Announcing: "The Radiator"

[swamidog]

Further experimentation with video and laser projection.

I'm projecting live laser abstracts with a Radiator. I'm then using my phone to film the laser projection and video projecting that feed onto the laser projection. This results in amazing and painterly video feedback effects. This is all real time and no video processing software was used.

[shivahoj]

Further experimentation with video and laser projection.

I'm projecting live laser abstracts with a Radiator. I'm then using my phone to film the laser projection and video projecting that feed onto the laser projection. This results in amazing and painterly video feedback effects. This is all real time and no video processing software was used.

Good morning ,
Could You describe Your setup in detail?
Esp. the "projecting video feed from Phone" section? What Phone do You use, and by which means it connected to the video beamer?
Just Cable, or WiFi and a capture Program on Computer, which connects to a beamer? Which Software on what OS?

[shivahoj]

That would be great. In my day it was never about making .05 hz movements. Of course (excepting maybe Danube & colormod 2) we didn't had that ability.

Because I am always eager to learn about "them good ol' days": what are "Danube & colormod2" ?
i 've been googling for half an hour now, but no luck...
Do you have any info ( links, Photos etc.) You could share?

[HankLloydRight]

Further experimentation with video and laser projection.

I'm projecting live laser abstracts with a Radiator. I'm then using my phone to film the laser projection and video projecting that feed onto the laser projection. This results in amazing and painterly video feedback effects. This is all real time and no video processing software was used.

Wow!

. . . . . .

[laserist]

Because I am always eager to learn about "them good ol' days": what are "Danube & colormod2" ?
i 've been googling for half an hour now, but no luck...
Do you have any info ( links, Photos etc.) You could share?

Laserium
The Ghost in the Machine

In the beginning there was Laserium, and it was good. Or at least good enough. The Blue Danube was in that first show. Danube consisted of Lissajous loops and eights moving slowly even majestically against the stars and a small slowly moving Lumia effect. The Lissajous figures were done using two military surplus sine wave generators. Four friends of Ivan (Dryer) and Charlie (McDanald) each had 2 sliders to adjust the x & y gain of one of the four images. The choreography was simple. The number started with the Lumia effect being slowly revealed against the stars. Danube loops were each introduced growing from a point to a variety of sizes. Most of the performance involved the x & y axis gain changes of each image. There was a cross like offset that the images were individually selected to jump. On the next musical cues, the loops (still offset) were converted to eights. The number ends with the eights without offset and tumbling to fade out. It was a simple number except it took 5 people to perform.

Too many people, but technology can fix some things. Laserium built the Danube board. It did 2 approximately 50 hz sine waves for the Lissajous loop and a 100 hz signal for the eights. The speed was set by an analog signal reconstituted from 8-bit data. The speed adjustment was very fine, but when the voltage got close to ten volts a comparator triggered and the tumbling happened. There were other things that made the number work like fixed rotation, individual color gains, and especially master x & y gains. Danube was completely automated, Laserium’s 20-byte automation channel did everything needed. Funny thing though, with the Danube board it would have been easy for a Laserist to do live.

That original show also had Abaddon’s Bolero which is a spiral and color mod number. But back then color mod 2 did not exist in its final form. Almost certainly they just had simple function generators. What I think of Color Mod 2 was introduced with the Mark 6. Gain, triangle wave frequency, and triangle symmetry made up what we usually mean when we say color mod 2, but it could also control the gain of each of the analog quadrature osc as a color mod signal, and the entire combination could be used to amplitude &/or frequency modulate the Color Mod 1 signal.

[lasermaster1977]

Laserium
The Ghost in the Machine

In the beginning there was Laserium, and it was good. Or at least good enough. The Blue Danube was in that first show. Danube consisted of Lissajous loops and eights moving slowly even majestically against the stars and a small slowly moving Lumia effect. The Lissajous figures were done using two military surplus sine wave generators. Four friends of Ivan (Dryer) and Charlie (McDanald) each had 2 sliders to adjust the x & y gain of one of the four images. The choreography was simple. The number started with the Lumia effect being slowly revealed against the stars. Danube loops were each introduced growing from a point to a variety of sizes. Most of the performance involved the x & y axis gain changes of each image. There was a cross like offset that the images were individually selected to jump. On the next musical cues, the loops (still offset) were converted to eights. The number ends with the eights without offset and tumbling to fade out. It was a simple number except it took 5 people to perform.

