Safety tips (based on experience) and precautions

[JStewart]

Thanks Brad for the mention of the mobile app. I’m tied up working on another project that must be completed by the middle of the month, but after that I’ll turn attention to getting the new updates released for the existing apps. So look forward to some nice new features And the first Android versions too.

Re output powers and audience scanning. Typically, using more than 1W of laser power in even a larger nightclub venue is going to be difficult to achieve the safety limits. If you want to do audience scanning safely invest in good quality projectors of ‘low’(er) power with safety features such as PASS and Safety Lenses. And keep the eye watering levels for overhead use only.

One problem as the technology has become more accessible, and mainstream power levels have increased, is that buyers are talked into, or feel compelled to purchasing laser projectors with the highest output power they can afford. It’s the numbers thing… people assume they are getting more value if the output power figure is higher.

James

[norty303]

I did a job over the bank holiday weekend in Manchester in an underground car park, which was a fairly large space, long anyway.
I had some ~3W all diode RGB heads and some ~7W DPSS/Diode heads and to the layman you'd struggle to know they were different powers (it shows up most at range, so you see it when stood at the back of the room, but not from halfway down). If your room is not so big then the higher power projector never really gets a chance to show where it excels.

A projector in the 2.5W to 3.5W range is going to be a very versatile projector and cover a wide variety of schenarios. Invest some money in a decent hazer or 2 as well. Quality of laser beams are at least 50% dependent on how good your 'atmosphere' is.

[cbabbman]

I already have beyond for my x-lasers (and soon to be for my Kvant Clubmax 1800's)... and have been wanting to try out Emulaser on an audience... unfortunately, as is mentioned, getting the proper projector is rather expensive... I sat on ebay for a few weeks and found what I hope to be a pretty good deal on a 5000lumens DLP projector with a contrast ration listed at 20,000:1... I's on the UPS truck for delivery today so I should know later tonight if I wasted my money.. lol

[hitekvoop]

I already have beyond for my x-lasers (and soon to be for my Kvant Clubmax 1800's)... and have been wanting to try out Emulaser on an audience... unfortunately, as is mentioned, getting the proper projector is rather expensive... I sat on ebay for a few weeks and found what I hope to be a pretty good deal on a 5000lumens DLP projector with a contrast ration listed at 20,000:1... I's on the UPS truck for delivery today so I should know later tonight if I wasted my money.. lol

I think you'll have a lot of "grey light" coming out of that unit. Definitely interested to know as I've been watching the Epson 5030UB's not really come down in price much for the last couple years.

[cbabbman]

worried about the grey light too... but, from what others with some experience with emulaser have told me, I should be 'ok' with the contrast ratio of this projector...

we shall see!

[Barabba]

thank you all of you my friends to assist me! Your comments were really precious
Talking with partners we decided to chose the videoprojector, as we planning also to project some movies for our annexed restaurant, in the open space area.
Talking about that.. I would ask you some infos about based on your experiences, if I can't find any related topic around here

[White-Light]

The Pangolin recommend projector is the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5020UB, now 5030UB (as newer model released) (known as the EH-TW9200 in Europe): http://www.epson.co.uk/products/proj...-lamp-warranty

The reason for that projector being recommended is the contrast ratio which is 600,000:1. (Pangolin tested a bunch of projectors and that one came out best).

It's worth noting that there's now also a 5040UB (EH-TW9300 in Europe) with a contrast ration of 1,000,000:1: http://www.epson.co.uk/products/proj...specifications for only a few hundred pounds / Euros more.

There are also wireless versions of the above although I would expect wired would probably be more reliable in a nightclub environment.

Epson also now do a range of laser projectors (video projectors using a laser light source). They have absolute black so insane contrast. However, to get above the brightness of the projectors listed above, you'd have to start with a model at over £9k rising to £29K for the top model.

I provide the model numbers as a courtesy and therefore it's up to you check their accuracy against the desired specs as I accept no liability for any mistake!

The contrast is more important the brightness according to what Pangolin said on here some time ago.

[Barabba]

thank you a lot! Really appreciable infos, I would see with my eyes a video to evaluate that, anyway, as lumen may not be considerable in a very dark place.. but with other lights working (not full power but working) in my opinion the contrast may be not apreciable. I asked on youtube's comment space about specs of devices about the comparison with laser-projector, a good starting point, I hope they will reply.
There is another important point, we're going to use the projector for cinema purposes too, and here in Saint Petersburg the only available season for enjoying staying outside is summer.. and we have white nights here.. so 2400 lumen may be enough for 2 meters image only, if we want 5-6 meters we should point (probably) to a 10.000 lumen. That may have sense also for laser purposes, I need to know more about both purposes.
I'm considering to leave this topic for safety discussions, and open a new one about Emu-laser issues

[White-Light]

Part of the answer is don't have competing lights. When you go to laser / simulated laser effects, black out all of the other lighting. Too many clubs and producers think more lights gives more, when in actual fact, with effects such as laser, less is often more if you value the brightness / contrast of the laser effects. Here's a couple of similar pics I pulled off Google to show a rough comparison:



Also, if you're aiming to do outdoor video in a bright environment, then I would suggest in any event that a cheap home projector isn't going to cut it for that use although others with video experience can advise you better. However, my instinct says you'd probably be better off investing in as powerful a commercial / semi-commercial cinema projector as you can afford. Something like the laser based Epsons I linked you to however, 7K lumens is £9K and 8K Lumens £15K in the Epsons, so not cheap.

Doing it cheaply and buying on brightness will sort the cinema to an extent but not the emulaser as contrast is important for emulaser effects.

I'd also advise viewing some emulaser effects before committing to simulated laser as whilst video projectors seem to do large effects well eg fans, sheet, cones, boxes, fences etc. the smaller the effect the dimmer the result because of the way video projectors work ie small beams are very weak from a video projector. Hence why many recommend using a small laser projector to project any narrow beams effects overhead and then using a video projector to audience scan but only with large / wide effects. The answer might be to hire a projector and do some tests with an emulated laser program and see if it meets your needs. Emulaser is not a proper substitute for laser, but it can close with some effects. Just some food for thought.

[White-Light]

I asked on youtube's comment space about specs of devices about the comparison with laser-projector, a good starting point, I hope they will reply.

Only just noticed this comment - It's far quicker to ask on here. The owners of the videos - Adam Burns is our "Buffo" on PL. Brad, I'm pretty sure is our Brad a few posts up!

Those videos were shot at a SELEM laser meeting which is essentially a laser enthusiasts meeting run by and largely (but not exclusively) for people on here.