2018 ILDA Awards

1st: “Static Laser Beam Auto-alignment Safety System", KVANT Ltd.

During temporary or permanent outdoor installations of a high power static laser beam, a potential risk occurs if the beam deviates its original direction or the illuminated object sways with time, which may lead to a dangerous situations. We implemented a new solution to avoid such scenario and to make such installation safe.

To deal with the sway of the illuminated object (e.g. building, sculpture, target), or with the beam direction deviation that may happen due to mechanical instability or thermal expansion of the laser system or its base or mount, we developed a special self-alignment safety system to keep the beam targeted exactly where it is supposed to.

The laser beam aims at the center of some target located at far distance or mounted on the tower. At the same time the position of the beam in relation to the center of the target is monitored with the camera system and the beam position data is sent to the Master Controller (e.g. computer). If the system analyses that the laser beam isn’t hitting the exact center of the target, it sends the new targeting data back to the laser display system. The laser targeting algorithm adjusts the tilt of the motorized beam reflecting mirror so the beam is aimed at the center of its target again.

This cycle happens during the start sequence each time and then continuously in real time or in certain time interval while the laser display system is in operation. If the correct alignment of the beam to its target isn’t confirmed by the Master Controller within three safety check cycles, the power to corresponding laser display unit is cut off.

The camera system is equipped with a telescope objective to reach necessary spatial resolution. The software recognizes the shape of the target and any target shape can be programmed. In order to reduce background light a narrow bandpass optical filter can be installed in camera if necessary (although this works with 100% reliability for single color beam only).

Submission video on YouTube is here


2nd Place: "Mercury" by X-Laser

Mercury is an entirely DMX-based integrated laser control system built from the ground up specifically for lighting designers to use not with laser control software, but with a modern lighting console such as GrandMA, Avolites, Chamsys, etc.

Featuring DMX+RDM, ArtNet, and in the future Streaming ACN (E1.31/E1.33), Mercury can be used from the lighting console just like any top-brand moving light. It can be discovered, profiled, configured, and programmed directly from the lighting console.

Submission video on YouTube is here

1st: “ILDA Digital Network - Toolbox”, University of Bonn, Institute of Computer Science 4 (Laser and Light Lab)

The IDN-Toolbox is software that can be used to receive IDN streams on a laptop or desktop computer. The IDN stream(s) can either come directly from software being able to generate IDN streams (like Medialas, HE Laserscan, LSX, ... - as already being demonstrated by Uni Bonn at recent ILDA meetings), or an IDN stream may be generated using an ISP-DB25 to IDN converter (like the StageFeed ISP from DexLogic).

In the latter case the IDN-Toolbox can be used together with any laser show system, attaching the converter to IDN to the ISP- DB25 output of the system (e.g. connecting to LaserGraph DSP, to JMLaser Netlase, to Pangolin FB3/FB4, or any other laser DAC with ISP-DB25 output).

The IDN-Toolbox can visualize the laser stream/frame data on a computer monitor (similar to the laser preview that many laser show systems provide). However, when the IDN-Toolbox receives data according to the IDN continuous mode (aka “wave mode”), either directly generated from software or coming from an ISP-DB25 to IDN converter, the scan speed and scanning effects (flickering, low scan speed) can be visualized with the IDN-Toolbox as well. If the graphic driver/card of the computer is sufficient, the visualization works with 60 fps (frames per second).

Furthermore, the IDN-Toolbox is able to analyze the received laser stream/frame data. Blanking points/lines will be made visible. Statistical data like point durations/point repetitions will be available (i.e. to identify possible “hot spots”). Histograms can be used to display the analyzed data, e.g. histograms of color values, histogram of distances between consecutive laser points, and others.

The initial concept of the IDN-Toolbox was presented and a very early prototype was demonstrated at the Advanced Technology Workshop at the ILDA meeting 2016 in Baltimore. At the ILDA meeting 2017 in Bratislava (ATW and IDN seminar), the stable version of the IDN- Toolbox was demonstrated and a use case of integrating the IDN driver into the Dynamics software with help of the IDN-Toolbox has been reported on.

Submission video on YouTube is here


2nd: “ILDA Digital Network - Switcher”, University of Bonn, Institute of Computer Science 4 (Laser and Light Lab)

A piece of software that is able to switch, map and multiplex between different IDN-based senders and several IDN-based receivers in a local network.

The basic idea and motivation for an IDN-Switcher is based on the digital transmission of laser data over a local network. With IDN (the ILDA Digital Network) an open specification of data formats for laser projector control became available. IDN aims to provide an open standard/specification to allow for a unified way to connect laser show software with laser projecting devices. (IDN stream specification became an ILDA technical standard in October 2015).

Any IDN-enabled software may directly send laser data to IDN-enabled laser projectors or IDN-enabled receivers. An IDN-enabled switcher can be installed in the network (on a dedicated computer like a laptop, an embedded device, or similar) to control the flow of laser data between senders and receivers, allowing to switch on/off individual sources, map sources to projectors and even map single streams to several projectors or combine several streams onto a single projector.

The IDN- Switcher:

• supports both the IDN continuous mode (wave mode) and IDN discrete mode (frame mode).
• works with the Dexlogic ISP StageFeed, which can be used to connect to legacy (non IDN-capable) devices via ISP DB 25 and feed IDN wave mode streams with 100 kHz sampling into the IDN local network.
• is able to map single IDN wave mode streams to one or more IDN receivers.
• is able to map several, independent IDN frame mode sources to one of the IDN receivers (using the IDN channel principle).

Several laser frames will be projected one after the other in an interleaved way by the IDN receiver.

The IDN-Switcher can be understood as a device (hardware + software combination) that helps to control the access from a variety of laser show software sources to a number of available receivers (laser projectors).

Submission video on YouTube is here