INSIDE VIEW LaserAnimation

LASERANIMATION SOLLINGER

With the recent aquisition of Ray Technologies and a revamp of its website, LaserAnimation Managing Director Michael Sollinger talks about the past, present and future of the company.

www.laseranimation.com

Can you talk us through the beginnings of the company – how many staff were involved initially, and what kind of projects/sectors were you involved in?

The roots of LaserAnimation Sollinger go back to 1984. I was part of the laser research group at the Technical University of Berlin. In this context, I met the laser artist Paul Earls from the Institute of Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. This meeting was so inspiring that I started to develop a laser show controller in the same year based on an Apple II home computer. Six months later, the prototype Lasergraph II was presented for the first time at the SIB in Rimini, and later in 1985 I founded LaserAnimation and the first five Lasergraph II were delivered.

What was the focus of the company’s direction in the beginning and how has that changed?

LaserAnimation started as a supplier of the Lasergraph II and the additions for a vendor of laser equipment mainly in discotheques. With the development of the much more advanced Lasergraph DSP, we changed direction and began to sell to multiple, even competing, suppliers – while always respecting their markets. Above the Lasergraph DSP, we developed devices necessary at that time for water-cooled lasers, colour control, fibreoptics, fibre-fed remote projectors and more. In 2002, when the first OEM high-power laser module arrived, we took the chance to design a laser projector – the BLITZ – that was unlike others at that time: all internal controls are digital and remotely controllable. Now the focus is on research, development and manufacturing of laser projectors and laser show control, especially their usability and reliability. This is a huge advantage for us because we can develop, build, and match

our laser projectors and their controls. We were able to gain a lot of experience and knowledge in both fields. I’ve always been interested in art using lasers; I’m happy I became involved in new artistic ideas, and I support them – even though they are often pretty challenging. Our customers appreciate the fact that we not only have expertise in one field but can provide overall solutions.

How important is the ‘Made in Germany’ tag to you?

The label of origin ‘Made in Germany’ has become an internationally valued seal of quality, because many companies that promote themselves with it set the highest quality standards. We, too, have always set these for ourselves. All of our qualified employees make their own contribution to this. We are very proud of the fact that we are highly appreciated by our customers for the quality of our products. We stand for quality and reliability, and this is what we are known for in the laser market.

What is the benefit of having in-house development and processing equipment, and a skilled workforce on the CNC milling machines?

LaserAnimation has a very deep vertical integration. Despite a few standard components, all mechanical, optical and electronical parts as well as firmware and UIs are at least developed, designed and/or prototyped in-house. For us, it is mandatory to be able to carry out almost all aspects of the work ourselves, starting with development, via the construction of prototypes, right through to the series-production readiness of the products. This gives us a very high level of flexibility in planning and production, independence from external suppliers or service providers and, finally, short communication lines between the relevant parties. Thus, we can implement even very special customer requirements within a short time.

Why did the company opt to acquire Ray Technologies?

At the beginning of the year, we acquired Ray Technologies, including the well-known RTI brand and the associated product series, the facility in Bavaria and all employees. This made us an even bigger and stronger company within the laser industry. This acquisition made sense for us because Ray Technologies has some very interesting developments, and LaserAnimation is able to widen the range of customers. Moreover, Martin Werner, the former CEO of Ray Technologies, supports me now as CEO of LaserAnimation Sollinger. This allows me to have more time for developments, special projects – and hopefully myself and my animals! The ‘new’ LaserAnimation is the guarantor for continuity for our staff, and above all for our customers. Our joint resources and synergies – especially in the areas of research, development and automation – are enormously important for the development of our products. Below: Another Moon outdoor installation at NEWNOW Festival in Germany, 2021, by Kimchi and Chips. Photo by Jens Herre.

Above: The PHAENON accurate.

Below: The RTI ANGO in operation.

Can you give us details on the RTI ANGO Series?

The RTI ANGO Series currently includes two extremely powerful RGB full-colour single beam laser systems with 300W resp. 600W output power with a narrow beam diameter of 10 by 10 cm and analog modulation. The output is not just a static beam but can be moved by the deflection unit in two axis like a search light. The beam divergence is very low at about 1.0 mrad, which means that the laser beam remains small and bright over a long distance. This makes the RTI ANGO units ideally suited as sky or landmark lasers.

What makes the PHAENON accurate stand apart from other lasers within its class?

The PHAENON accurate is designed to be a small, lightweight, easy-to-carry-and-handle laser projector with identical features and performance as its bigger brothers. It can be used in a smaller setting, or changed to the PHAENON X series for a large setup without the need of adaptation. The carbon enclosure is not only very light but almost indestructible and has a nice haptic. The RGB White laser diode module from LaserAnimation is very stable and needs no readjustments – it provides crisp beams with perfect collinearity of the colours. Content can be streamed via AVB (LAN network) or stored on the internal memory. Playback of the internally stored show is synchronised by timecode, thus shows with hundreds of projectors still have almost no traffic on the LAN; this makes the overall system very reliable. All functions and the adjustment and supervision of operating parameters are easily handled with the intuitive LA.toolbox software from a PC or Mac.

How important was the new website to the company’s plans?

Our previous website had become outdated and was in need of a major makeover. With the acquisition of Ray Technologies, we decided that we wanted a completely new website that was not only informative and clear, but also different from the rest of the websites in our industry. I think the work has paid off and the result can be shown very well. The feedback so far has been positive.

How has the team grown since the Ray Technologies acquisition?

With the acquisition of Ray Technologies, our team almost doubled in size, bringing the company to almost 40 people, but we also engaged new staff for software development. Our laser projectors become more and more intelligent, and tasks are shifted from the classical show software to the laser projectors making the workflow much easier and more versatile. A next step version of LA.toolbox dedicated to operate and supervise setups with many projectors is about to be launched. We are focusing on growth and therefore we continue to need good new employees.

Where can we see your products in action?

We are happy that our projectors and controllers are constantly used at large and small events, art projects and installations, and to list all my favourite projects would go far beyond the scope of this interview, so I would like to mention just one at this point. Our involvement with ABBA Voyage in the purpose-built ABBA Arena in London was a highlight. The preparations for this show were intensive and exhausting, but the result is more than worth seeing. I recommend all readers visit ABBA Voyage. You will not be disappointed!