LOBO Receives AVard 2020 for experimenta Laser Safety Concept

As their new highlight in 2020, PROFESSIONAL SYSTEM, leading medium for professionals in the field of audiovisual system integration, honored enterprises with the so-called "ProAV Award Germany" – or "The AVard" for short – in various categories of product integration and intelligent AV solutions.

In the category "Smartest Integration", LOBO managed to secure one of these new awards – first place for the multimedia laser equipment and the unique laser safety concept in the Science Dome of the experimenta in Heilbronn. The Science Dome, the centerpiece of Germany's biggest Science Center, is a hybrid of planetarium and theater stage developed by Kraftwerk Living Technologies, with an audience area that can be rotated by 180°. Planetarium shows, 3D cinema projections, even performances featuring laser graphics as well as entire laser beam shows – all of this is possible inside of the 13 meter high dome with a diameter of 21.5 meter, including a 10 meter wide Water Screen^®, thanks to six 56,000 lumen 360° FullDome video projectors as well as a TriDome® laser system developed by LOBO, with six space-saving high-performance laser projectors; completely synchronous via the multimedia workstation LACON-5^®.

To ensure the safety of the audience members which are seated closer to the projectors during the shows – due to the slanted architecture of the dome –, LOBO developed a sophisticated, one-of-a-kind laser safety concept. As the audience members in the lowest seating rows are potentially subjected to dangerous single beams that are either projected or reflected off the 56 effect and reflector mirrors in case they either stand up or climb onto their seats during a laser performance, appropriate safety measures have to be taken.

This is where LOBO's concept comes into play: Integrated into the principle of the Digital Data Link (DDL^® for short) developed by LOBO, two so-called LIDAR sensors have been installed near the area of the lower laser projectors, acting as laser safety scanners. They send out a flat, invisible infrared laser fan horizontally in a programmable radius of up to 7 meters, scanning the distance to potential obstacles – should an obstacle (such as an audience member) trigger one of these sensors, the laser sources are switched off automatically in the fraction of a second, thus preventing the audience from being exposed to laser beams with inadmissible radiation values.

This "smart" implementation was definitely considered worthy of the first place, according to the ten-person AVard specialist jury made up of professors, architects and industry experts!