Pure luxury in laser light

Hanover, November 2001:

Once more, the German Pavilion on the former Expo premises is lit up in festive lights, as BMW has invited its vendors from all around the globe every day for one month to the presentation of the new BMW 7 series.

When the guests of the evening event enter the area of the former Main Attraction via footbridges, they are greeted by spherical soundscapes. Under their feet, an elegantly moving sea of laser light appears. In floating steel spheres, cellists break through the laser surface. An artist dances seemingly weightless across a laser beam and a luminous wireframe model of the new BMW 7 floats down from the ceiling as the highlight of the gigantic opening. The wheels start to spin and suddenly the whole room is in motion. Together with the vehicle, the visitors speed across a seemingly endless plain. Suddenly, the spectacle comes to an end and, as if by magic, the 2000 m² large event area with lounges, bars and a stage appears below the laser surface.

In order to make this high-tech dream for the launch of the new BMW flagship a reality, BMW put their trust in the expertise of the laser and multimedia specialist LOBO from Aalen in southern Germany. LOBO, one of the industry’s leading manufacturers and service providers according to independent analysts, can look back on a successful cooperation with BMW that grew over the years.

In addition to the presentation of the current BMW 5 line and an elaborate fair exhibition on the topic safety technology, BMW also owns two LOBO laser systems, with one of them being in faultless continuous daily operation in the BMW Museum for almost ten years now.

Long before the premiere of the event, the director of the spectacle began experimenting in the LOBO Studios. Thanks to the unique equipment and size of these premises, the desired effects could be replicated in a scale of 1:2. From steel, a wireframe model in original size was constructed for the spatially designed BMW 7, which was prepared with special electroluminescence fibers in LOBO’s workshops and equipped with partially animated special effects. On location, LOBO installed four independent high-performance color laser systems, controlled centrally with a LACON work station.