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ILDA 2003 Conference
Slated
for Brussels, Belgium
Laserists from around
the world will gather in Brussels, Belgium Nov.
27-29 for the annual ILDA Conference. All conference
activities, except the trade show, will take place
at the Hotel Le Plaza Brussels, a grand hotel located
in the center of Brussels. Laser
System Europe, the conference host, promises
a special evening of entertainment for the Awards
Banquet.
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The Plaza
Theatre, which will host the ILDA Awards
Banquet and Lase-Off at the November
conference in Brussels.
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ILDA’s trade show
will be held in conjunction with the Audio-Visual
Creative Fair (ACF), giving ILDA exhibitors
their largest ever exposure to buyers from the commercial
entertainment industry. A special ILDA Village
for laser exhibitors will be set up inside ACF,
a major European trade show that is expected to
draw some 15,000 professionals from such fields
as lighting, special effects, video and film production,
stage equipment, and more. ILDA delegates will receive
free transportation to the fair, which runs Nov.
25-28 in Brussels.
The ILDA Business
Meeting is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 28, with the
Advanced Technology Workshop scheduled for Saturday,
Nov. 29. The nights for the Lase-Off (an open
exhibition of laser shows) and the Awards Banquet
have not yet been set.
In another first,
all registration fees for the conference will be
handled in Euros. Early delegate registration is
€475 (about US $535, at press time), which includes
all lunches, dinner at the Lase-Off and Awards
Banquet, and transportation to the ACF exhibit hall.
After Sept. 15, registration will increase to €625
(US $700).
Trade Show Registration
Trade show registration
materials have been posted on The Laserist Web site
at www.laserist.org/conference.htm,
and delegate registration information will be posted
shortly. All existing ILDA members will receive
registration packets in the mail.
Hotel Registration
The special ILDA
hotel rate at the Hotel Le Plaza Brussels is €140
(US $157) per night (2 persons €158/US $178),
including tax and breakfast. To make reservations,
contact the hotel at: (+32) 2 278 01 00; www.leplaza-brussels.be.
More details about
the conference will be announced on www.laserist.org
as they become available, including a special program
for traveling companions who want to tour Brussels.
For more details, contact ILDA.
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ILDA Unveils
New Web Site
A wealth of information
about the laser display industry is only a few keystrokes
away, thanks to ILDA’s new Web site, www.laserist.org.
With just a click of the mouse, visitors can
find information about companies that produce laser
shows and manufacture equipment.
Need to learn more
about how laser displays work? The new Discover
Lasers section will guide visitors through the basics
of atmospheric displays, graphics and complete shows.
For those looking for information about ILDA’s workings,
there are links to committee chairs, board members,
technical standards and more.
“Our goal with the
new site was to highlight how amazing laser displays
are and to make it easy for visitors to contact
a member-company who can help them with a particular
project,” said David
Lytle, editor of The Laserist magazine and creator
of the new laserist.org site. A “company finder”
feature, for example, makes it easy to search for
ILDA members by specific countries and regions.
The site also features a variety of high-quality
photographs generously donated by ILDA members.
“If you aren’t familiar
with lasers, we think this site is your best starting
point. And if you know laser displays, we think
you’ll be impressed by all the information and tools
we’ve gathered in one place,” said Lytle.
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In
Memoriam: Dean Hodges
Dean Hodges, known
to laserists for his work on entertainment lasers
at Laser Power Corporation and Melles Griot, died
unexpectedly on April 13 of natural causes. Hodges’
work helped lay the foundation for today’s widespread
use of solid-state lasers in the entertainment field.
He was not only a technological pioneer, but will
also be remembered for the serious consideration
he gave to entertainment applications, a relatively
small percentage of his overall work.
“He treated entertainment
people with respect that was very genuine, even
though they comprised a smallish market. When he
set out to do something, he would do it correctly,”
said Brian Bohan, head of Cambridge Laser Laboratories.
ILDA members will recall meeting Hodges at the 1998
Amsterdam conference, where his Laser Power Corporation
was the first company to exhibit a line of red,
green and blue solid-state lasers.
Melles
Griot purchased Hodges’ company and continued to
support the line of solid-state lasers, which set
the standard for small green YAG lasers. Hodges
was recently hired as a consultant by Melles Griot
and was present in that capacity at the 2002 ILDA
Conference in Orlando. Once again, he showed sincere
concern for the needs of laserists that was reassuring
at a time when many large laser companies were moving
in other directions.
Hodges’ career in
lasers dates back more than 20 years, including
work as a manager and engineer for Spectra Physics
and Newport Corp. He resided in Del Mar, Calif.,
and is survived by his wife, Mary Jane, and daughter,
Lauren.
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Laser
Jam Moves Ahead with
Cow Wars, Beam Show,
Revised Web Site
Laser
Jam, a volunteer project run by laser artists
for artists, is hard at work on a graphics show
for the 2003 ILDA Conference and recently added
a beam show to its list of projects.
Laser Jam premiered
its first show, Troglodyte, at the 2002 ILDA Conference
and is now working on Cow Wars. The new show is
set to the music of Cows with Guns, a folk song
by Dana Lyons that celebrates a bovine revolt against
slaughterhouses and fast-food restaurants. Over
60 artists are involved in the show, which uses
visuals based on Star Wars’ movie characters.
The efforts of volunteers
can be seen at www.laserjam.org, which recently
received a major upgrade to its content and visual
look. Visitors will soon be able to see animation
files at the “Laser Jam Drive-in Theatre,”
which will simulate a laser show with computer-generated
beam effects.
The project uses
a distributed-work concept, with artists from around
the world logging on the site and selecting assignments.
Jammers are now voting on which music they would
like to use for the new beam show. Once the beam
show music is selected, jammer Cory Simpson said
that artists will pick which portions of the song
they want to work on.
Visit:
www.laserjam.org
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