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LOBO presents the world‘s brightest lasers

With the launch of the new sparks series - a modular product family with the world‘s brightest air-cooled multi-color laser show systems - LOBO raised enormous attention at this year‘s ProLight + Sound.

 sparks SGP 3 projector

At first sight, the variety of air-cooled multi-color laser systems is quite confusing. But actually any laser of this kind is a black box, housing a combination of various air-cooled laser technologies. To achieve reasonable power values, almost none of these lasers gets on without overlaying sometimes dozens of laser diode beams by means of tiny opto-mechanics. Due to the mechanical tolerances in their optical layout, the resulting “beams” of such systems are extremely inhomogeneous, quite thick, provide a rather poor divergence and require frequent re-alignment. So, even those lasers with high output powers look fuzzy and not really bright. 

With the new sparks series, LOBO now presents for the first time a modular multi-color laser system, solely basing on optically pumped semi-conductor lasers for all colors. And in comparison to any other solution basing on OPSL lasers, LOBO even managed to increase the overall brightness of sparks laser projection systems by 900%.

Actually anyone wants a bright laser but only few know, that this is not just achieved by having lots of Watts, but that it requires in addition a good beam quality and a low divergence. Finally, everything is about light intensity and maintaining this intensity over distance: Half the power means half the brightness. But twice the diameter of a beam results in approximately just a quarter of effective brightness (as the beam grows in two directions). So, the diameter and the divergence have even a stronger influence on the final visibility than the output power of a laser. 

On paper, the specifications of most lasers seem to be perfect. But checking these specs under laboratory conditions, you quickly find out that most of them are not even very optimistic rough ideas. So far, LOBO manufactured any kind of entertainment laser equipment, except the actual light source. But as no convincing solutions were available on the market, LOBO decided for the first time, also to develop its first series of lasers. 

This resulted in a system, which not only looks different than all the other lasers in black boxes, but which also re-thinks the use of lasers in many aspects: It is future-proof, flexible, uncompromisingly practical, technically convincing and serves even most demanding applications.

The new projector with its innovative exoframe design provides mounting bays for compact high-performance laser modules, which are available in different basic colors (red, yellow, green and blue) and power classes (between 2 Watts up to 12 Watts). A laser array manager, called LMX-3, not only individually controls power supply and cooling of the modules, but also generates with its advanced modulation system millions of colors basing on the available basic colors of the laser modules.

But the main difference to established solutions is the fact, that sparks systems not only provide high output powers, but also concentrate this power into an extraordinarily thin beam even on longer distances, thanks to the excellent native beam quality of each module and LOBO's post-collimation scanning system PCS. This high power density results in very high effective brightness values (ELB), making sparks the brightest lasers available on the market today. So, sparks are just ideal for dazzling bright laser effects at open-air shows, for building projections or long-range beams.

The secret behind PCS is a clever combination of different techniques inside the new projector. While the native average divergence of the modules is about 1 mrad at a beam diameter of less than 2 mm, the final divergence after the ultra-fast scanning system is less than 0,4 mrad. Certainly this result is not just achieved by just adding some focussing lenses. LOBO‘s president Lothar Bopp: “We left no single element within the optical path untouched. Over and over again, we optimised every little detail, not only including optics, but also especially designed mirrors and even the scanning systems. So, the phenomenal overall divergence and brightness would have never been possible without LOBO‘s in-depth knowledge as the only real full-range manufacturer of display laser systems.“

But sparks owners not only have the brightest systems available on the market, they also get an enormous flexibility thanks to the modular system design. Anytime it is possible to reconfigure or to expand a sparks laser system; be it for higher output powers, for more colors or just to split up the lasers of one projector to many. Unlike any other solution on the market, this future-proof concept not only provides utmost flexibility, but it is also re-adjustment-free, as it does not overlay the beams of many diodes with opto-mechanics. 

All structural parts of the projector have been milled from a single piece of aluminum to provide the stiffness and rigidity required for a maintenance-free operation. The patented design of the housing allows for an individual and insulated cooling of each laser module, eliminating the typical misalignments due to thermal stress on the optical table. The projector and its base rack can be operated and mounted independently in any orientation without adversely affecting its cooling. CamLoc connectors and a tilting mechanism make it very easy to mount the laser projections there where you need it. Certainly the optical unit is completely dust-capsuled from the air flow of the lasers and the cover can be completely removed by just releasing two screws.

A few weeks ago, this new technology could show its superiority at the impressive New Year Show, performed in front of the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest - the world‘s largest administrative building. Approx. 100 meters above the stage, a sparks system projected the countdown into the new year onto the giant 275m facade and created mirror effects during the subsequent show, while five additional projectors have been installed to stage impressing atmospheric beam effects right in front of the spectators, in spite of having massive fireworks, more than 60 Space Cannons, 280 color washers and 70 CityColors in the background.

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