Custom Laser Harps and Custom Laser Harp Installations

 The Finest Custom Laser & Light Beam Harps in the world.

For Installation in your Science and Technology Center, or Children`s Museum.

 For Spectacular Performances on Stage with your Custom Laser Harp, or
'Infinite Beam', Laser Harp Controller.

We custom design and create, carved and sculpted multimedia Laser Beam Harps, for Science and Technology Centers, Children`s Hospitals, and Children's Museums, all over the world.

We also sell a very high quality Laser Harp Controller, The ProLight Controller, which when connected to a high quality ILDA compatible Laser Projector, will result in the Classic "Jarre" Type of Infinite Beam Laser harp. This Laser Harp Controller sells for US$ 1,200, including shipping to anywhere in the world. When this high quality controller is connected to a laptop computer running our OptiMusic 5.5 software, the result is an Infinite Beam laser harp, with the full OptiMusic audio and visual triggering that our 'Framed ' low powered Laser Harps are known for.

Laser Harp shown Left below: This is a Carved Myrtle wood Laser Harp with eight 5mw green Lasers. It was just sold to the '‘Trans Studio Science Center’,  in Jakarta Indonesia.  This harp is about 38 inches tall, designed to be installed on a cabinet, or display counter about four feet tall. The base part is designed to be secured from below, with the power supply and connection to the multimedia MIDI controller and computer feeding out the bottom of the harp.

Here below you can see photos:, of a just completed, in the spring of 2011, custom carved King David Laser Beam Harp. This harp is now installed under a stone archway in the Jewish Children`s Museum in Brooklyn NY. The exhibit should be open in the winter of 2011.

It has 7 green 5mw lasers with 7 sensors. It is carved from Oregon Myrtle wood, to look as if it was made from a branch of an olive tree, complete with leaves and olives. Much of the carving is also gilded. The carved Hebrew lettering refers to King David. This laser harp is designed to look like it could be a harp with strings, thus the carved 'tuning pegs'.

 For installation in your Science or Children`s Museum, we can design a compact (or larger), lap or floor sized laser harp that looks just like a harp, or in any style or shape that you might dream up. As long as your design idea allows the lasers to shine onto the optic sensors, it is possible!

We custom design and build these very special multi-media MIDI Laser Light harps that have red or green laser beams instead of strings. These laser harp systems can trigger any type of audio or visual event, image, sounds or music, up to 70 times per second. These harps can also be carved and sculpted, in almost any shape and style !

For your Science and Technology Museum or Center, these SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPALS can be TAUGHT:

Wave Frequency
Wave Amplitude
Volume
Light
Energy Transformations
Electromagnetism
Colors
Atoms

We usually build our Custom  Laser Light Beam Harps as "Framed " style Laser Harps. This type of laser harp installation uses low powered lasers with targeted optic sensors in some style of harp shaped structure.  The blocking of these lasers beams with the hand or fingers is how the harp is 'played', and is what triggers the pre-programmed music, sounds and video or still visual projections.

The range of musical and other types of sounds that the harp can play is endless, with options to use sequences of almost any length, loops, and on-off triggering. Up to 60 'events' or audio and/or visual nature, can be stacked on each channel. So that , if you wished, every time the laser is broken, a different sound and/or visual event, could be heard or seen, up to 60 in a row. Individual laser beams can be programmed to change the programming of all the other beams, when broken, if desired. The music and sounds can as simple as individual harp notes in scale, as if the harp had real strings, to anything that can be imagined.

We use the brightest, highest quality low powered 5mw red and green lasers which are available (referred to as Class IIIa lasers by the USA FDA, which are safe for public interaction). This allows for safe public interaction when they are installed in a laser harp.

Here on this page you will see some of the projects that we have created over the years. Since we specialize in one-of-a-kind custom Laser Harps, please feel free to be as creative and expansive in your ideas and dreams as you can be ! :-)

Our laser harps can be crafted to closely resemble a harp with strings, Or we can design for you a laser harp installation in a shape that is very sculptural and stream lined. For example in a large open "C" shape, or any other shape that you have in mind. Another possibility is a round shaped laser harp, with two banks of lasers crossing at 90 degrees to each other. This can be quite effective with four/eight green and four/eight red lasers.

Or for a entirely different approach, your Laser Harp installation could be in the shape of a grand old Oak tree, carved from figured Maple or Myrtle wood, with the lasers shinning down from the branches, onto the sensors in the exposed tree roots !:-)

We can build for you a compact self contained unit of a beautiful hardwood  base cabinet that houses all the electronics, computer and stereo sound system, with a Laser Beam Light Harp mounted securely to the top. This cabinet can also be custom carved, sculpted or otherwise not look like a square cabinet, if so desired.

This option is all self contained, needing only a AC power jack in the floor below the cabinet ( either 110 or 220, a step down transformer will be supplied in the case of 220 power). This Laser Harp comes with instruction manual including how to set up and installation videos & photos, and is 'plug and play', with full functioning assembly taking only an hour or two. The WIN7 ( and XP) software comes with many pre-programmed 'song' selections, and is fully custom programmable for your needs.  This system with 8 red and/or green Lasers, comes fully equipped, ready to 'plug & play', for US$14,800 . Shipping is extra, but with a compact shipping crate, can be easily shipped worldwide.

The OptiMusic software we use has the capacity to respond to a break of a laser beam up to 70 times per second. You can program up to 60 events per 'song', with an endless number of possible 'song' combination of any type of audio-visual event, image, video, sound sampled wave files, etc. The software is fully programmable with an on-screen synthesizer and wave file editor, available to pre-program an endless Varity of sound and visual video-scapes of any type of audio or visual event file or element.

