safety with 24 cheap 5mw lasers

[gravitypushes]

I plan on having 24 5mw lasers shooting upwards on an indoor stage about a foot away from each other. There will be haze so that the audience and actors can see the beams. (seeing a decent beam with not a lot of haze is the prime objective and thus 5mw.) Actors will be a foot or so away from the beams. The lasers will be on for about 45 seconds. Then turn off for two minutes or so and then turn back on repeating this cycle through out the play. I want to put IR filters on the lasers to protect the actors and audience form the IR but someone told me not worry about the infrared in this scenario since the beams are locked upwards and cant directly hit someones eyes. Thoughts?

 

[Crazlaser]

What wavelength (color) are the lasers. Only DPSS systems such as green (532nm) produce infrared. That's if they don't already have filters. If you have 24 of them I kind of doubt they are but they could be I suppose.

 

[gravitypushes]

@crazlaser yes, they are all cheap green 532nm laser pointers

 

[GSS]

As they are the cheap ebay pointer's then I don't see to much need for haze as they will be considerably stronger than 5mw. More from 20mw to 80mw but the brightness of all units will vary.
You don't seem to have any questions on how to power them so considering you know how to I don't see any reason for IR filters for a short play, as long as you use the safety you mentioned.

 

[gravitypushes]

@gss, so that's my concern, is that since they are more powerful then they should be, there is going to be to A LOT of infrared bouncing around. But you don't think that will be a safety issue if the actors are standing only a foot away from half a dozen beams, looking through them into the audience?

 

[diachi]

@gss, so that's my concern, is that since they are more powerful then they should be, there is going to be to A LOT of infrared bouncing around. But you don't think that will be a safety issue if the actors are standing only a foot away from half a dozen beams, looking through them into the audience?

Looking through the beams won't cause any issues. There won't necessarily be a lot of IR, but I wouldn't be surprised to see 30mW or so. It generally isn't collimated into a beam, it diverges quickly compared to the 532nm portion, or at least it should.

Direct exposure and reflections off of certain surfaces would be an issue of course.

Which country are you in?

 

[gravitypushes]

@diachi, thanks for the info! i'm in the usa. and when you say "direct exposure or reflection" i'm assuming you mean the dot? also, do blue and red laser pen beams have IR? if not, then maybe I should use those just so I don't have to worry at all. Are cheap 5mw blue and red laser pens over powered like green? I'll certainly have to use some haze with the blue and red ?

 

[diachi]

@diachi, thanks for the info! i'm in the usa. and when you say "direct exposure or reflection" i'm assuming you mean the dot? also, do blue and red laser pen beams have IR? if not, then maybe I should use those just so I don't have to worry at all. Are cheap 5mw blue and red laser pens over powered like green? I'll certainly have to use some haze with the blue and red ?

Is this going to be a public event? There are fairly strict regulations on using lasers at public events in the US that you'd need to comply with to be legal.

I mean exposure to the beam - as in the beam directly entering the eye or reflecting off of a mirror/glass/shiny surface. (i.e. pointing the laser at a mirror and having the beam bounce back into your eye)

Nope, typical blue and red lasers that you'll find online don't emit IR laser light. 520nm green lasers also don't emit IR light, the process to produce the light is different. I can explain if you'd like.

Yes, they are also often overpowered by a fair amount. Red and blue are also much less visible to the eye, so you need more power in order to achieve the same effect versus green.

 

[GSS]

To see the beam with a red or blue its going to take a whole lot of more power, which i'm guessing now is not in the budget for what you will have to pay.
50mw of blue "445" about equals 5mw of green "532" in visablity. and an ebay red at 650 is even less.
I don't think IR is an issue but if your worried IR filters are out there for $1 a piece for the adding.