Lazers

[samrennie]

Morning all, someone where I work has been bugging me for the use of lazers. I have absolutely no idea how safe the things are and whether I should use them, he wants to get a mirror ball and then some cheep maplin lazers and shine them on the ball, I think laser class A or something like that. This would definately get someone in the eye but if used short term does it have any effects. The last thing I want to be doing is blinding somone!!!

 

Thanks

[kalmatthew]

More technicaldetails.

 

These lasers are the graphic laser from maplin they are class A laser products. Full tech specs at the maplin website

 

Matthew (the lighting tech from the same place)

[peter]

...bugging me for the use of lazers. I...he wants to get a mirror ball and then some cheap maplin lazers and shine them on the ball

I'm not certain about this, so don't quote me on it, but isnt the idea of a laser to shine a beam of light which is very narrow? If you shine it onto a mirror ball, all you would get was one beam being reflected back. (As I've said already, don't quote me on that - I havent tried it, but thats what the theory suggests to me)

 

Normal pin spots for mirror balls work by covering the whole ball in light, which is then reflected by each tile.

For the desired effect, why not use a very bright (?discharge) source and shine it onto the ball through a red gel? Much safer!

[kalmatthew]

What they wanted was the reflecton of all the dots bouncing of the mirror ball. (apparantley this looked really good at minestry of sound)

 

Mattthew

[Bryson]

As a start, look at:

 

Entertainment Laser Association

 

And read thier safety tips. They seem to be more concerned with "real" entertainment lasers, but I'm sure the principle still applies.

 

And re: lasers and mirrorballs - yes they do produce a thin beam, but one that moves very quickly - you can get get some good effects off a mirrorball by making an expanding and contracting circle, for example.

[PeterT]

And re: lasers and mirrorballs - yes they do produce a thin beam, but one that moves very quickly - you can get get some good effects off a mirrorball by making an expanding and contracting circle, for example.

Yep agree with Bryson here. Had a company in for Panto to do laser show as part of the action (Peter Pan well known for it's laser show :D )

 

Used mirror ball to simulate lots of fairies when Tink recovered (ahh) Very effective.

Any to the point of my post... According to the company installing and setting up the laser the best way to tell if peoples' eyes are being damaged is the 'Blink Response' that as long as the effect is moving fairly quickly and people don't find themselves looking away or blinkng suddenly then a small amount of eye contact is okay. but always worth checking the regs we got a 50 page document with our laser containing all the risk assessments and daily checks that had to be carried out.

 

As a side note the company were telling us that they had heard of a club in Greece where the laser they had there was so powerful that on a single point it could light the end of a cigarette ;) Greek Health and Safety gotta love em!

[Thirdtap]

I would like to point out a VERY important safety feature that everyone has seemed to overlooked. The use of mirror balls - they are very tacky and should only be used sparringly. A theatre I was working at recently has introduced a 3 strikes policy on mirror ball use. After 3 un justified uses of the said twirly thing during a show you get a public warning and have to by the rest of the crew drinks.

 

Mirror balls are for discos, not for life.

[Ketil B]

After 3 un justified uses of the said twirly thing

Have to agree but 3 is abit generous is it not :D ;) :blink: :blink: :blink:

[kalmatthew]

As a start, look at:

Entertainment Laser Association

 

 

Thanks this has benn very useful

[kalmatthew]

The Ela are very unresponsive can some one tell me if they are still in existance. The phone number is never picked up the forum seems to no longer exist and the mobile number isn't answered. Also the sight is 3 years out of date

[Angelic]

3 is a bit generous, once is more than enough!

[gareth]

Can I suggest that, before you think about the technicalities (and they are many - I don't know about the dinky little lasers that run off a 13A plug, but when you're dealing with the lumpy lasers of a couple of watts or so that are normally used in entertainment the H&S implications are considerable), you address the question of whether a laser is the right effect for your show?

 

They're very pretty in the right context, but it has to be said that their repertoire is limited. They can do wavy cones and sheets, beam work, some wobbly graphics, and .... err .... well, that's about it, really. Wonderful in the right context, but corny and cliched in the extreme when used just for the sake of it.

 

I've just been working on some shows which featured a couple of lasers (one behind a starcloth doing some stuff over the heads of the punters, and one on the front truss projecting onto a screen upstage) - they would have been a nice effect used in moderation, but someone (dunno whether it was the laser op or the LD)did the laser thing to death and beyond, to the extent that it was appearing way too often and at times when it really wasn't appropriate. You really can have too much of a good thing!

[kalmatthew]

It is being used in a "Battle of th DJ's" and is wanted by the organiser althougth the LD (me) is no that bothered. Is the advice 2 give a load of technical jargon with lots of HS reasons about why we cant use it to cover for the fact that it will look cheesy as he dosn't really listen 2 me or just to get I cheked by H&S

[gareth]

If the promoter wants a laser, why not price up the hire and let him decide if he wants to pay for it? If he decides to go ahead, great, but make sure you run it past your licensing officer as they may want to come and inspect it before approving its use in the show.

 

Also, make sure the company you hire from knows what they're doing and takes all the necessary safety measures. Most of them do these days, but I've come across one or two laser companies in the dim and distant past who scared the living daylights out of me - I remember standing at the bottom of a scaff tower watching a so-called laser "technician" poking around inside the power supply box (while it was hooked up and switched on) with an uninsulated screwdriver in an attempt to get the tube to strike. :D The prospect of getting a few kV's up his arm obviously hadn't occured to him!

[kalmatthew]

THe lasers are his, he is placing the order (we tell him what we want and he gets it). Also these are graphic lasers from maplin running of a 13 amp plug each.