1993 ILDA Awards

From The Laserist magazine, Summer 1994 issue

Laser display professionals from around the world gathered in Orlando, Florida in November 1993 to see, celebrate and experience ILDA's seventh annual competition for Outstanding Laser Display. The awards honored creativity and artistry in displays ranging from corporate trade exhibits to laser shows for the visually impaired.

The biggest winner of the competition was the new firm of Lightspeed Design, Inc. Founded in 1992 by former employees of Laser Fantasy International, Lightspeed won first place in three out of the eight artistic categories being judged.

The Bellevue, Washington company also won a second-place prize and three honorable mentions. The ILDA Awards Banquet, which included laser projections of the winning entries, culminated with Robert Mueller, Lightspeed's Art Director, taking home ILDA's Career Achievement Award.

In the Special Award category, ILDA honored a university planetarium and a private display company for their efforts at producing laser shows that allow the visually impaired to see laser-projected text and graphics.

The project began at the Mueller Planetarium in the University of Nebraska's Lincoln campus. Planetarium Director Jack Dunn, working with the local affiliate of the Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation Fighting Blindness, discovered that visually impaired people could see the bright, high-contrast images created by a laser projector.

Dunn has since developed a soundtrack and custom images for a laser light show geared specifically to the needs of the visually impaired, which he makes available to ILDA members free of charge. Sharing the first place award with Mueller Planetarium was Laser Images, Inc. which designed a planetarium laser show featuring sky constellations. The show enabled many RP sufferers, who typically have little or no night vision, to see "stars" for the first time since they were afflicted with the disease.

Other highlights of the awards ceremony included the first ILDA award presented to a Canadian company. Laser F/X International, based in Burlington, Ontario, received third place in the Graphic Animation category for "Fashion Show," a hand-drawn, 296-frame character animation. A German firm, tarm Show Production, won first place in the Mixed Application category for a display that combined water fountains, pyrotechnics and audience scanned beam effects in a six-and-a-half minute production.

The 153 applications submitted for consideration were evaluated by a three-member panel:

Cicely McMurtrie, a musical consultant and laser choreographer for Sea World of Ohio and Florida

Don Mihelic, a computer programmer for Universal Studios

Joe Tucciarone, an internationally recognized artist whose recent artwork includes a two-page fold-out in the January 1994 issue of National Geographic.

In a break from past years, ILDA's Technical Committee handled the judging of the technical awards, which included a first place award to William Benner Jr. and Lighting Systems Design, Inc. of Orlando, Fla. for the development of a new scanner amplifier that significantly boosted the performance of low-cost open-loop galvos.

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