LASERS
Adam LaBay, who led the laser effort on Sanctuary with Anthony Garcia, has been known to say that he comes “from a background of underground music where everything is DIY. You want to do something, you figure out how to do it yourself.”
As a teen in the ‘90s, LaBay “obsessed over” underground music. He later performed as a musician. Then, towards the end of his bass career, he became unexpectedly known for something else: his DIY lighting rig, constructed partly out of Christmas tree footswitches from Walgreens. Soon he was bringing that rig to other bands’ gigs.
Today, LaBay has a much more complicated rig, with which he’s sculpted lasers for GMUNK and Saturday Night Live with Childish Gambino. He says, “Sanctuary provided a unique opportunity to introduce high-end lasers to Burning Man.”
Pink Floyd Hits A New High
One of LaBay’s favorite moments at Burning Man 2018 was projecting Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon laser graphic show in its entirety, using two other art pieces as the canvas. The first was in collaboration with the 747, the Jumbo Jet brought to the playa by the Bay Area camp Big Imagination. The second time, the lasers were projected on the 100-foot-diameter Orb, by Denmark artists Bjarke Ingels and Jakob Lange.
“The Pink Floyd laser graphic show was rescued programming from a classic Laserium show in the 1980’s,” LaBay explains. “It was digitized and modernized for use with Sanctuary’s equipment. It was a special experience to introduce this show to the playa using much more powerful equipment than it was originally designed for.”
The laser team also performed live audience-scanning shows in unison with the pixels, moving-beam lights, and pyrotechnics of Sanctuary’s other systems.
Technical Details
Five 36-watt KVANT Spectrum RGBY lasers were custom built for Sanctuary and installed in the three arms of the cross and in each of the two towers. LaBay was responsible for the installation, certification, and safety of these high-powered audience scanning lasers.
The safety is no joke. In an interview, LaBay told trade publication Projection Lights & Staging News, “It’s tricky to become a live laser show designer and operator in the USA — a person needs a variance from Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) division of the FDA in order to project high powered Class IV laser over audiences. I’ve taken this a step further and have an audience scanning variance which allows me to project lasers into the crowd safely and legally. This wasn’t possible in the USA until Pangolin developed the PASS system, which is hardware that’s installed in a laser that is used to ensure audience safety. I’m one of a handful of people who have a variance that allows this. I’ve taken Laser Safety Officer training at Kentek and received LSO Certification from the International Laser Display Association (ILDA).”
The lasers contained the following key features:
RGBY color spectrum: the lasers used red, green, blue, and yellow to mix hues not normally seen in RGB laser projectors. The green and yellow OPSL sources added extra brightness to the lasers.
Low Divergence optics: these optics adjusted the beam characteristics so the lasers remained tight and focused at extreme distances. Burning Man’s unique dust-filled atmosphere allowed these lasers to be visible for miles across the playa.
Audience Scanning: the lasers utilized the Pangolin PASS audience scanning system to create safe and legal crowd-scanning laser effects. LaBay notes that “Sanctuary is the first vehicle officially authorized to use audience-scanning laser effects on the playa.”
Dust Filtration System: the lasers used active fan cooling to keep internal components from overheating. To counteract the risk of thermal shutdown by dust clogging the fans, the team fabricated a magnetic quick-release filtration system to protect the lasers. Thus, the lasers returned from Burning Man in pristine condition and required very little maintenance afterward.
