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Report on Laser F/X '98
16 to 18 May 1998
Holiday Inn, Burlington, Canada

THE ONLY LASER CONFERENCE IN NORTH AMERICA LAST YEAR!

    Each May Laserists meet in Burlington, Canada for three days of lasers, lasers, lasers in a relaxed atmosphere with great food and facilities. This years event was a success with an educational and fun time had by all...

Mascot and youngest attendee Ryan Schweter with mom Karen

    Saturday Night began with the Open House at the Laser F/X studios. Thanks to Rob Mudryk, the event was webcast with colour pictures on the web updated every 30 seconds while the #LaserFX channel was open so those not at the conference could chat with the laserists at the Open House. At the Trade Show, 12 vendors displayed products from Galvos to new lasers, to software to projectors and hardware of all kinds.

European style audience scanning at Laser F/X '98

Brewster Awards

    The Sunday Night Brewster Awards was attended by 40 people representing a cross section from industry experts and professionals to students and to the general public. FFP Laser Systems provided an opening module complete with static beam effects and mirror arrays, dual inverted remote arial beam projectors for audience scanning, graphics and abstracts.
    Before the 1998 competition got under way, The Brewsters for Laserist's Choice of best product in 1997 were presented.

• Third Place went to Cambridge technology for the HP6800

• Second Place went to LD-Pro by Pangolin Laser Systens

• First Place went to the CADA-Mod board also by Pangolin Laser Systems

    Ballots were distributed to all 40 people present and they formed the jury to vote on the top three shows in the beams and graphics categories.

Graphics Brewsters

    Competition in the graphics category, with 7 entries came from the USA and Germany and showed a high level of quality and production. After all the modules were shown, the ballots were marked and collected.

• Third place winner entitled "Money", was created by Mike Dunn of FirstLight Laser Productions in Lincoln Nebraska. This rendition of the classic Pink Floyd tune featured good use of 3D effects as well as masking to give a layered appearance to the graphics.
• Second Place was captured by an experimental piece created by Tim Walsh of Laser Spectacles in San Marcos, Texas. The piece entitled "Sound is Laser" was produced by using the actual audio signals of the scanning system to create the discordant music.
  As lines, abstracts and dots gyrated on the screen, they produced perfect rhythmic patterns and musical sounds in absolute synchronisation. The resultant melding of sound and vision created an unusual and compelling effect.

Second Place winner Tim Walsh accepts his award

• First Place winner was the module "World in Motion" submitted by Christian Luck of Trick-Design in Germany. This module featured 3D animations of computers and other communications equipment. Good use of colour and shading enhanced the 3D look of the images with an energetic dance track carrying the viewers through the world of communications technology.

Beam Brewsters

    The beam category featured 5 entries from the U.S.A., Canada and Germany. All works were of very high quality and featured excellent use of colour and form.

• Third place was won by the "Digital Dreamer" created by Dirk Baur of es-Lasersysteme in Germany. Slowly undulating sheets of pure colour wafted gently over the audience during the trancy beginning then gave way to pulsating shapes and fans of beams as the tempo of the music increased.
• The Second Place Brewster went to a collaborative effort between O. Steven Roberts and Rob Mudryk, independent laserists from Ohio.
  The module entitled "Learning Curve", was created in less than a week on the new LD Intro software [thus the name] using a monochromatic scanning pair for programming. Lines, sheets and fans danced to a techno re-make of Soft cell's 'Tainted Love'.

Rob Mudryk (left) and O. Steven Roberts (center) accept Second Place

• The first place Brewster Award for Beam effects was captured by Dave Nash of FFP Laser Systems in Toronto Canada [last year's second place winner]. The show was choreographed to the driving dance beats of 'Nightmare' by BrainBug.
  Blades of coloured modulated light bathed the audience in photons. Static beams and arrays of white beams burst forth, punctuating the air to emphasise key sections. There was good use of colour modulated sheets and fans to acts as background layers for contrasting static beams and arrays.

First Place honours went to Dave Nash (left)

   Laser F/X International, and all who voted, congratulate the Brewster Award winners for a fine display of talent and artistry in creating the exciting modules.

All photos courtesy of Patrick Murphy - Pangolin Laser Systems

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