of my eye I see a father start to toss his baby into 40W beams ! The lasers were at the required 3 meters over the audience . He had no idea those beautiful green beams could permanently injure his baby .
Please , please remember to communicate with your laser operator if you are going to use mylar confetti and / or ribbon trapeze artists and / or if anyone will be in the rigging for any reason ! I was standing in the wings once when out of the corner of my eye I spot a ribbon artist dropping out of the fly zone ; the operator had a clear view of the beam path from front of stage forward but did not know there were going to be ribbon artists dropping from the rafters ! It was just lucky I was there and able to catch his eye in time to shutter the lasers !
A last note about safety and entertainment . One of the biggest challenges when producing entertainment is that to provide a safe fun ‘ party ’ like event for your audience knowing that you and your team are not able to ‘ party ’ until the last unit is packed up , safely stowed and on the truck . That said , there is nothing like basking in the radiant smiles of a joyful audience that has just experienced the most exciting and memorable event of a lifetime .
For more detailed information on how to use lasers safely for entertainment and / or display purposes we highly recommend these publications and / or resources :
Event Safety Guide – Section 21 : Special Effects and Lasers , Other than Pyrotechnics , available at http :// eventsafetyalliance . org /
Essentials of Laser Safety for Entertainment and Display by Roberta McHatton and Ken Barret , send request to : contact @ lasersafetyservices . com
International Laser Display Association : Members are professional laser companies : www . ilda . com
Need Laser Safety Officer training ? Laser Safety Services offers certified LSO training for those using Lasers in the Entertainment / Display industries .
Contact us at : contact @ lasersafetyservices . com for description of services / cost .
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