About

In the mid-1980s I was helping some friends who were a pop group, named Mainframe. Another friend of the band created a sound sampler board for the Apple II computer, and we eventually formed a company to make those. The company was Greengate Productions, the name being taken from the board designer and my names (Dave GREEN, Colin HolGATE).

Yet another friend of the band, Steve Lovatt, was helping out on the sound mixing side of things. He was also into laser shows, such as the Laserium in London. At a couple of the Mainframe shows Steve asked me whether I thought that the sound sampler board could be used to control lasers, in much the same way as was done at the Laserium. I didn't really understand what he was asking! He was saying "galvo-this, galvo-that", and I didn't know what a "galvo" was. Wikipedia does though, and has an article on how galvanometers are used in laser scanners.

I did eventually understand what Steve was asking, and quickly realized that it would be possible to make lasers draw out recognizable shapes, not just spirograph-like patterns. We did go on to use lasers at a couple of rock concerts, and corporate events, as can be seen here:

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Thinking that maybe we would at some point do a bit of laser work professionally, we came up with a company name to use, and even had business cards made. The name we chose was Laserlog. As it turned out we didn't end up doing such work, though Steve has stayed in touch with other people that were involved, while I escaped to the USA!

I checked with Steve, and he said it was ok to use Laserlog  as a name as the publisher of any mobile apps that I make. I suppose I had better make some apps now...

© Colin Holgate 2012