ILDA Awards 1997 in Lincoln

The International Laser Display Association (ILDA) being the international umbrella association of the most important show laser companies, invited its 145 members to the annual meeting. For four days, laserists from all over the world had the possibility to exchange news, standards and joint strategies. At the conference's trade show all participants were able to make themselves aware of all kinds of new and useful technical achievements in the laser industry. Host of this year's event was the Muller Planetarium, known as one of the American pioneers in the field of the show laser technology.

Highlight of the meeting was the formal awarding of the globally renowned ILDA Awards, which insiders consider to be the "Oscar" of the show laser industry.

Although the organization is dominated by 65 % of American members, a surprisingly huge amount of awards had been given to European companies. The German manufacturer and event company LOBO electronic GmbH from Aalen was once again ahead of everyone else. Already last year, its shows had received almost one third of all awards. This time, LOBO´s Creative Director obtained a total of 7 awards. While most of the award winners were only able to hold their own in a few specialized areas, the fact that LOBO won seven out of a total of 13 categories testifies to the enormous range of applications that the internationally renowned company covers with its services and high-end systems.

For many people it may be an interesting realization that two awarded shows were part of LOBO's Software Contract - this clearly proves that even world class laser shows are available for only DM 350 (at the time).

In addition to awards for the classic showcase applications of show laser systems, there were also awards for a didactically designed multimedia presentation by DASA, for a funny laser cartoon by a Korean client and for a photo series called “Laser Fantasies”, which was created in collaboration with the Stuttgart photographer Peter Schönamsgruber.

However, not only the creative work, but also engineering achievements behind the development of the so-called “Digital Data Link”, or DDL for short, was honored in the US. This completely new system replaces the usual tangle of cables between the individual components of a laser system with a thin fiber optic cable. A system that not only greatly improves the operational reliability, design and quality of laser systems, but also makes the safety-related problems of electromagnetic interference a thing of the past.