The ILDA Awards are the laser display industry's equivalent of Hollywood's Oscars. Each year, they honor companies and individuals from around the world for their achievements. These awards were bestowed during the 2021 ILDA Cloud Conference that took place online:
• The Artistic Awards cover virtually all aspects of modern laser displays, from the creation of individual laser graphics to the production of huge outdoor shows.
• The Technical Awards, named for pioneering laserist Fred Fenning, honor technological achievements that advance the industry.
• The Career Achievement Award is ILDA's highest honor, given for work spanning many years in the area of show quality, innovation, and industry service.
For more details on the winners, download the 2021 ILDA Awards booklet (PDF format). The booklet lists all winners, plus credits and a description of the work.
Videos of the First, Second and Third Place entries are available on YouTube. Links are below, in the list of winners. You can also go to the ILDA YouTube playlists for all Award-winning videos or for just the First Place winning videos.
(Note: The Second Place winner in the Live TV Show category may not be at YouTube in your region due to a copyright claim.)
If you want to get a quick overview of all of the winners, below is a video compilation of the 2021 Award winners. This 54-minute video contains short 15- to 60-second excerpts from the Award-winning entries.
Judging Coordinator
Richard Gonsalves
Judges
Abdulwahab Baghdadi, Christine Bernat, Brad Billet, Jason Creager, Mike Dunn, Olga Eser, Derek Garbos, Tobias Gebuhr, Christine Jenkin, Seb Lee-Delisle, David Kumpula, Theo Petrides, L. Michael Roberts, Marc Rubin, Jose Sala, Merlin Schaadt, Markus Steblei, Alexander Timofeev
During the New Year holidays, we transformed the ancient building into a fairy-tale ice castle. The main task was to attract the viewer's attention to the reconstructed architectural object of cultural heritage. The building has a complex architecture, so we had to draw many details and set up the lasers as accurately as possible. That's why we carried out laser scanning and then created a 3D model of the building from a cloud of points. The big challenge for us was working remotely in a pandemic environment. In a limited deadline we worked harmoniously to create a unique representation.
Credits: Project manager: Romanova Anna; Art director: Soboleva Alice; Laser designers: Savelyeva Olga, Likhachev Maxim; Technical crew: Boguk Ilya, Kozin Alexey, Tugov Alexander, Kornilov Vadim, Chaika Dmitry.
Music: Audiojungle
The Moscow Mayor's Cup of Hockey was held as one of the first permitted spectator sports events in August 2020 after strong restrictions according to COVID-19 pandemic. The fight of Sports against the Virus is the main idea of the pre-game laser show at the opening of the competition.
Credits: Kirill Nikitochkin , art director & laser graphics designer; Taras Viter, technical director.
Music: Don Davis, "Neodammerung"; Immediate Music, "Call in The B Team"; William Stromberg & John Morgan,"The Hood Device".
The show was for college students in upstate New York to celebrate the winter season. This show was performed in subzero temperatures, and posed challenges just to have gear perform properly. We mapped the historic buildings and programmed many effects in record time to achieve this show.
Credits: Shane Martz - Programmer; Pieterjan Ruysch - Designer and programmer
Music: Unknown. Mix provided by client.
The Britain's Got Talent live finals is one of the UK's biggest TV shows and this year without an audience it had to be bigger than ever. We supplied two of the guest artists using a wide variety of techniques. In particular, using rolling shutter camera effects for James Arthur's performance.
Credits: Laser Design: Marc Webber, Laser Programmer & Operator: Harry Boyde
Music: James Arthur and Sigala 'Lasting Lover' and Mc Fly 'Happiness'
Melodifestivalen is a Swedish music competition where the winner gets to represent the country in Eurovision Song Contest. The creative director wanted to make this song a high intensity performance with laser and dancers in the centre of attention. They wanted to have a lot of static looks and lasers that not only gave room for the dancing but also follow different dance steps to make them more powerful
Credits: Programming & operator Love Karlsson; Laser Tech & Laser Safety Officer, Johan Lindell;
Music: Anton Ewald, "New Religion"
America's Got Talent's Cristina Rae performed "Lose Somebody" alongside Ryan Tedder of One Republic. Gentle, soft laser programming was the perfect backdrop to the vocally superior performance.