Too many people, but technology can fix some things. Laserium built the Danube board. It did 2 approximately 50 hz sine waves for the Lissajous loop and a 100 hz signal for the eights. The speed was set by an analog signal reconstituted from 8-bit data. The speed adjustment was very fine, but when the voltage got close to ten volts a comparator triggered and the tumbling happened. There were other things that made the number work like fixed rotation, individual color gains, and especially master x & y gains. Danube was completely automated, Laserium’s 20-byte automation channel did everything needed. Funny thing though, with the Danube board it would have been easy for a Laserist to do live.

That original show also had Abaddon’s Bolero which is a spiral and color mod number. But back then color mod 2 did not exist in its final form. Almost certainly they just had simple function generators. What I think of Color Mod 2 was introduced with the Mark 6. Gain, triangle wave frequency, and triangle symmetry made up what we usually mean when we say color mod 2, but it could also control the gain of each of the analog quadrature osc as a color mod signal, and the entire combination could be used to amplitude &/or frequency modulate the Color Mod 1 signal.

Great description. I first saw Laserium at the Gates Planetarium in Denver back in '76 or '77 and the Blue Danube number was exquisite, simple but elegant, as we used to say. Its was the kind of audio-visual presentation that stays with you forever and served to inspire me throughout my laser presentation endeavors. Keep it simple, but elegant. Bolero was another fabulous visual smorgasbord. Thanks for sharing these reflections back in time.

[kecked]

Should think about doing a documentary on this stuff as a tutorial to preserve the art for future generations. Plus it’s just interesting.

[shivahoj]

Should think about doing a documentary on this stuff as a tutorial to preserve the art for future generations. Plus it’s just interesting.

Yes ! Please!
Because I am far too young to have seen any of the old stuff (and they never came to Germany), I would love to see some photos of the old gear, Lasers and all their support stuff(Cooling, High voltage etc. must have been huge as well as difficult to set up), the show controls, and all interesting other paraphernalia.

My first encounter with lasers was was I was in Berlin 1986, when the german electronic ambient band Tangerine Dream played a free concert in front of the Reichstag ruin. They had 4 scanners (no laser scanners, just like a Martin roboscan, but alone the lamp housings were the size of a phone booth) spread out at the back of the stage, and two lasers (red and blue) projected a steady Tangerine Dream band logo on laser gauze in front of the speakers.
I was young, and easily impressed, but his was my personal "alien encounter" experience, and since that day, I live off it.

[lasermaster1977]

Yes ! Please!
Because I am far too young to have seen any of the old stuff (and they never came to Germany), I would love to see some photos of the old gear, Lasers and all their support stuff(Cooling, High voltage etc. must have been huge as well as difficult to set up), the show controls, and all interesting other paraphernalia.

My first encounter with lasers was was I was in Berlin 1986, when the german electronic ambient band Tangerine Dream played a free concert in front of the Reichstag ruin. They had 4 scanners (no laser scanners, just like a Martin roboscan, but alone the lamp housings were the size of a phone booth) spread out at the back of the stage, and two lasers (red and blue) projected a steady Tangerine Dream band logo on laser gauze in front of the speakers.
I was young, and easily impressed, but his was my personal "alien encounter" experience, and since that day, I live off it.

I'd sure like laserist to elaborate more on this, but my first look at a Laserium projector astounded and impressed me in that it was made from a 19" relay rack enclosure, not sure if it was a standard 42U rack, but it shed light (no pun intended) on the notion of vertically mounting the laser or at an angle slightly tilted. They used Spectra Physics 165 Krypton ion lasers if I recall which required 208/240 3 phase power and a 30 circuit breaker. Their vertical projector racks were a great idea to minimize the laser projector's foot print. I was always concerned about "no seeums" falling on the lower mirror reflector over time. Even though the mirrors were covered, stuff seemed to find its way in, especially turning cleanings.

