The heart of a laser show is the laser itself.  The laser produces that magical light used to project the colorful images we see on the screen as well as in the air.  Lasers are monochromatic light sources, meaning they only produce one wavelength or frequency of light.  It is this pureness in color that makes the light from a laser beam appear so intense and beautiful.  There are numerous types of lasers and each of them produces a different wavelength or frequency of light.  A laser show only needs one laser to produce a brilliant display.  However, the more colors, the more dazzling a laser show can be.  LGP utilizes 3 laser systems that each produce a different color of light. Below are the three lasers used by LGP:

 

Air cooled Argon Ion gas laser (Blue Laser Light - 488nm)

Diode Pumped ND:YAG or DPSS  laser (Green Laser Light - 532nm)

High powered solid state diode laser (Red Laser Light - 650nm)

 

 

You may have seen a large television projector that uses red, green and blue colors to produce video images on a movie screen.  Red, green and blue can be considered the "primary colors" of light.  Mixing these three colors of light produces more colors.  Each of the three (RGB) laser beams are combined by using dichoric (Color) filters.  After their combination remains a single white light laser beam. Using sophisticated electronics, the intensity of each laser can be controlled individually.  By varying the intensity of each of the three colors a total of 16.7 million color choices can be produced.  This enables LGP's laser projectors to produce what seems to be an infinite rainbow of laser light.

 

As the brightness of a light bulb is measured in wattage, lasers are also measured in this way.  Lasers that are used for laser shows typically measure only a couple watts and sometimes are measured in milliwatts.  However, the light from a laser is so concentrated and focused into such a tight beam that the perceived intensity is far brighter than a light bulb.  LGP's current combined laser output power is a little over 0.5 Watts or 500 milliwatts.  This is enough laser power to light up fairly large venues with impressive beam effects and vibrant screen projections.