Credits: Laser Design, Programmer and Operator: Lawrence Wright
Music: One Republic, "Lose Somebody”
We recently had the pleasure of working with electric violinist Lindsey Stirling in collaboration with League of Legends: Wild Rift. Lasers were designed to portray characters & music from the game. We create a world of floating beams using Laser Banding, a technique where lasers appear to defy gravity and float in camera. Lasers are the singular effect in this video, creating an elegant landscape of ever-changing visual excitement designed to enhance Lindsey Stirling's solo performance.
Credits: Adam LaBay, Laser Designer & Programmer; Precision Lasers, Laser Provider
Music: Lindsey Stirling, "Wild Rift"
We created Laser Banding effects for Xavier Toscana: The Remedy music video. Laser Banding is a real-time practical technique where lasers are programmed so a camera captures only part of the light emitted. This was used to create of a world of multi-colored high energy beams to enhance Xavier Toscano and dancers performances. Special attention was paid to create Xavier’s iconic “X” logo using the technique. This was the first video where lasers were projected from multiple angles to create new types of volumetric Laser Banding effects.
Credits: Adam LaBay, Laser Designer & Programmer; Precision Lasers, Laser Provider
Music: Xavier Toscano, "The Remedy"
For the IvecoT-Way new truck product presentation, during the pandemic period, the client decided to perform a "digital event" with speeches about marketing and technical issues for the product presentation, but…they need a reveal, so the client's agency decided to shoot the reveal in a studio theater and then stream the show to their clients worldwide since the event cannot be performed live in this period.
Credits: Donato Tranquillino Minerva, lasershow designer & programmer, Vittorio Bonaffini Director, Alessandro Ubaldi Lighting designer & photography director, Alessio Ferrero drummer performer, Andrea Ciarla executive director
Music: N/A
This concert took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The planetarium was closed for the audience. We made four concerts possible by live streaming it online on YouTube for free. It is challenging to show the capabilities and wonder of planetarium using cameras. To enhance the experience, we decided to use laser effects in the concert, despite the fact that the artist performed classical music (Fryderyk Chopin compositions), which is rarely associated with lasers. We believe it worked very well. Both lasers and animations on the dome were live controlled by planetarium staff.
Credit: Mateusz Wyszynski
Music: Fryderyk Chopin, "Nocturne B♭ Minor Op. 9 No. 1", "Nocturne B Major Op. 32 No. 1", "Waltz A♭ Minor Op. Posth"
This concert took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The planetarium was closed for the audience. We made four concerts possible by live streaming it online on YouTube for free. It is challenging to show the capabilities and wonder of planetarium using cameras. To enhance the experience, we decided to use laser effects in the concert, despite the fact that the artists performed classical music (of various composers), which is rarely associated with lasers. We believe it worked very well. Both lasers and animations on the dome were live controlled by planetarium staff.
Credit: Mateusz Wyszynski
Music: Aldona Nawrocka, "Preludes de Lumiere", "Lunares Tempora"; George Gershwin, "Summertime"; Michel Legrand, "The Windmills of Your Mind"; Russ Freeman, "The Wind"
“AMACEON – New Beam” is a full studio-formatted laser effects remake of a show based on a fully original orchestral composition specifically created for this production, reflecting the unique character of the music perfectly in the lasers for a former theme park attraction. For this studio remake, great importance was put into programming the laser beams to match the rising pace of the performance while still staying precise. The elaborate video backdrop with animated visualizations, striking fire effects, and captivating water screen projections perfectly complement this remastered edition.
Credits: Show designer: Roman Schütz; Creative director: Florian Skrzypczak
Music: Original composition, "AMACEON"
In this year of slowdown we took the opportunity to experiment with new technical solutions, a multimedia show was born where the laser is certainly the main element but is supported by old and new technologies well balanced between them. First of all the kinetic technology which in this period attracts a lot of attention, creating a perfect synchronization between the kinetic elements and the laser. We chose an extremely poetic song that seemed perfect for this difficult moment: as Billie Eilish says, it is not time to die but to take the opportunity to create something spectacular.