 Our software can control three LCD or other type of projectors from one laptop computer when an extra video card is installed. Or one with a normal video setup.

Let us know all your ideas and design requirements, we look forward to bringing your special Laser Harp project to Life, for All your Educational, entertainment or stage performance needs ! ;-)

The Laser Harp shown above on the left: is a custom 28 Laser harp with both Red and Green Lasers. Shown with theatrical haze

The harp at right, and at bottom: is a custom carved laser harp, with 8 red lasers, created for the 'Strong National Children`s Museum of Play', in Rochester NY. It was created to be "The Giant`s Harp", from "Jack and the Beanstalk

Laser Harp shown Right above and below: This is a custom Laser Harp with 8 green lasers, designed and created for the Childrens Museum at the National Science Center, Pusat Sains Negara,  in Kula Lumpur Malaysia. The new Children's Science Museum there is set to open in Summer of 2011. The picture below on the left shows the cabinet open, with the laptop computer that runs the system , on it`s slide out shelf. You can see the OptiMusic software running on the screen. All the system need to power and produce the beautiful music , including a 3 speaker stereo sound system, are enclosed in this cabinet. There is even a 240 to 220 AC power step-down transformer.

For performances on Stage, "Framed" , or "Infinite Beam" Laser Harps, and Laser Harp Controllers

Using low powered red and green lasers:

In this type of laser harp, for performance/stage use, the design options are wider than for a public interaction laser harp or installation. The lasers can be placed in any configuration that allows them to be aimed at optic sensors. And a room sized installation can be designed and fabricated by us for your use. Such an array would have a set of sensors and lasers, all mounted into sleek mini housings, that can allow you to set them up all though a performance space, and if you wish, to use mirrors to increase the number of beams criss-crossing the space.

A modular, portable, room sized installation can also be designed and custom built, with the lasers shining down from an elevated structure, down to sensors set on the floor, or from one wall to another or across and entire stage or performance space, just within reach of the hands/fingers of visitors. A space can be set up differently every time a different performance is planned, using a modular system like this,  and the sounds and visual events can all be differently varied and are always totally custom programmable, in our easy to use windows 7 software interface.

 A smaller, 'framed' laser harp can be designed and created in almost any shape or size that will allow a stable beginning and end point for the laser beam and it`s sensor. And that will allow you to break that laser beam, and thus trigger the midi event or sound you have programmed, with your hand or in any other way. Dancing through laser beams on stage is one option to consider trying. Such a "framed " style laser harp can be designed for compact travel and touring needs.

 The lasers shine onto optic sensors, located on the "sound board" of the harp. The lasers are located in the neck of the harp, shining down on the "string rib". The lasers are generally set about 2 to 3 inches apart, (the spacing can be customized, depending on how you wish to use the harp).

We can build these harps in any style and size, and we can also create a carved and sculpted laser  harp that has a 'look' or style like any of the many custom harps I have built over the last thirty years. Or it could have the look of a lost alien artifact, transported through Space and Time ! :-) These harps are often designed and built to be in a harp-like shape, but almost any possible shape or style, size or configuration is possible. Let me know what design, or  concept you might have in mind!

We am working on some new designs for using low powered 5mwlasers beams in what is referred to as an 'Infinite beam' type laser beam harp. In this type of harp the lasers  beams are pointed up in a fan shaped pattern, fanning out away from each other, from a compact harp body. In this type harp the laser beams are reflected back to optic sensors set into the body of the harp. The number of sensors is only limited by the number of midi channels in the midi controller system hooked up to the harp. the usual is 8, 16 or 32 channels. The number of light or laser beams in this type of harp can be from 8 to 32.  Please ask for more information on our current designs and projects, as well as for prices.

Infinite Beam Laser Harp Controller:

For use with high powered laser projector

 This is a amazinly designed controller system that works with a high powered Laser Projector, to produce the Infinite Beam type of Laser Harp, that Jean Michel Jarre has played all over the world.

Here are the specs for the ProLight Laser Harp controller:

Shown here above :  Custom Laser harp with 8 red lasers, created for the "Children`s Hospital of the King`s Daughters", in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 2008.

Self Contained Plug & Play,  low powered laser Harp installations.

 For your Science or Children`s Museum, we can build for you a compact self contained unit, like this one show here above, of a size to fits your design needs. The support  element is a beautiful hardwood  base cabinet that houses all the electronics, computer and stereo sound system, with a Laser Beam Light Harp mounted securely to the top . The cabinet can be made with special  laminates or your choice of stained or natural hardwood.

 This option is all self contained, needing only a AC power jack in the floor below the cabinet ( either 110 or 220, a step down transformer will be supplied in the case of 220 power). This Laser Harp comes with instruction manual including photos, and is 'plug and play', with full functioning assembly taking only an hour or two. The software comes with many pre-programmed 'song' selections, and is fully custom programmable for your needs.

 This type of system comes fully equipped, for US$14,800 . Shipping is extra, but with a compact shipping crate, can be easily shipped worldwide.

In its simplest form, a Laser Beam Multi-media MIDI Harp is a light controlled switch. When a beam is interrupted and broken, (or reflected back to an optic sensors, in the 'infinite beam' type), a signal is created, which activates previously selected events.

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This harp below, is the custom laser harp we created for the National Science Center,  Pusat Sains Negara,  in Kula Lumpur Malaysia.

In the first video is a  Classical piece of music, originally played on a harp with strings, and sampled for the laser harp. Here it is being played in the " Any beam play" mode, where any laser broken will play the music in the correct order with the speed of play controlled by how quickly one breaks the laser beams.

In the second video, is the same Laser Harp being played with a rhythmic percussion program of sampled percussion sounds. You can see and hear in this video, how quickly the electronics and software responds to the laser beams being broken.