disco das Nightlife Business Magazin January 2023

The ILDA Awards are considered to be the “Oscars of the laser and multimedia industry”. In late 2022, various awards in different categories were bestowed in London. Here, LOBO from Aalen received multiple awards.
For years, a German company has sat on top of the all-time charts of the renowned ILDA Awards. This year, LOBO from Aalen in Baden Wurttemberg, Germany, once again received multiple awards. There were 127 submissions for the 16 different categories at the Artistic Awards. With six awards for artistic achievements, LOBO once again received more creative awards than any other company in the laser show industry in 2022. With this, LOBO continues to top ILDA’s world ranking list and leaves the competition in the dust with a total of 184 ILDA Awards. Since 1988, ILDA, an international association of companies from the laser industry, has annually awarded the best shows, but also the underlying products and the creative heads behind them. Due to the pandemic, the most recent award ceremonies were only held as a “Cloud Conference” via internet streaming. In November 2022, ILDA celebrated its grand live comeback in the British capital with the annual ILDA Conference.
Among others, Laserimage from Sweden, LaserTech Canada and ER Productions from Great Britain achieved first places. LOBO managed to achieve top placements in various categories. The highlight – and de facto “cover image” – of this year’s ILDA Awards was the first place in the category “Laser Photography”: The electrifying “Tesla Coil” convinces with thrilling, three-dimensional laser geometry. Additionally, the motive “Black Hole Eclipse” also garnered applause and received enough votes for second place with its optical depth illusion.
In the category “Laser Show with Added Effects/Multimedia”, LOBO’s “EuroSights - Extended Beam” received second place for the reworked extension of the beam show parts of the original “EuroSights”. Show designer Florian Skrzypczak was responsible for this standalone beam show version, augmented with fire effects and moving lights, of his previous multimedia show production.
Show designer Diana Coenen also received two prices for “Beams/Atmospherics Show with Add-On Effects“: With danceable music and fitting, powerful laser rhythms, the ambitious and energetic “Shining” received second place, followed closely by a third place for the more hectic, humorous “Crazy Chicken”, were – befitting the title – choreographed laser beams and shapes jumped around to a remix of “Bella ciao”.
Fans of epic fantasy are probably quite familiar with the winner of third place in the category “Beams/Atmospherics Show for Multiple Scanner Projectors”: To the iconic sounds the “Game of Thrones” title theme, show designer Roman Schütz conducted a veritable orchestra of laser projectors, whose beams excellently reflect the drama and intrigues of his inspiration in his show “Royal Play”.
Additionally, Germany was excellently represented by Merlin Schaadt from Cellight Laser from Celle, who won two first places in the categories “Corporate Show” and “Beams/Atmospherics Show with Add-On Effects”. For the “Fenning Award for Technical Achievement”, LaserAnimation Sollinger from Berlin topped the rankings with its “RGB to RGBX Algorithm”, a solution for color expansions.
Kvant from Slovakia installed show lasers in German clubs and hence also deserves a mention here. The diverse awards included one first, two second, and two third places.
In 2022, the “Career Achievement Award” went to Casey Stack, who had founded his first show laser company at the age of 14. From 1986 until 1992, he was the Technical Director of Laser Fantasy and Co-Founder of Lightspeed Design Group, who won a whopping 40 percent of all ILDA Artistic Awards in their first year. Later, he developed a portable air-cooled mixed-gas laser for Laser Physics. Since 1998, he is President of Laser Compliance, supporting manufacturers in issues relating to safety and statutory requirements.
The awards are only given out among members of the International Laser Display Association. More information under www.ilda.com.