Credits: Lorenzo Pompei, lasershow designer ; Donato Tranquillino Minerva, kinetic operator
Music: Billie Eilish, "No Time To Die"
Show created for online presentation to maintain customer relationships during lockdown.
Credit: Maciej Lukaszewski, laser designer
Music: L'Orchestra Cinématique, "Pacific Rim Theme | EPIC VERSION"
This winter music festival ran virtual this year due to COVID. Four different site locations were recorded and then streamed online for audience viewing. With temperatures well below zero, wind, and snow, each site offered a unique challenge. The sites included: an outdoor roller-coaster structure, an old fort at the base of a bridge, an open-air storage shed in the port, and the roof of a skyscraper. The skyscraper roof had no security walls so the crew was attached with life-line harnesses.
Credits: Laser Installation / Operation / Programming: Nicolas Squire; Derek Garbos; Lighting Design & Operator: Hubert Gagnon; Producer: Multicolore
Music: Cri; Lou Phelps; Jacques Green; Mistress Barbara
Spanning several genres of music, Westfest is the largest hardcore and drum bass festival in the UK. The show spans eight hours so it's important the rig is interesting enough to operate for such a long period of time.
Credits: Laser Design: Marc Webber, Laser Programmer & Operator: Ross Marshall
Music: Various tracks from the Hardcore and Drum and Bass genres
We had the privilege of supporting #wedanceasone presented by Defected Records at the Ministry of Sound nightclub. Various DJ's played for the shoot and Disciples played an hour-long set as part of the We Dance As One initiative celebrating Club Culture.
Credits: Laser Design: Sam Tozer and Ryan Hagan, Laser Programmer & Operator: Jimmy Boucher
Music: Various tracks from the Defected Record Label
Bold and Bright was this year's goal so high-powered units were used to line the top of the Orchestra with two flanking stage left and stage right to add some width to the show.
Credits: Laser Design: Cassius Creative and Ryan Hagan, Laser Programmer & Operator: Seth Griffiths and Ivan Dokmanovic
Music: Orchestral Performance with a lead DJ - ATB 'Till I Come' , Faithless 'Insomnia' & 'God Is A DJ'
The laser tracks for Queen are classic melody lead tracks, so big bold looks with slow movements win the day on the show. Symmetry was key for stage left and right allowing us to complete big slow-moving centre-focused pans across stage.
Credits: Laser Design: Marc Webber, Laser Programmer & Operator: Seth Griffiths
Music: Queen, "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Radio Gaga"
The Xperience is Christina Aguilera's Las Vegas Residency at Zappos Theater in Planet Hollywood. In this dazzling stage show Christina Aguilera, now known as Xtina, sings her world-renowned hits. The lasers we used liberally through the show, seamlessly integrated into the lighting and video cues. An extreme amount of freedom was given to the laser programmer to create detailed and emotional looks so each time the lasers turn on the audience is shown the lasers in a new way. The artistic direction given by Jerri Slaughter and Paul Morente was that it's never too much, always go bigger.
Credits: Nisha Ramnath, Laser Programmer and Technician; House of Sam, Producer and Creative Directors; Daniel Norman, GrandMA II Programmer; Kris Wall, Crew Lead; Zach Lawson, Laser Technician; Pyrotecnico, Equipment and Logistics
Music: All by Christina Aguilera:”Genie in a Bottle”, "Intro Electro”,”Candyman","Feel This Moment”,”Desnudate","Fighter"
This song is usually for weddings and happy occasions. The story of this show pushes the imagination and tells the story of love, loss, and gratitude. At the end, the Sinatra singer has an extra layer of flicker and brightness banding to give him the look of a hologram.
