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TriLasers founder Todd Roy discovered his love of light when his ninth-grade teacher brought a laser into class. 'I was just entranced by it,' he said.

Enlightened

Todd Roy turned his love of light into a profession

By Steve Enders

In a dark cave of a studio in an industrial area of Sunnyvale, Todd Roy stares off, looking at a thousand points of light.

He's not planning political strategy. He's a laser technician, and he's creating the American Basketball League's logo with thousands of tiny moving light beams.

The 27-year-old owns TriLasers, which is probably best known for putting on the weekend laser light shows at the De Anza College Planetarium in Cupertino.

But TriLasers does a lot more than that.

Roy's rays have appeared on the sides of buildings and snow-covered mountains. They've lit up the inside of trade shows and awards ceremonies, beams of multicolored light zapping into surrealistic patterns for the visual delight of audiences.

They've been dubbed to music and shot around the San Jose Event Center, marking the opening of San Jose Lasers basketball games.

The ultradramatic effects could turn any CEO's business presentation into an Oscar-winning performance.

"We do the show right before introducing the starting lineup," John Vearguson, director of operations for the San Jose Lasers basketball team, says. "They've done a really good job. It gets the crowd pumped up for the game."

Roy has been with the Lasers since October 1996, the team's inaugural season. In addition to providing a visual for the team's namesake, Roy consistently provides a quality product, Vearguson says. "Todd's willing to do whatever it takes to put on a great show. He's very conscientious about safety," Vearguson adds. "He's also very creative."

'This all really started with Star Wars," Roy says. "Actually, it started with my ninth-grade teacher, who brought a laser in and banged some erasers together." The erasers created chalk dust, making the laser beam visible to his class. "The other kids thought it was cool, but I was just entranced by it."

Ironically, Star Wars creator might have been entranced by Roy. George Lucas recently won an award at the Stolichnaya Art Awards in San Francisco, where Roy had lasers beaming to entertain the crowd. Unfortunately for Roy, the two never met.

Roy recently signed on his longtime friend Chris Tortorelli, 28, to help run the business. Now it's basically a two-man show, with a part-time laserist filling in for Roy when he needs help, mostly for the planetarium shows.

Both Roy and Tortorelli are having a blast.

"My mom just says that whatever I wanted to do, to do it, but do it well," Roy says.

Roy learned all the tricks of the laser trade himself.

"I just used to go to shops and buy all this used, old equipment. Then I'd bring it home and put it together. I started finding that you could do these great patterns when I put the laser on top of a speaker and the laser would shake."

He buys the components of his laser equipment, all of which are very expensive, from a local laser company.

"I've got the Ferrari of lasers right here," he says, pointing to a sleek black box with little gadgets poking out here and there.

He builds the rest of his gear, experimenting with different configurations of mirrors to direct the lasers, and using heavy machinery on metal pieces to shape parts and mountings he thinks he'll need to achieve maximum effect.

"It's like a big Lego set," he says.

In addition to crafting his own gear, he's had to learn aspects of governmental bureaucracy, chemistry, plumbing and electricity.

"And I just wanted to shoot lasers at a wall," he says.

Lasers must be certified as safe by the Food and Drug Administration, which also certifies the "fog" that's used for dramatic effect along with the lasers. So Roy's got to prove that the materials he's using are up to FDA code.

The mechanics of electricity are important to understand, as are some plumbing techniques, he says. All of Roy's laser equipment is water-cooled by a pump, so he always needs an outlet for water waste.

He's learned through trial and error, and once made the error of not investigating what kind of a fire-sprinkler system was in the building he was doing a show in. The fog he was using triggered the sprinklers and got everyone wet. "So I've got to ask about the sprinklers now, too."

The machinery is relatively simple, he says. Through a computer, he can program what patterns and shapes and colors he wants people to see. All of his pieces are set to music, so he can record the music and the digital signals sent from the computer to the laser onto a digital tape.

The tape records the music as well as how the mirrors were moved to direct the lasers. It's much like how a regular stereo system can tape, say, a keyboard if it's played through a tape deck.

The images and the sound are then recorded for future use, and voilà--instant laser show.

With a flashlight, one can look into the machine and see the tiny mirrors vibrating just enough to direct the light in different directions, thus forming patterns seen on the wall.

Of course it's not all that simple. Roy is an artist, and it takes hours to perfect the images' movement to certain music.

Right now, one of the projects he's working on is an opening for the San Jose Lasers' playoff games.

The images come complete with all the players' names and numbers, flashing with neon basketballs, spirals and swirls. They're synchronized with an up-tempo, pounding dance track to get the crowd and the teams pumped up for the game.

Roy brought on his partner and lifetime friend, Tortorelli, six months ago to help direct the business aspect of Roy's work.

"We could really be doing well," Tortorelli says.

But it's obvious by looking through their portfolio that they've already done well.

TriLasers has gone to Squaw Valley to light up the mountain at the ski resort's Winter Fest. The company has lit up the side of a building for an Absolut Vodka advertisement in San Francisco and performed at functions everywhere from local high schools to Lockheed.

"We're really trying to be professional and do quality things," Tortorelli says, adding that they've done the rave and nightclub thing and have grown out of it. Now, they're relying on word of mouth within the business community to promote their productions.

They've got some competition, Tortorelli says, but no one with Roy's quality product and experience.

"I always like to compare him to the laser," Tortorelli says. "He can be so focused, and when he's on, he's on."

One of the guys' current goals is getting more people in to see the planetarium shows at De Anza College.

The shows run three times a night on Friday and Saturday, every weekend. The earliest show starts at 8 p.m. and is an educational show for families and children on the complexities of space.

"It's really cool to see with all the stars [from the planetarium] in the background," Tortorelli says. "I learn something new every time I go there."

The other shows are set to music and are geared toward young adults and adults who like rock & roll. This month, the musical choice is Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall," at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., respectively. The lasers are also choreographed to other music, which Roy keeps fresh every month.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 25, 1998.
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