone would agree to make 1 show (or at least modify one of their existing favorites) to work with multiple projectors, that would go a long way towards ensuring that we have plenty of new content to watch.

One nice thing though is that with this buffered splitter, we can connect up to 10 projectors to *any* controller, including sound card DACs. So if someone has a show that they've put together using, say, Spaghetti and a sound card DAC, they can still see what it looks like when running on multiple RGB projectors. This is something we've never done before, and I'm really looking forward to it. I have some cool Mamba Black shows that I'd like to see running on several projectors, but previously we had no way to link them all up reliably. (I also remember Carmangary having some cool shows on his computer that I would have liked to watch on multiple projectors.)

The down side to all this is that the setup time is going to take longer, and we'll also need some time to swap out cables when we switch controlling computers. (That is, the computer sending the input into the ILDA splitter.) So there will need to be some organization about who is going to run which show next - that sort of thing...

Adam

[hobbybob]

Hey Adam,

Are there any schematics on how to build said "10 way buffered ILDA splitter" ?

[danielbriggs]

Adam; apologies for off topic:

Dimitiri: If you can hang tight; coming soon: http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...-Buffer-Boards
However if you are looking to specifically build one, not buy one - please ignore me; my apologies.

[buffo]

Are there any schematics on how to build said "10 way buffered ILDA splitter" ?

I'd rather not post the whole schematic at this point, as we're still refining it. (Besides, I don't have it with me in any case.) However, the basic idea is to use an op-amp in a unity-gain configuration to buffer each signal.

Here's a link to a basic schematic that will buffer a single color signal. I put this together for Marc (gottaluvlasers) to solve the low input impedance problem on the modulation circuit for the Laserwave driver he was working with. (Note that it assumes single-ended color signalling.) For the X and Y data, the circuit will be slightly different, as you'll need a pair of op-amps for each.

Also, the splitter we're building will have quite a few extra features that are not shown in the schematic linked above. But this will get you started if you want to try to build one yourself.

Adam

[allthatwhichis]

So if everyone would agree to make 1 show (or at least modify one of their existing favorites) to work with multiple projectors, that would go a long way towards ensuring that we have plenty of new content to watch.

I have 75 to 80% of the included beam shows converted to 5 projector shows; a few Y ILDA cables would be good though. I will make a list and post it so no one does double work. I ahve done all of mine, most of the rupert shows, your beam shows and most of the "popular" shows from the Pango disk.

[buffo]

That's great Aaron! Looks like FLEM will be great!

I'd really like to see some more *original* shows for SELEM this year though. We've got a little over 5 months to go, so that's plenty of time for folks to put something together. I know I'll have at least one new show ready for SELEM... How about the rest of you? Got any projects on the back burner? Why not try to get one finished by the end of the Summer so you can debut it at SELEM?

Getting back on topic, does anyone else have any comments or opinions about what they want to see at SELEM 2010?

As it stands right now, I'm very tempted to eliminate the presentations from this year's event, as it seems that there is little support for them. Thoughts?

Adam