Lightwave International announced plans to debut a full-color, 56-watt laser projector at LDI with irradiance close to 800W per square centimeter, which the company calls a new world record for full-color lasers used with live entertainment. The new unit offers three times the irradiance of Lightwave's previous record-holding laser projector, a 40+ watt Lightwave Prism series projector used recently at Laserfest 2010 and shows for Ghostland Observatory and The Machine.
"We call it the monster," says Lightwave International president George Dodworth, of the latest projector, adding that it is so new it hasn't been given a specific model name or number.
The new laser projector uses five primary colors with varying wavelengths: red (639nm), gold (577nm), green (532nm) and two blues (480nm and 460nm).
Dodworth uses the adjective "surgical" to distinguish the new full-color laser's output from the green YAG water-cooled lasers of yesteryear, and speculated that it could make a big difference for show designers looking for a vivid, full-color alternative to a green beam of light.
"Lasers of this power can perform in open-air environments such as stadiums and compete with large-format arc lamp fixtures," Dodworth noted.
The challenge with building large laser systems, Dodworth added, has always been the ability to "increase laser power without increasing the beam size, or disturbing other characteristics of the beam.
"This is the first no-compromise system that has increased the power benchmark while simultaneously improving the beam quality," Dodworth noted. The new laser's 3mm beam, he added, "has less than 1mRad of divergence," adding to its visual intensity.
Lightwave uses OPS (optically-pumped semiconductor) laser diodes from Coherent Inc., and is the only U.S.-based company certified by Coherent to provide the power supply and thermal management engineering needed for tour-ready laser projectors.
So once Lightwave beats its own record for the "the biggest, baddest" laser out there, what's next? Dodworth said that the company would soon try to set the mark even higher, with the goal of a full-color OPS laser projector that tops the 100W mark in output.
