Lasers and H and S
Printed From: Speakerplans.com
Category: Other Chat
Forum Name: Lighting Talk
Forum Description: All your lampy, laser and 'other' special FX needs....
URL: https://forum.speakerplans.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=105145
Printed Date: 26 March 2026 at 7:10pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Lasers and H and S
Posted By: bin juice24
Subject: Lasers and H and S
Date Posted: 21 April 2020 at 9:23pm
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Hi, I’ve been looking but can’t find anything definitive regarding dance floor lasers and safe use. Could someone link me to something please? I don’t want to hurt anyone.
Thanks!
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Replies:
Posted By: APW
Date Posted: 21 April 2020 at 10:00pm
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Any good: https://forum.speakerplans.com/laser-laws-guidlines-etc_topic49567.html%20" rel="nofollow - https://forum.speakerplans.com/laser-laws-guidlines-etc_topic49567.html
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Posted By: csg
Date Posted: 21 April 2020 at 10:03pm
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The reason you cant find an answer is that every situation is different and you can only know if what you are doing is safe through training, calculations and measurement. There are various laser safety courses that you can take ( in normal circumstances) that will give you this knowledge, but in brief, safe exposure levels are a product of energy and area, so your laser’s power output and divergence, your projection area and distance, and your environment air quality/ particulate content etc etc will all be variables in the end result. Calculations will get you some of the way, measurements with a calibrated power meter and good record keeping will get you the rest.
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“The fact is this is about identifying what we do best and finding more ways of doing less of it better”
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Posted By: DJ-Dulux
Date Posted: 21 April 2020 at 10:08pm
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Phe look after a lot of this, see this http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laser-radiation-safety-advice#history" rel="nofollow - page to start with.
Dupe...
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Dupe...
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Posted By: cravings
Date Posted: 22 April 2020 at 11:19am
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the photon lexicon forum is the place for laser info i think
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Posted By: norty303
Date Posted: 22 April 2020 at 1:38pm
Cravings is correct, Photonlexicon is like the Speakerplans of lasers. From DIY to everything else.
Be sure to be clear about where you are from, its a global site with a lot of US folks, and they have a very different system to us in the UK.
That said, we're also not clear where 'here' is (on your profile), so any advice you might receive here might be incorrect for your location unless its the UK.
That said, UK HSE used to produce a document of guidelines for safe laser use in the display industry (not pointers, etc like the link above) called HSG95, which has more recently been picked up by Plasa to maintain, and they updated it and made it a bit easier to digest.
You can find it here
https://www.plasa.org/guidance-for-display-lasers/" rel="nofollow - https://www.plasa.org/guidance-for-display-lasers/
The usual thing to apply is:
If you don't have enough knowledge to know if its safe to point a laser people, don't point a laser at people.
LVR do laser safety training and James Stewart has MANY years in the field, and most laser people in the UK have been to at least one of his courses.
https://www.lvroptical.com/lasertraining.html" rel="nofollow - https://www.lvroptical.com/lasertraining.html
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My laser stuff: http://www.facebook.com/SubsonicSystems" rel="nofollow - Frikkin Lasers
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Posted By: bin juice24
Date Posted: 22 April 2020 at 2:24pm
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Thanks for your input guys. I’m in the UK (Black Mountains).
Lots to consider.
I’ve not even used DMX before, so should probably get my head around that first. Lasers look fun though!😀😀😀
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Posted By: norty303
Date Posted: 23 April 2020 at 1:15pm
Yes, learning about control systems is good, although lasers and DMX at the lower end of the market is usually a marriage made in hell (for me anyway)
Lasers are analogue instruments, so require a DAC to control them. The most common is via the ILDA interface (a DB25 connector) which takes analogue signals from the DAC to make it work (colour levels, scanner position, etc)
The current trend is for control systems to be able to take DMX/Artnet input, either directly into the back of the laser projector, or into the control system, which in turn controls the laser.
But there is still a DAC (or multiples) involved somewhere along the line.
Getting individual control of lots of lasers can be very expensive as you need one DAC per laser projector.
They don't work in the same way as regular DMX lighting fixtures.
The most popular control system is Pangolin, and their DACs are about £400 for an external one (FB3) and £500 for a built in one (FB4) but the built in ones are usually integrated by the projector manufacturer.
There's still a bit of flexibility in what and how you use it with lasers, you'll often find that laser operators will have their own proprietary systems, such as emergency stop boxes and distribution, remote stage boxes over cat5, etc.
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My laser stuff: http://www.facebook.com/SubsonicSystems" rel="nofollow - Frikkin Lasers
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