mondo technology in entertainment July/August 2008

LOCATION: BUCHAREST ROMANIA COMPANY: LOBO

The White Nights in Bucharest attracted more than 80.000 enthused spectators, all crowded along Liberty-Boulevard to see the highlight of the show brought to them by LOBO, The Mega Laser Show.

"Good morning, Bucharest" broke through the silence of the night at exactly 2am via the 100,000W sound system along Liberty-Boulevard in front of the impressive facade of the Rumanian Houses of Parliaments, the largest building in Europe.

The show began when, just like holograms, the landmarks of the town fioated in mid-air as giant laser projections in front of the spectators. Laser flashes twitched above their heads, and just a few moments later, all spectators were surrounded by gracefully dazzling, three dimensional sculptures made of pure light.

LOBO even managed to create the illusion of massive fire balls darting up to 13m towards the night sky synchronously to the music. Finally after three encores, the spectacle ended after 45 minutes.

At one side of the river banks, LOBO had installed the complete laser equipment, one part in a laser truck and the other part on 10m high scaffold platforms. In the spectator's area, P.P.A. towers and constructions for effects and fog equipment as well as LED walls for live transmissions were installed along the boulevard. In the river, a floating Water W Screen with a width of 40m and a height of almost 20m was installed.

General Manager of LOBO, Mr Lothar Bopp, said regarding the applied technology: "The show demonstrated that the output power of a laser is not primarily responsible for the effective brightness, but to an extremely high degree the beam quality IS more important."

With an entire output power amounting to just 40W, lasers with the highest effective brightness were used. The result was impressive: brilliant effects, homogenous in color and clearly defined over a total distance of approximately 1.5km between the beam exit and the very last spectators.

For this purpose LOBO used, besides professional air-cooled DP lasers, type Viper, also a redundantly designed system of watercooled Sabre gas-ion multicolor lasers which were modified with special optics in order to achieve optimal beam parameters. The central laser system including a complete backup system together with the central control room was optimally protected inside a Laser Truck Container. The power load of the entire show technology amounted to 400,000W,

Lobo have recently been involved in building a multimedia show at the new Awadi Water Park in Jordan, 400m below sea-Ievel. Also, in Beirut I Lebanon at the Habtoorland theme park, LOBO's engineers have developed a new attraction in an amphitheater, especially built for a spectacular laser show at night.