Hear the softly spoken magic spell with lasers
Melissa Chadbourne
Issue date: 7/24/08 Section: Variety
The Orlando Science Center welcomed back the Rock N' Roll Laser Light Shows for its second year through August 16.
The lasers are full-color beams that, thanks to the smoke machine, turn not just the screen but the entire dome into a goose bump inducing visual overload. Surround sound and full-range visual imagery pull the viewer completely into the show in ways old-school Pink Floyd fans could previously only dream of.
The show is produced by Lightwave International, which is the largest laser show and effect production company in the world according to Production Manager Alan Fuehrer. The show uses direct diode laser technology, which Fuehrer explains is a vast improvement over the old standard ion lasers which weighed more than 200 pounds.
"The largest most powerful lasers in the world now fit in the overhead bins of aircrafts," Fuehrer said in a phone interview. "They plug into the wall and use less power than your toaster. They're cooled by air."
Ion lasers were not only heavy, but required industrial power sources and running water to cool their systems. For practical reasons, this type of equipment didn't tend to work well in fragile venues like science center domes.
"Science centers typically have, you know, pretty delicate venues where they do these," Fuehrer said. "They're planetariums, big expensive domes, and you don't want to be hoisting something that weighs 500 pounds in the air in the middle of your dome, or have running water in there."
This year, OSC's laser equipment was updated to the Direct Diode lasers.
"In this installation this year, there are three full-color laser systems," Fuehrer said, "which is just shy of the largest laser show installation in a planetarium or science center in the US, which is four."
Before the show, the CineDome is hazed by a smoke machine to bring out the beams of the laser lights.
The dome drops into blackness until the first beam of light hits the screen. The lasers move in sync with the music in colorful patterns and animated images like running people and hole-digging pink rabbits. A particular Pink Floyd song had silhouettes of women doing strip-teases, living up to OSC's parental discretion advisory for the shows for the Friday Dark Side of the Moon set.
The lasers are full-color beams that, thanks to the smoke machine, turn not just the screen but the entire dome into a goose bump inducing visual overload. Surround sound and full-range visual imagery pull the viewer completely into the show in ways old-school Pink Floyd fans could previously only dream of.
The show is produced by Lightwave International, which is the largest laser show and effect production company in the world according to Production Manager Alan Fuehrer. The show uses direct diode laser technology, which Fuehrer explains is a vast improvement over the old standard ion lasers which weighed more than 200 pounds.
"The largest most powerful lasers in the world now fit in the overhead bins of aircrafts," Fuehrer said in a phone interview. "They plug into the wall and use less power than your toaster. They're cooled by air."
Ion lasers were not only heavy, but required industrial power sources and running water to cool their systems. For practical reasons, this type of equipment didn't tend to work well in fragile venues like science center domes.
"Science centers typically have, you know, pretty delicate venues where they do these," Fuehrer said. "They're planetariums, big expensive domes, and you don't want to be hoisting something that weighs 500 pounds in the air in the middle of your dome, or have running water in there."
This year, OSC's laser equipment was updated to the Direct Diode lasers.
"In this installation this year, there are three full-color laser systems," Fuehrer said, "which is just shy of the largest laser show installation in a planetarium or science center in the US, which is four."
Before the show, the CineDome is hazed by a smoke machine to bring out the beams of the laser lights.
The dome drops into blackness until the first beam of light hits the screen. The lasers move in sync with the music in colorful patterns and animated images like running people and hole-digging pink rabbits. A particular Pink Floyd song had silhouettes of women doing strip-teases, living up to OSC's parental discretion advisory for the shows for the Friday Dark Side of the Moon set.