iF Product Design Award for sparks

Since its introduction in 1953, the iF Award has become one of the internationally most important trademarks for outstanding and functional design

From no less than 2.486 submitted products from 39 countries, the jury of the iF product design awards 2010 has chosen the winners in 16 different product categories. In the traditionally highly competitive category "audio/video", primarily dominated by elegant flat screens and home-entertainment systems, with LOBO’s sparks projector, a laser projector was able to prevail among the winners most likely for the first time ever

“Sparks” stands for a completely new modular laser projector concept which has been developed from scratch. Thanks to its unmatched brightness it is setting new standards in the industry. In the meantime, sparks systems are used from Europe via the Middle East through to Japan, for especially demanding projects, where previously existing solutions would simply have been too weak or not flexible enough.

LOBO's Creative Director Alexander Hennig and the Product Designer Hariolf Briggl have been the driving forces behind the design and construction of the system

Alexander Hennig about sparks: “For the last 28 years, LOBO again and again has presented pioneering solutions which changed the industry. Apart from obvious milestones such as the first series of color mixing units or the LACON series,  sometimes it have been just small but groundbreaking technical details. With sparks, however, we have bundled our knowledge and many pioneering features in an absolutely unique solution, dedicated to utmost effective brightness without lame compromises. We re-thought every single detail and so, “sparks” stands for a variety of innovations, the way only LOBO can achieve them thanks to our unparalleled degree of vertical integration and thus, we are probably years ahead of our competitors. It has been a central goal in the development of the product to achieve an uncompromisingly functional and aesthetic design, which makes the system stand out from everything else the market has to offer so far.

A characterizing feature of the sparks product family is its modular system design. Basing on compact laser modules available in different basic colors and different brightness classes, a “sparks” system can be re-configured easily, cost-effectively and very fast to forthcoming tasks. Thanks to the internationally patented design of the projector, the laser modules can be exchanged almost as easily as printer cartridges

Hariolf Briggl: “Of course, the sparks projector is a real eyecatcher. Its design guarantees a perfect performance even in optically sensitive areas like showrooms, high-class night clubs or in a trade show environment. However, the crucial factor is certainly its functionality: the design for example ensures a perfectly thermally insulated and individual cooling of each module, ensuring an especially long life time of the lasers and an operation under permanent duty even at high ambient temperatures. Slide-out carrying handles, a tool-free access to important components and solid camlock connectors ensure a simple handling and a mechanically solid mounting on trusses. Nevertheless, the highlight is the possibility to separate the freely adjustable projector head from the electronics unit, which allows to handle even difficult setup conditions.

In order to keep the weight of the system as low as possible by still ensuring a maximum of rigidity, all statically relevant elements have been CNC-milled from solid blocks of aluminum. A special surface processing and a multi-color anodization process provide both, a valuable and robust finish of the product.