Laser Laws

binston · Aug 25, 2009

Laser Laws

After we sorted a laser out the other night for Warp some one mentioned there were laws relating to where you can point a laser in a club ie it has to be pointing at a certain height and not in ppls faces .

Any one heard of this and does any one have any more info ???

Conway · Aug 25, 2009

Found this trawling about on the net:

There ARE laws governing laser use in the UK, but they are very rarely understood, and even less frequently enforced. Most licensing authorities will have clauses on laser use for venues based on the HSG95 guidelines paper published some years ago. Ultimately this states that you should not crowd scan with patterns above MPE (maximum permissible exposure). Unfortunately this requires you to own a power meter (£150+ for even the cheapest) and to know all the maths to calculate EACH pattern you would use (you can see the bind this would be for anyone) All airborne patterns should be 3m above the floor.
In the USA (until very recently) you could not crowd scan with anything above 5mW. ILDA have recently published revised papers which state that 10x MPE can be acceptable in light of more experience and evidence.

Certainly you should avoid single beams and finger beams entering crowd areas as these will carry much more energy than scanned patterns and images.

The bottom line is that small power lasers can, and do cause eye damage. whether any used in entertainment settings have done so is open to debate. Many people may have taken hits, but not even noticed that their vision is impaired - the brain is a good natural corrector at 'filling in' the missing spots.

I'm less and less of a fan of DMX as a laser control mechanism due to the relative randomness of it. With proper ILDA format control you can place beams exactly where and where not to have them.
On my system I can reduce power in very specific areas or blank them entirely (e.g. if scanning over projectors facing the laser I can mask them, as DLP's are VERY succeptible to laser hits)

With lasers, the onus is on the operator to know how they should be used, not for the retailer to tell them. We may be approaching a turning point in the UK, and there may be a form of 'Laser License' which will cost money and time, and may start to prohibit their widespread use by inexperienced people.

As for the whole 'Laser Licenses don't exist' debate - they do exist actually in the UK, but not in the form most people think. As mentioned previously, venues tend to have them (or not have them as the case may be) Usually if a venue is licensed for 'Pyros and special effects' then there will usually be clauses in there for lasers based on HSG95. If they don't, then you need to apply specifically ona one off basis to the licensing authority, and may well get a visit from H&S man on the night to ensure safe useage. There was one venue in Brighton that I used to fall foul of this one regularly.
Click to expand...

Check out http://www.laserist.org/files/audience-scanning_overview_2pt1.pdf (Warning - PDF)

Congay · Aug 25, 2009

do you really think the council will raid cosmic ballroom cos the disco lasers are shining on the crowd.

i think lazer snipers trying to blind pig chopper pilots may take prioity to TEAM LAZER

Conway · Aug 25, 2009

Teknofish;1353104 said:

do you really think the council will raid cosmic ballroom cos the disco lasers are shining on the crowd.
Click to expand...

That depends on whether the afro gestapo are on maneuvers or not.

If not, then it is safe to carry out the following:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdD76NijTn0&feature=related"]YouTube - IMMA FIREN MAH LAZAR[/ame]

binston · Aug 25, 2009

yeah were not in the cosmic thank fuk but cheers any way i dont think we wil b paying much attention to that any way

WorldonFire · Aug 25, 2009

of course we will haha

binston · Aug 25, 2009

3 metres from the floor hmmm yeah no probs

u nah if my UV is def there yet hew ?

WorldonFire · Aug 25, 2009

not been in got the flu i think

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