Laser shows – the future of the sky on New Year’s Eve?
Laser shows as a visual treat have been highlights at concerts, urban festivals, product presentations, large-scale company parties, and in clubs for decades. Music fans probably remember the shows of the legendary rock band Pink Floyd that could hardly be topped in terms of magnificence and set a new benchmark for laser shows. What works at concerts also works at the turn of the year. More and more event organizers opt for the fascinating colorful spectacle. “Yes, that’s the way it is. We’re booked out on New Year’s Eve. For about six years the number of inquiries has been going up, of course except during the Covid period,” confirms Simon Söldner from German laser show company “Klanglichter” that’s putting together a major New Year’s Eve laser show in the city of Siegen this year. Light shows with background music as a more climate-friendly alternative – what kind of technology is behind that?
“A laser show is more sustainable than a fireworks display. Fireworks generates not only a lot of packaging waste but also plenty of burned gun powder. By contrast, a laser show is run with electric power. The more sustainable energy I draw from a power outlet the more sustainable is the laser show.”
Laser show expert Simon Söldner
Perfectly attuned to music
A laser beam is the concentrated directional light from a laser source. Laser shows operate with powerful laser diodes that can generate light rays in different colors. This light consists of electromagnetic waves with wavelengths between 400 and 700 nm. The color of a laser beam depends on the wave length of the laser light. The beams are guided through special, so-called dichroitic mirrors – they’re filters that selectively let a specific wave length range pass, enabling the projection of complex images. Using modern control software, light designers adapt animations to music with millisecond precision.
Different kinds of laser shows
“With laser shows, there’s a basic differentiation made between graphic shows and beam shows,” says Simon Söldner. A graphic show is a pictorial sequence of various graphics or animations, either in 2D or 3D. When watching a beam show, spectators literally delve into a laser show. Laser beams are emitted through a space while being made visible by means of synthetic fog.
When lasers learned to beam
The history of the laser began in 1917 when Albert Einstein discovered the concept of “stimulated emission” – a process in which a photon causes an excited atom to emit another photon of the same energy. In the 1950s scientists developed a maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) that served as a predecessor of the laser. In 1960 Theodore Maiman achieved a breakthrough by building the first functional laser, a ruby laser generating red light. That feat was soon followed by gas lasers (e.g., helium neon lasers) and semiconductor lasers that were more compact and versatile. In the subsequent decades, lasers began to be used in medicine, telecommunications, research, and entertainment.
Run by certified experts
Laser shows not only promise to deliver a colorful spectacle but also entail potential risks if safety standards are not complied with. The reason is that laser beams contain mammoth amounts of energy. Even brief contact with high-class lasers (class 3B or 4) can irreparably damage the retina and lead to loss of vision because the eye heavily concentrates laser light. The skin when exposed to intensive radiation can sustain burns as well. Reflections from smooth surfaces or unintentional targeting of spectating areas increase the risk. Moreover, lasers beaming into the sky in an uncontrolled manner can dazzle pilots, endangering air traffic. Simon Söldner, who himself is an expert in risk assessment in laser protection says, “That’s why safe laser shows require stringent planning by certified experts, clear boundaries of hazardous areas, calibration and regular maintenance of the laser modules.”
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© LPS
About the limits of laser shows
Theoretically, laser beams can be visible across several kilometers but their effects are often limited to a defined spectating area. “If for no other reason than the fact that I cannot fog in a whole city to make the laser beams visible,” Söldner explains. “That’s why the audience preferably needs to focus on a particular spot. Also due to the music because the success of a laser show depends on synchronized programming to music. A laser show is only effective with music.”