Credits: Nisha Ramnath, Designer; Rick Feehry, Laser Technician Set Design, Construction and Equipment; Andrew Dranetz, Laser Technician and Equipment, MAXTENN, Laser Equipment
Music: Frank Sinatra, "Fly Me to the Moon"
In the middle of a global pandemic, a biochemist who works on COVID-19 detection and Moderna vaccine development and production, commissioned a pandemic laser show to highlight our collective emotional response to these devastating events. For the entire month of December and into 2021, over 2,000 cars made their way down a quarter-mile dirt road in the darkest of winters to view the show for free.
Credits: Nisha Ramnath, Designer; Rick Feehry, Laser Technician and Equipment; Andrew Dranetz, Laser Technician and Equipment, MAXTENN, Laser Equipment
Music: Crystal Method, "Ghost in the City"
A corporate client requested a laser show to follow a comedian at an in-house company retreat. The challenge was it needed to be COVID-related. This song parody of Bohemian Rhapsody was the perfect fit. Live imagery was performed by the laserist using an electronic laser synthesizer to create abstract laser images. The live performance of abstract imagery is the highlight.
Credits: Animations and GFX by Terence Green: Abstracts by Kyle Garner
Music: Adrian Grimes (parody of Queen original)
A show inspired by pandemic times. A little humor in this hard time for everyone.
Credits: Anna Nadolna, Laser designer; Maciej Lukaszewski, Laser designer
Music: Willyecho, "Monster"; Sarah Hicks & The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, "The Ecstasy Of Gold"
A pro-environmental project to promote drinking tap water.
Credits: Anna Nadolna, Laser designer; Maciej Lukaszewski, Laser designer
Music: Diogenes, "Neodia Water"
This New Year's laser show was demonstrated on the main square of Kaluga, where scientist Konstantin Tsialkovski, the founder of the theory of interplanetary flights, was born and worked. Therefore, Kaluga is considered the City of Astronautics. There are many museums and monuments dedicated to the conquest of space. The show presents how Kaluga’s mascot - spacemen - celebrate the coming of Christmas and New Year 2021.
Credits: Kirill Nikitochkin & Alexey Panin, laser graphics; Taras Viter, project manager.
Music: L'Orchestra Cinématique, "Epic Christmas Music"
I wanted to use this song as a vehicle to experiment with non-traditional abstract shapes. To create something that was half a hallucination and half a hyperkinetic assault on the eyes. As the lyrics say: “The walls, such they be, are crawling with geometric hallucinations. Very brightly coloured, very iridescent.” I used XZ cycloids, traveling opacity mattes, and animated intensity bands to break shapes up and make them less distinct. Much of this show was created via sequenced MIDI commands with only some accent animations created as typical timeline programming.
Credit: Christopher Short
Music: Shpongle, “A New Way to Say Hooray”
This show was created to be a feel-good, big bright old-school style show. Lots of traditional FM modulated circle effects and groups of points. It’s the kind of show I would love to see in a planetarium dome. After being in COVID lockdown, I wanted something bright and joyful. This show was entirely created via MIDI sequenced effects.
Credit: Christopher Short
Music: B52’s, “Love Shack”
This show consists largely of geometric shapes (square, stars, circles, etc) that are repeated in symmetric patterns and move to the music. Often the shapes have animated patterns of points that are mapped to their surface and are deforming and changing perspective as the shapes move. I punctuated the show with more traditional lissajous effects to add variety. This is just a feel good, let’s dance, and celebrate that things are all going to work out.
Credit: Christopher Short
Music: Deee-Lite, “Groove is in the Heart”
G4M3 0V3R is a mashup of various electronic songs choreographed in laser show, all which are brought together in a musical chiptune fashion.
Credit: Theo Petrides, all original work.
Music: Celldweller, G4M3 0V3R
Music that transports the mind to the world of Pandora. A mesmerizing symbiosis of music and light!
Credit: Igor Vlasenko, programmer and video operator
Music: Miriam Stockley, "Adiemus"
An exciting show that makes you imagine an epic action on a galactic scale!
