Image Engineering Sets New Guinness World Laser Display Record
On Oct. 17, 2019, Image Engineering set a world record for the largest laser show ever. A total of 642 lasers were deployed and 634 of them — the number Guinness World Records counts for its “Officially Amazing” record — were put into use for the spectacle. The laser display took place at Staples Center, Los Angeles CA, 20 years to the day after the multi-use arena opened. The spectacle was unleashed during the pregame ceremony for the NHL matchup between the Los Angeles Kings and Buffalo, NY Sabres hockey teams.
Coast to Coast
Image Engineering, located in Baltimore, MD has been designing, engineering and manufacturing their proprietary Light Vector Projectors in house since 2011. The Suehle brothers — John, Joe and Andy — founded the company in 1988, incorporated in 1996 and purchased Image Engineering, first established in 1979, in 2000. The Suehle brothers’ company, which launched operations in Joe’s basement, now makes use of a 60,000-square-foot facility and keeps more than 40 full-time employees and a roster of expert freelancers busy.
So while it might seems surprising that an East Coast company would be handling a laser spectacle for a prominent West Coast venue and sports team, the company has acquired a loyal and diverse clientele over the years in the touring, special event and sports markets and undertakes projects coast to coast.
Danny Zollars, a freelance specialist in creating sports marketing events was working with the Washington, DC Wizards NBA team. In that role, he called upon Image Engineering to supply and execute shows for him at the Verizon Center, home of the Wizards (now called Capital One Arena). Originally from California, Zollars wanted to get back to his roots and returned West, bringing his skill sets and connections to work with the L.A. Kings five years ago, where he was the VP of marketing and entertainment. In 2017, he and the brothers had come to an arrangement where Zollars would represent Image Engineering as the executive VP for the West Coast.
The Journey Begins
The Kings, through Zollars, wanted to purchase and install six lasers for their use at games in 2015. No one realized this would serve as the beginning of Image Engineering’s four-year journey to a Guinness World Record. Just as mysterious is that Joe Suehle, president of the company, did not realize the company was in the running for a world record until after, “our U.K. competitor ER Productions” achieved the feat at LDI 2017.
“After the initial purchase by the Kings,” says Joe Suehle, “the L.A. Lakers wanted to ‘one up’ the Kings and install 54 additional lasers. The following year, they asked for 30, more bringing the count to 84.” With the original six, the grand total in the Staples Center was 90 lasers — or so everyone thought.
“When ER set the record at LDI in 2017, we all agreed, ‘Well, that’s pretty cool.’ But then I said to my brothers, ‘Wait a minute — our Vector Light laser boxes actually have as many as 10 lasers in them.” Image Engineering built lasers that take up a smaller footprint and gang them together in a common chassis. It was part of the original architectural scheme and called the Vector Beam. When you pull it out of the box, you are hanging 10 lasers at a time.
Doing the Math
The way lasers are counted by the governing board of laser displays of the world, The International Laser Display Association (ILDA), is if every discrete laser can be programmed to modulate its own control scheme. Following these rules, 48 of the Vector Beams installed at Staples add up to 480 separate lasers, every one of which can do something independent from the other. Thirty of their Light Vector RA Vector Beam product, meanwhile, add up to 150 total lasers because each box contains five lasers. It’s not the box; it is how many independent lasers are in a box. Most of the time there is only one independent laser per box, which is how the remaining 12 were manufactured. “We realized we had almost 600 lasers in our installation,” said Suehle.
Suehle asked Zollars to approach their clients to see if they would agree to stage an attempt at breaking the world record at one of their regularly scheduled games. Reception was cool at first from the L.A. Kings and Lakers team management. But as it turned out, Staples Center was celebrating their 20-year anniversary since opening in 1999 this year, and “they thought it was a great idea,” Zollars told Suehle.
Zollars then contacted Guinness, who sent him details on the parameters to be met in order to attempt the test, the first of which was having ILDA set the official counting regimen. A representative from ILDA had to be present to independently verify the event, and a Guinness World Record judge would be present as well. Provided all these conditions are met and, most importantly, all the lasers work with no failures, they would be awarded a new world record. “And that is exactly what we did,” says Suehle.
Image Engineering designer Nick Arnold programmed all 640 lasers to music supplied by the L.A. Kings marketing team. There were no audience scanning lasers, and the display took place entirely on the ice within the rink during the pregame introduction of the players within the 18,000-capacity venue. At the first intermission, the announcer told the audience that during the pregame event, they were witness to the largest laser display ever presented in the world. On camera, a shot of all the reps, Guinness and ILDA appeared as the big fanfare from the audience roared in the background.
Controlling the Beams
The Image Engineering Vector Beams are 100-percent DMX capable, so they were run off an MA Lighting grandMA2 console. They operate just like an array of ColorBlasts — they can be daisy-chained together and have an RGB laser chip inside them. The fixture has a panning component as well. Image Engineering has developed proprietary software they call Beam Composer. “It’s a plug-and-play program component that allows the grandMA2 to talk directly to the lasers,” says Joe Suehle.
He is exceptionally happy and proud to have been provided this opportunity. “We are fortunate the Kings and Lakers are such great clients of ours. Each is a hallmark team in their own league. They play in one of the premium entertainment centers of the world. For Image Engineering to be able to participate in celebrating the 20 year of this iconic venue was an honor, regardless of whether or not we set a Guinness world record in the process.”
Staples Center 20 Year Anniversary Laser Spectacle
Los Angeles, CA, Oct. 17, 2019
Control
- 1 Custom Beam Composer controller
- 1 grandMA2 lighting console
Lasers
- 480 (48 Light Vector Beams w/10 lasers at 30W each)
- 150 (30 Light Vector RA Vector Beams w/5 lasers at 25W each)
- 4 Light Vector 50W lasers
- 2 Light Vector 65W lasers
- 6 Kvant 30W lasers
- 642 Total lasers deployed*
*Guinness World Records recognized the 634 lasers that were used during the show for its world record statistic.
For more information, visit www.imageengineering.com and www.plsn.me/laserfeat
