Schwäbische Post 08. Dezember 1992

Eberle Prize for Lobo electronic from Aalen - Laser systems developed for theaters, sporting events and trade fairs By our editorial member Frank Scholtys

AALEN - Although Lothar Bopp is only 29 years old, the managing director of Lobo electronic GmbH in Aalen can already look back on ten years of successful entrepreneurial activity. But that's not all: the engineer - who also studied precision engineering - can claim to have made the "laser" medium acceptable in the graphics sector worldwide. For this, Bopp has now been awarded the Rudolf Eberle Prize.

Bopp has had great success in marketing his laser systems. Laser shows by his company Lobo could be seen at the Olympic Games in Barcelona as well as at the Asian Games in Dubai. Once introduced in the Gulf region, Lobo immediately received an order for a department store opening there. But in this country, too, industrial companies and department stores are relying on product presentations with the Lobo laser.

Hoesch, for example, presented new products with a multimedia show from Lobo at the industrial trade fair in Hanover. Bopp relies on the interaction of laser, video and slide projection. For him, the addition of lasers to conventional presentation media has made the multimedia market a market of the future in which good money can be made.

However he and his 15 coworkers would have to come up "with always new ideas" wants itself Bopp by no means on its laurels to rest. A few months ago, for example, he equipped a laser truck at a total cost of DM 2.5 million - a huge investment for the small company, which turns over around DM four million. "In the summer, the truck was at capacity," Bopp says. Now in winter, he is still hoping for orders from large department stores that rent the rolling laser show, for example, for a presentation on the building's exterior façade.

Lobo's fixed installations are also used in the cultural sector. Last year, the organizers of the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth relied on the laser medium on a large scale for the first time. "There, laser flashes strike the ground," Bopp recounts, and the downfall of Valhalla is effectively supported by red laser fire. For the fire magic alone, more than 100 deflecting mirrors were installed on the stage at a height of 30 meters. Lobo computers control the entire spectacle. The Semper Opera in Dresden is now also on Bopp's reference list. However, discotheques are still among the customers of the small Aalen-based company.

Bopp started trading in disco equipment and electronic accessories ten years ago. A few years later, while still a student at the University of Applied Sciences in Aalen, he started developing his own laser systems with three employees. The market launch took place throughout Europe in 1990, with Bopp and his team presenting their product at trade fairs. "Our system is capable," says Bopp, "of mixing colors in up to 16 million shades. And even the most complicated figures appear completely flicker-free. " That's why the ambitious company boss is confident that more and more industrial companies will use his systems for product presentations.