Credit: Igor Vlasenko, programmer and video operator
Music: Kiril Zaplotinsky, "Epic"
“Epic Circle” should be self-explanatorily simple – but in truth, it is full of surprises: the underlying grandeur of the “epic” is accented with forceful and precise touches, adding impulses that enhance the power within the soundtrack. To complement this force, the use of color harmonizes these impacts, maintaining a certain sense of appeal throughout the show. Finally, the transition into a gentle finale softens the strong preceding elements, reaching a conclusion which rounds off the experience, coming full circle.
Credits: Show designer: Roman Schütz; Creative director: Florian Skrzypczak
Music: Yanni, "Santorini"
Due to the general slowdown that gave us a lot of spare time, we started to investigate and study the new beautiful "laser banding effect". Then we decided to put together a new lasershow with this technique… and here you can see the result.
Credits: Donato Tranquillino Minerva, lasershow designer, Alberto Kellner, show producer
Music: Audiomachine, “Finis”
A solid, strong foundation carrying a perfectly polished climax combining strings and divine vocals became an excellently-suited framework to build a laser performance around. “Glamour” fully lives up to its lofty name, a celebratory, radiant choreography with striking effects that allow the show to defy definitions and poetically speak for itself.
Credits: Show designer: Roman Schütz; Creative director: Florian Skrzypczak
Music: Thomas Bergersen, "Victory"
Resistance is a laser show that pushes the boundaries and possibilities with exciting colors and movements choreographed to a modern utopian electronic element. Turn away if you are looking for a laser show from the Top 50 hits.
Credit: Theo Petrides, all original work.
Music: Au5, “Resistance”
For a special customer project we programmed this beamshow using 13 laser systems. They all were set into a special arrangement to create some fantastic effects. The customer wanted this show to have its own unique character and effects. The song "Artemis" from Lindsey Stirling was chosen by us. We created a very powerful and dynamic show with precisely-timed effects.
Credits: Markus Voggenberger, Programmer; Stephan Schneider, Setup and Laser Operator; Fabian Reinholz, Camera
Music: Lindsey Stirling, "Artemis"
[No statement of intent]
Credit: Maciej Lukaszewski, Laser designer
Music: Zuri "Neodia"
Light Sculpture was exhibited as one of several art exhibitions accompanying the International Conference "Beauty in Architecture: Harmony of Place”.
[Safety note from entrant: “The sculpture stand was designed so that the laser would not emit toward the audience. Because of the effects used, there was a camera at the stand and the audience was supposed to watch the result on a big screen. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the whole Conference took place online and all accompanying exhibitions were presented as videos.”]
Credit: Maciej Lukaszewski, Laser designer
Music: Merlin, "Awakening"; Merlin, "Magic Potion"
The visual artist Ajan Lennätin wanted to create an art installation to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Ajan wanted to transmit Morse code in the sky of Helsinki so the Olympic Stadium tower turned into a modern laser telegraph to send messages. The Morse code was also transmitted over radio as a complement for the laser. To make it visible for the whole city of Helsinki we used two lasers in each direction to create a 360-degree coverage. People were also able to request to send a personal message over Morse code. It was transmitted over a period of 14 hours during New Year's Eve.
Credits: Laser tech, Claes Magnusson; Laser crew chief, Johan Lindell; Laser Safety Officer, Henrik Hoffman; Creative director and visual artist, Ilkka Paloniemi;
Music: Ajan Lennätin, "The Time Telegraph";
PY1 is a new entertainment concept by Guy Laliberte and Lune Rouge Entertainment, a traveling venue offering a multi-sensory transformational experience. Iconically shaped as a pyramid, PY1 is a spectacular marvel of innovative technology dedicated to the presentation of vibrant and memorable artistic experiences. PY1 is filled with every sort of laser effect: high powered beam shows, audience scanning lasers, lumia effects, video-tracing laser graphics, object tracking lasers, and more. We programmed the “Through the Looking Glass” and “Stella” flagship experiences.
Credits: Kelly Sticksel, Laser Designer; Adam LaBay, Lead Laser Programmer; Pieterjan Ruysch, Laser Programmer; Precision Lasers, Laser Safety Officer
Entrance pods for the guests were created using white array fixtures with diverging lenses over the top to increase divergence. The guests would enter one at a time and press any number of keys which MIDI-triggered the lasers to run various sequences.