I started out with a Coherent Radiation CR-MG (mixed gas, krypton/argon) which had about the same output power. Both required 208/240 volt 3-phase at 30 amps max.. This meant their power cables had to be 8/4 (8 gauge stranded wire/ 4 conductor). Hubble twist-lock connectors were our standard. (We used 6/4 cables for the Spectra 171 5 watt Krypton or 20 watt Argon lasers). The travel cases that carried the pigtails and power cable runs were extremely heavy.

Water pressure levels for cooling these ion lasers were critical, as the water cooled lasers had water flow/pressure cutout switches in their power supplies so that if insufficient water pressure and flow occurred the laser power supply would switch itself off. This was not something you wanted happening during a show, any kind of show. Therefore, also included in our standard "equipment load-out" were 110vac, water pressure boost pumps with 40 PSI regulators on their outputs. We used heavy duty garden type hoses for water runs, which could be as long as 150 ft. for the supply and drain hoses, each.

Water and power travel cases made up the bulk of cases with their numbers being 4-5, depending on the venue. Site surveys of each venue, in advance, helped determine where the stadium or auditorium power disconnects could be provided for our pigtail connections and the length of our runs needed to get to the laser projector location. Same for water and drain sources.

(A power pigtail is a 3-6 ft length of 8/4 or 6/4 cable with a Hubble twist-lock connector on one end and bare insulated wire leads about 6-12" long on the other end with about 1" of each lead end stripped back to the stranded copper. The stripped back ends would tie-in (connect) to the venues power breaker box lugs or power disconnect box lugs that housed the main circuit breaker for that power run.)


How about it you ol' farts? Add to this for posterity.

[laserist]

I'd sure like laserist to elaborate more on this, but my first look at a Laserium projector astounded and impressed me in that it was made from a 19" relay rack enclosure, not sure if it was a standard 42U rack, but it shed light (no pun intended) on the notion of vertically mounting the laser or at an angle slightly tilted. They used Spectra Physics 165 Krypton ion lasers if I recall which required 208/240 3 phase power and a 30 circuit breaker. Their vertical projector racks were a great idea to minimize the laser projector's foot print. I was always concerned about "no seeums" falling on the lower mirror reflector over time. Even though the mirrors were covered, stuff seemed to find its way in, especially turning cleanings.

I started out with a Coherent Radiation CR-MG (mixed gas, krypton/argon) which had about the same output power. Both required 208/240 volt 3-phase at 30 amps max.. This meant their power cables had to be 8/4 (8 gauge stranded wire/ 4 conductor). Hubble twist-lock connectors were our standard. (We used 6/4 cables for the Spectra 171 5 watt Krypton or 20 watt Argon lasers). The travel cases that carried the pigtails and power cable runs were extremely heavy.

Water pressure levels for cooling these ion lasers were critical, as the water cooled lasers had water flow/pressure cutout switches in their power supplies so that if insufficient water pressure and flow occurred the laser power supply would switch itself off. This was not something you wanted happening during a show, any kind of show. Therefore, also included in our standard "equipment load-out" were 110vac, water pressure boost pumps with 40 PSI regulators on their outputs. We used heavy duty garden type hoses for water runs, which could be as long as 150 ft. for the supply and drain hoses, each.

Water and power travel cases made up the bulk of cases with their numbers being 4-5, depending on the venue. Site surveys of each venue, in advance, helped determine where the stadium or auditorium power disconnects could be provided for our pigtail connections and the length of our runs needed to get to the laser projector location. Same for water and drain sources.

(A power pigtail is a 3-6 ft length of 8/4 or 6/4 cable with a Hubble twist-lock connector on one end and bare insulated wire leads about 6-12" long on the other end with about 1" of each lead end stripped back to the stranded copper. The stripped back ends would tie-in (connect) to the venues power breaker box lugs or power disconnect box lugs that housed the main circuit breaker for that power run.)


How about it you ol' farts? Add to this for posterity.

We called the road cases with the power cables "Oh No Boxes". Laserium originally used 164 Krypton lasers with the tube installed backward so the bell of the tube was down when mounted at the max angle Spectra Physics would warrantee. The bell down to try and catch anything falling down the tube before it fused on to the Brewster window. Laser Images did do a Tangerine Dream tour back in the day...