Anyone using bounce mirrors in their setup? If yes, please share some photos or video. I’ve had an unhealthy obsession with lasers and mirrors for ages. Finding the safest and cost effective setup has been a decades long challenge. I’m sure fixed mirrors with fine adjustments is probably the tried and tested best way to do it, but I’ve always liked to idea of motorized pan / tilt mirror. Found this one on the web today - 10x less than Clay Pakys reflexion.
Blue Sea had a clip of a model, 1 side mirror, other side half mirror ball, but no listing in their site.
on a safety aspect… The flat side of the Mega-Lite would be fine fine as long as you can guarantee the repeatability of the positioning … but personally… i would shit myself if i was told to point a laser at the mirror ball side
I’m sure you could achieve some amazing looks utilizing both lasers and spots with some clever programming. Obviously risk factor is high with motorized pan tilt. A power cut to it could be nightmare. That being said, you can cut DMX range in Liberation on Y axis and be x only. If you pulled the Y axis power out of it, or put a physical stop preventing it from going down it seams feasible too. I know when I’m programming alone, scheming how to do mirrors, focusing fixed mirrors seem a little iffy. Motorized seems really easy. Working with someone is probably the way to go, but in my experience every time someone is with me I learn something. I’m still quite new and easily distracted with company.
Oh wow, so many possibilities for things to go wrong with this device! I guess theoretically it would be possible to make it safe by literally building a box around it to mask beams but honestly it seems impractical and ill advised.
I have only a little experience with mirrors but I believe traditionally they would be static devices that are very strongly fixed in position. But yeah, as always, check not only regulations but also best practice. They are mentioned briefly on page 18 of the Plasa guidelines document.
If they built a battery backup into the device it or you put them on a battery backup it would be another layer of “safety?”. If you had a closed set with massive termination coverage, camera monitoring from another room in theory it could be possible to program “safely”
Seems like the lighting industry is slowly introducing laser based spots now. Beams that are passible enough as lasers. Probably best to use something like them en-lieu of lasers.
I am working on a project to have a bunch of static bounce mirrors using 3D-printed components. Base can be ratchet strapped to a flat surface or truss, there’s an articulating arm, then a mount that holds either a 4.5" or a 12" mirror on the other end (I found a 6-pack of 12" square mirrors at Home Depot for $26). Will update when it’s done and tested.
For the motorized mirrors…I have seen normal moving heads using the same control systems do so many silly things - suddenly spin around, twitch, “motor reset” and randomly run through a self diagnostic through its full sweep of motion range…all on their own. Sometimes due to maybe a blip in the signal or power supply, sometimes due to some internal monitoring circuit that decides it needs to move. A battery backup or software-based zone limiter wouldn’t prevent those things.
Point being I would never ever rely on a 2-axis motorized device to be safe for this sort of implementation. Like Seb said the only way would be a physical masking box. I don’t see Clay Paky making one of those anytime soon…
I envision building a whole bunch of fixed mirrors on a bar ( eg 6 mirrors on an 8ft bar) and having like 10 of them. If had 2 motor mirrors to just bang them around the other 60 fixed…. I think that would be pretty……mental…PewPew!!