Credits: Laser Design: Weirdcore and Marc Webber, Laser Programmer & Operator: Tom Vallis and Oliver Jenni
Laser Light City is a large-scale interactive light installation designed to work within the restrictions of COVID-19. This project provided an unforgettable and much needed source of entertainment throughout 2020.
Lasers placed on iconic buildings were visible for miles around. They spread across the sky and also through social media which was filled with dazzling images and videos.
Participants accessed the system via an online interface that lets them change the lasers’ colour, pattern and position. The system can scale; over 100,000 people have interacted with it so far.
Credits: Laser design and programming, Seb Lee-Delisle; On-site laserists : Abby Shum, Flora Litchfield, Tanya Fish, Sophia West, Rob Stanley, Andy Stentiford, Danny Mason
Music: N/A (although music in the video was written by Seb Lee-Delisle)
This collaboration between the award entrant and popular science YouTuber Tom Scott was a demonstration of a custom-coded rolling shutter laser effect.
Seb Lee-Delisle custom-programmed exceptionally fine laser timing control to create the effect of a bolt of laser light moving back and forth across the camera.
At one point Tom appears to "freeze" the beam in mid air.
Credits: Laser design and programming, Seb Lee-Delisle; Presentation and script, Tom Scott; Explanation video animations, William Marler; Technician: Abby Shum; Videography Matt Gray.
Note: The original Tom Scott video is here.
The original "behind-the-scenes" video is here.
Winners selected by ILDA Members viewing photos online and voting via email
See photo above
Bronzed was achieved by meticulously adjusting all elements of brightness, scan rate, and color. Often brown is a very difficult color to achieve with laser systems and any laserist can appreciate the brown tones, with purple highlights, and top it off with bit of liquid fogs effect, mwah!
Credit: Photo by Theo Petrides
This art was inspired by the floral motif of the Ajanta Caves of India (2nd Century BCE to 480 CE). It is an experimental art in mixed media of laser, lumia and fluorescent papers that glowed under UV light. Fluorescent papers were precisely cut to the shape of the laser art of the flowers and then attached on the wall before the final projection. The scene was captured by a single click of a camera and there was no post-digital enhancement.
Credit: Photo by Manick Sorcar
I selected this photograph as it transcends the medium of laser art and becomes a throwback to 1960’s sci-fi pop art. Classic geometric impressionism. Perhaps a life form. I want it on the wall of my space age bachelor pad.
Credit: Photo by Christopher Short
Performed live online, and judged by attendees viewing the ILDA Cloud Conference stream, November 6, 2021
1st: Nicolas Squire, LaserTech Canada
2nd: Derek Garbos, LaserTech Canada
3rd: Matthias Frank, University of Bonn, Institute of Computer Science 4
Judges
Paul Clark
Horacio Pugliese
Paulo Cesar Saito
Michael Sollinger
The MedusHarp is an all-in-one Laser Harp Bar. It can be used as a classic laser bar controlled by DMX (currently with 8 red beams, but there may be other versions in the future). A detection system is also implemented in the bar and is assigned to each beam, so it is possible to use this laser bar as a MIDI controller; to play laser harp, for instance.
MIDI DIN connectors are available on the device, as well as a USB port. The laser bar and its beams can be controlled by DMX, MIDI DIN and/or MIDI via USB. The MIDI signals can be sent via MIDI DIN or MIDI via USB. On the DMX control, there are currently 10 channels so we can select modes (classic laser bar, laser bar + MIDI controller) and presets plus main controls if MIDI mode is activated.
This is currently the only professional all-in-one laser harp MIDI controller on the market.
It differs from last year’s Third Place Fenning Award winner, my “KB2D Interactive Laser Harp Sensor.” While that gives a lot of possibilities, it requires an external laser projector as well as some time to master it. I wanted to create a more affordable device that is extremely easy to use and would still be versatile as a laser bar as well as a laser harp.
