The New Rules of Laser Control
For the last 15 years, X-Laser has made high-powered laser systems accessible to anyone who wants to work with this special type of light. First, the company cut its teeth simplifying the U.S. laser variance process and providing simple DMX-based systems to mobile DJs and small clubs. More recently, while still serving the DJ market that helped the company earn its spot in the lighting world, X-Laser has turned decisively toward making lasers accessible to touring lighting designers.
Over the past five years or so, this has happened with what’s called X-Laser’s Mercury. Mercury is not a projector in itself, but rather an integrated hardware solution that is installed into X-Laser projectors. In short, Mercury allows a designer to configure and program a laser fixture just as they would a traditional moving light—using the same workflow and console they always do. Mercury wasn’t created for laser people; it was created to let lighting professionals easily and quickly add lasers to their rigs, and in turn, give them an unfair advantage by offering seamless laser programming, all while using the lighting console they know and love.
An Unfair Advantage
X-Laser deliberately engineered Mercury to work with all the top lighting consoles (MA, High End Systems, ETC, Avolites, Obsidian, Elation, ChamSys, etc.) so designers can spend more time being creative and less time on setup and configuration.
“We designed Mercury to be as plug-and-play as possible, and one of our main targets was for it to be platform agnostic with respect to both the console the designer uses as well as the control protocol,” explained Adam Raugh, X-Laser President and CEO.
Designers can control Mercury-equipped lasers via DMX, RDM, sACN or Art-Net. To streamline adding lasers to a rig, Mercury systems connect and operate without the need for any laser-specific cables, dongles, connectors, adapters, external hardware, or specialized software. For production management, this means Mercury has the team covered from the lead designer down to the last lighting tech and electrician.
As for the artistic workflow and what happens behind the console, with Mercury, the designer maintains control over their entire show the entire time without having to work with a third-party “laser guy.” Raugh said that had been a common pain point among lighting professionals trying to incorporate lasers into their work.
When it comes to actually crafting looks and cues, laser light gives designers more distinct looks and increased flexibility. Compared to regular light fixtures, laser beams have greater reach and higher contrast; and lasers can change color, pattern, and position instantaneously. Rather than static gobos, lasers can produce hundreds of dynamic shapes and patterns while giving the designer the ability to layer color effects within those patterns themselves. When seeking a surefire “wow” factor, lasers provide a massive advantage—one could even call it unfair—which Mercury puts at a designer’s fingertips.
Tested on Tour
Since Mercury’s release, numerous professional lighting designers have used it to add lasers to their artistic arsenals. “Even having no background with lasers, I didn’t feel like I was starting from scratch,” said Dave Summers, Colorado-based lighting designer for rock bands such as August Burns Red, Sum 41, and The Story So Far. “[Programming using Mercury] felt like I was already using a regular lighting fixture. I tour with fixtures all the time, and I know that fixtures break,” Summers continued. “But the lasers don’t draw a lot of power and don’t have a lot of moving parts, so they totally stand up to a full tour. It wasn’t what I was expecting.”
As for what most designers and production managers expect, today’s top moving-head lighting fixtures typically each weigh more than 100 pounds, draw more than 1,000W, and generate substantial noise and heat. By comparison, X-Laser fixtures with Mercury typically each weigh between 20 and 50 pounds and draw between 150 and 300W, while producing negligible noise and heat. Adding lasers enables big effects with less impact on the rig, the crew, and the environment.
Dustin Derry, lighting designer and owner of Stonewolf Studios in Chicago, added: “The hardware itself is rock-solid, and the Mercury user interface is smooth. You’re off and running, creating shows almost instantly. You’re really only limited by your creativity.”
For putting creativity into practice, today’s multifunction moving-head luminaires play exceptionally well alongside lasers. Designers and directors can now spec equipment with abandon, and without worry that one type of fixture will wash out all the others. And with Mercury, they can all be controlled in harmony.
Built to Perform
While developing Mercury, X-Laser worked directly with lighting designers to ensure it would deliver the functionalities they care about when programming. Resultantly, the features that make programming traditional profile, spot, or wash fixtures so fast and fluid on a console directly translate to Mercury.
Pattern (or “gobo”) control for each Mercury-enabled fixture is powered by eight fully independent effect builders and amplified by hundreds of preset patterns and dozens of preset color and motion effects. For single-pattern control, Mercury offers 80 DMX channels. For multi-pattern control, Mercury allows more than 300 channels.
“One of the things I like about working with Mercury is just how quickly you can get some insanely dynamic looks just by affecting a single parameter,” said Steve Kosiba, partner at New Jersey lighting company Squeek Lights. “With Mercury you can basically have eight fixtures worth of effects coming out of one laser projector, and you can put effects on each builder, so the looks out of these things are absolutely mind-blowing.”
Regardless of the lighting console used by the operator, Mercury’s catalog of native effect modifiers includes two stages of size, position, and rotation control, dual wave modulators, dual effect systems, variable-geometry prism manipulation, color effects for all or parts of each pattern, free-form mesh for zone correction, and color, wave, and effect controls at various positions.
As Kosiba noted, Mercury-equipped lasers can rapidly create coordinated effects across a large array of fixtures, whether in line with traditional moving-head lights or standalone. Plus, Mercury taps into the powerful effect engines already built into pro lighting consoles to give the designer even more flexibility and creative freedom.
Brightness Without Barriers
Professional lighting designers and production companies already make massive investments into their lighting control hardware and infrastructure. Adding a unique effect like lasers shouldn’t mean adding unnecessary complexity or cost to a gear list. Refreshingly, adding Mercury-equipped lasers to a rig is a one-time deal, just like with today’s moving-head lights.
Lasers can be specified for tours or events without ever needing to worry about buying and renewing software licenses, purchasing specialized control computers, hiring a “laser guy” or any of the traditional barriers to bringing lasers along on the road.
Just like all lighting control systems, Mercury will be updated in the future via firmware and as consoles evolve. Crucially, Raugh explained that using and keeping Mercury up to date will remain “forever free” so designers can stay focused on creating killer shows. X-Laser has also developed a community of Mercury users who share content and creative tips, and access to those resources—as well as X-Laser’s unmatched technical support—is part of the package, too.
That total package, in sum, was designed to give lighting designers an unfair advantage toward making their shows shine even brighter with the distinct look of laser light. Lighting professionals who are interested in Mercury can learn more by visiting x-laser.com/unfair.
X-Laser, leading American manufacturer of high-powered laser projector systems, shared this content with PLSN.
