Now back home at our Maryland HQ after a successful LDI 2023 show in Las Vegas—our first time at LDI since 2018—we’re happy with how the show turned out and really enjoyed connecting (and reconnecting) with so many folks in the pro lighting and production world.
Our booth was a complete team effort, and we worked with a great group of friends to make this LDI booth our best yet. Our booth was 20 feet by 20 feet, and although the footprint wasn’t massive by any means, we think our display punched above its weight.
We Get Bright With A Little Help From Our Friends
Our booth looked so sharp thanks to folks like our friends from Colorado Springs, the production company Eddy Sound. Eddy Sound provided lots of their own gear for the rig, from the truss to the audio system to most importantly, many of the X-Laser projectors from their inventory. In all, the lighting plot included nearly 60 fixtures; about a 60-40 split between lasers and traditional lights:
Lasers:
(2) Triton 36W (making its public debut!)
(2) Skywriter HPX M-20 (20 watts)
(2) Skywriter HPX M-10 (10 watts)
(7) Skywriter HPX M-5 (5 watts)
(4) Skywriter HPX M-2 (2 watts)
(2) LaserCube Ultra 7.5W
(2) LaserCube Ultra 2.5W
Lights:
(22) Blizzard HotBox EXA
(4) ADJ Jolt Panel FX
(8) ADJ Jolt Bar FX
(4) Blizzard Glo 19
Complementing the lasers and lights was an assortment of production-grade audio, video and atmospheric equipment:
(2) Radiance hazer
(1) Versa fan
(24) SquareV 3.9 pixel pitch video wall panels
(4) Martin Audio CDD Live 8in speakers
(1) Martin Audio double CSX Live 218 subwoofer
Key to the entire setup were the three “show and tell” tables displaying three different lighting consoles in action: a Vista by ChromaQ, an Avolites Quartz and a grandMA3 light. We designed the booth layout that way in order to show—literally—that LDs can integrate and program (via DMX+RDM, Art-Net, sACN, etc.) lasers straight from the lighting console just like the “regular” lights they already know.
Three Shows. Two Designers. One Control Solution.
To further drive home the point of direct console control, our LD friends programmed each of the booth’s three fully timecoded shows directly from their preferred console using our Mercury laser control system.
McKenley Hoelmer of Eddy Sound programmed the Vista and Avolites shows, while Drew Hornback of DH Production Designs programmed the grandMA3 show. Keep an eye on our YouTube channel for full videos of each show coming soon—they’re awesome!
Beyond just the crisp programming, McKenley and Drew remained on site at our booth to help give hands-on demos to LDs curious about our unique, seamless firmware solution.
We really appreciated their help and we loved seeing LDs walk up and ask, “Wait, you can do that with lasers? On the console?” Yes. Yes you can!
As mentioned earlier, our booth rig featured a near-even split between laser fixtures and traditional lighting fixtures. This aptly demonstrated not just the quality and visual appeal of a “blended” light show, but also the seamless Mercury workflow: Lasers and lights all together, all programmed together.
The Full Spectrum — Our Fixtures at LDI
As much as we loved to see the Mercury firmware system in action on multiple consoles and running multiple shows, the laser projectors from our current lineup made the programming really pop and made many LDI visitors take out their phones to capture the intensity.
Visible across nearly the entire exhibit hall were the beams from our Triton 36W, the same system featured on the current Coldplay world tour. We had two Triton 36W units atop the truss, one at the back center and one at the front center. Those powerhouses essentially served as beacons drawing guests to the booth.
The public debut of the Triton 36W was just the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come with the Triton series in 2024. Stay tuned!
In addition to the massively powerful Triton projectors, we brought almost our entire range of Skywriter projectors, the tour-proven workhorse fixture that’s available in two, five, 10, 20 and 30-watt power levels.
We also wanted to show projectors of various power levels, to show designers and technical managers that plenty of options exist to serve all types of shows and tours. One tidbit that we shared for folks new to lasers was a trick for estimating how many lasers and what power levels would look best for their shows and events. Not everything that happens there stays in Vegas, so we’ll share it here too:
We generally believe that you get a more impactful setup from a higher number of lower-power lasers versus just a couple of higher-power ones. In other words, a setup with six to eight five-watt units would be more compelling than a rig with just two or three 10-watt fixtures. It’s not just about how many total watts you have, it’s how you use them!
For folks interested in getting started with lasers and adding them to their inventory, we’re extending our LDI show specials to folks who couldn’t make it to the show. Systems 5W and above are 15% off. Contact us before December 31, 2023 to lock in eligibility for show pricing and mention LDI to receive a free “tour pro” swag pack with your order as well.
Much More in ‘24
We hope to return to LDI in 2024 and beyond, because we’ll have a lot of new things to share in 2024. You’ll see the first—and biggest—of our new products likely in the first quarter of the year, and lots more new gear, Mercury firmware updates and other tools later on, all focused on making lasers simpler and easier to use for production professionals.
We can’t share all the details quite yet on what our big product release will be, but it’s something that hasn’t been done yet in the world of entertainment laser projectors. To be the first to know, make sure you’re following us on Instagram, bookmark our blog and subscribe to our email newsletter. You won’t want to miss it!
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