Credit: Thomas Avisse, Designer
This is the second generation of our flexible tool for 3D/VR visualization of IDN (ILDA Digital Network) stream data. This version is optimized to work with VR headsets (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest) and also without VR headset (screen preview; configurable controls by keyboard or game controllers).
IDN Laser VR is a novel approach to real-time laser show visualization in virtual reality. With IDN Laser VR you can dive into an immersive 3D laser experience.
The IDN Laser VR (first generation) received an ILDA IDN technical award in 2019. This year’s submission contains substantial new and improved elements.
Credits: Dr. Matthias Frank and Sebastian Tasch
This is the second generation of our flexible tool for 2D visualization of IDN (ILDA Digital Network) stream data. This version is optimized to work with multiple IDN services, multiple screen tiles, separate displays and full-screen mode.
The IDN Toolbox is a software that can be used to receive and visualize IDN laser graphic streams on a laptop or desktop computer.
The IDN Toolbox (first generation) received an ILDA IDN technical award in 2018. This year’s submission contains substantial new and improved elements.
Credits: Dr. Matthias Frank and Georg Kuhlemann
Fred Fenning began his laser show career while still an MIT undergraduate, when he joined Laser Displays, Inc., a 1976 start-up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There he developed the PMR-8, a digital/analog imaging and animation control unit — one of the first to incorporate a data tablet for image input. He left in 1979 to become a co-founder of Image Engineering Corporation.
At Image Engineering, he developed many innovative laser systems, including: the first true RGB projection control system; custom high-speed closed-loop scanner amps; multi-channel FM encode/decode systems; a unique "XY-TV" display to emulate scanning on a CRT monitor; digital-video storage of multiple image sources with integrated hi-fi audio (in an era before digital recording devices such as ADAT); and "The Hard Machine", a console for analog control of digitally-stored graphics, which permitted real-time performance of intricate animations.
Fred died in a private plane crash, in August 1997. Afterward, the ILDA Technical Award was renamed in his honor as the Fenning” Award for Technical Achievement.”
Voted by the ILDA Membership, via email ballots
More information is available, including an 18-minute video of the 2021 Career Achievement Award presentation, and the text of remarks by Scott Blake, Jennifer Morris, Dr. Walter Fenning, and Stephanie Kayes. This is on the Career Achievement Award recipient page; scroll down to Fred Fenning's listing.
ILDA requires its Members to perform safe and legal laser shows, and to acknowledge basic principles of laser show safety.
Beginning with the 2014 Awards, all entrants submitting videos have explicitly certified that their laser effects depicted met safety standards, as well as all applicable laser safety laws and regulations (including laws for audience scanning) in the location where the show was performed.
• Entries filmed in a studio, with no audience, can use any power and can scan anywhere, even if the original show was intended for an audience.
• However, if the video depicts an audience watching the laser show, or has lasers near performers, then the show must be safe for the audience and performers, and must comply with all applicable laws and regulations. Documentation must be provided to ILDA about the show’s irradiance at the point of closest audience access, and any other safety measures that were implemented.
• The above documentation is also required if an entry depicts beams in an area where an audience might be, such as an empty tradeshow floor or an empty auditorium. This is because a video of unsafe beams in an audience area gives an impression that the same show would be run with an audience present.
Since 2014, ILDA has reviewed every entry for any potential safety issues.
ILDA has the right to remove or disqualify an entry if, in our sole opinion, 1) the show violates or appears to violate safety standards, laws and/or regulations, and/or 2) the show does not have sufficient documentation of safety and legal compliance.
Note that despite ILDA’s review process, ILDA cannot absolutely certify that an Awards entry is safe and legal. This is ultimately the responsibility of the entrant.
IMPORTANT: If you have a laser or a laser projector, do NOT attempt to perform the type of audience-scanning effects seen in ILDA Award-winning videos 1) without qualified expert safety planning and supervision and 2) without prior written permission from appropriate authorities. These authorities may include federal, state and local laser safety regulators, venue operators, and insurance companies.
For more information, visit our other ILDA websites:
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