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tarm Showlaser Lights Up Paris Sky
On June 15, for the third time, tarm Showlaser of Bochum, Germany, put on a magnificent open-air laser performance for the European Space Agency’s ‘The Night of the Astronauts’.
Following the breathtaking events held in Cologne and Barcelona, the background chosen this time was the Paris skyline. The Trocadero Gardens in front of the Eifel Tower provided an impressive setting. After a live link to the International Space Station (ISS) and a round table discussion with former astronauts at 22:45 that attuned spectators to the subject matter, the starting shot was fired for a 40-minute multimedia spectacle that outclassed anything the “City of Light” had seen before, claim tarm. A combination of laser, video, and light effects, water fountains, and special effects enraptured the around 30,000 spectators, who followed the video projections on a 25-metre x 10-metre inflatable screen. Altogether eight time-code-controlled, full-colour lasers interfaced to a fibre optic-linked, central, computer network were installed in the grounds.
tarm general manager, Ralf Lottig, noted: “Fortunately, the days of elaborate water-cooling systems and three-phase, electrical cabling as thick as a man’s arm are over. Even though all of our rental lasers are air cooled and run off standard, 240-Volt, 16-Ampere, electrical outlets, they output beams that are three-times as intense as the totally obsolete, gas ion-lasers that are still being used in the market.”
However, the basic prerequisite for an impressive full-colour laser presentation is the employment of numerous fog generators in order to envelope the entire area, which in this case measured 300m x 150m, in a light haze. A total of 36 fog generators and blowers that were individually and centrally controlled from up front were installed for the Paris project.
Ralf Lottig remarked: “Setting up the fog installations occasionally takes more time than aligning the lasers, but the time spent on setting them up is time well spent. We currently have 44 fog-generator/blower combinations in our equipment inventory.”
2nd July 2007
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