IDN is the digital streaming and storage standard for Laser animations
- IDN is an open standard, maintained by the International Laser Display Association
- IDN is the device and manufacturer independent exchange format for professionals and hobbyists
- IDN is the unified resolution independent streaming format
- IDN can be used for ISP (ILDA) cable replacement
- IDN can be used by show operators to manage their Laser projector setups
- IDN can be used by show programmers to create portable shows
- IDN can be used by Laser safety officers to monitor streamed content
- IDN can be used by developers to address standardized digital Laser projection solutions
Software Systems
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LaserShowGen (formerly ildaGen) is a freemium app for Windows and Mac, designed to make it cheaper and easier than ever before to create your own laser show. The program can both output directly to Laser DACs for full control over your laser projector in real-time, and export to ILDA files which can be played by projectors with SD-card readers or other laser show software. The software uses IDN for laser projector communication across networks. LaserShowGen won the 2015 ILDA Fenning Award for Technical Achievement. |
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MadMapper is the reference application for video mapping, led installations and laser shows. The MadLaser extension drives laser shows to all major hardware DACs, and includes generative rhythmic and graphic content. Runs on Windows (x64) / MacOs (x64 + arm64). |
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Paint Alchemy, developed by Excalibur Laser Systems, is a cutting-edge software that empowers you to unleash your creativity and transform your laser designs like never before. With its extensive features and intuitive interface, Paint Alchemy is the perfect tool for laser enthusiasts, professionals, and artists alike. |
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LFI Player is a simple yet relatively powerful 3D laser display application written using MS Visual C/C++ and MFC. Object-oriented design provides extensability to the display of multiple laser file format types, and use of a variety of output hardware. The software uses IDN for laser projector communication across networks. |
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HE Laserscan is a software for controlling multiple laser projectors. The purpose of the software is both, the playback of pre-programmed laser shows as well as the control of live shows on site. The software uses IDN for laser projector communication across networks. |
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Spaghetti Laser Show is a time line based Windows application for designing and playing laser light shows. It meets the modest requirements of the amateur while offering features and performance that you will find in applications designed for professionals. The software uses IDN for laser projector communication across networks. |
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tSlice GizmoTweak for Windows tSlice GizmoTweak is an ILDA frame and animation tool based on automated change guides called "Gizmo", whose function is to visualize changes applied for a frame or to an animation. These Gizmo are combined into Groups and guide fully automated transforms coming for the "Tweaks". The tweaks are : pre-move, post-move, scale, rotate, rotation center, polar expansion, ring scale, recolor, fuzz and sparkle.
GizmoTweak won the 2023 ILDA Fenning Award for Technical Achievement. |
Plugins and Extensions
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Turn your Blender animations and Inkscape drawings into laser graphics ! ILD Render is a tool for creating laser graphics (ILDA files) from Blender and Inkscape. It consists of the actual ILD Render application and plugins for Blender and Inkscape. It is designed for a fast and straightforward workflow, just press render in Blender or export in Inkscape and you instantly see the graphics in ILD Render and your laser projector. Also when you change optimization settings in ILD Render you will see the changes immediately on the projector. ILD Render inherits the layers from Blender/Inkscape and can optimize every layer differently. It's possible to assign layers to different projectors in case your scene is too complex for one projector. The software uses IDN for laser projector communication across networks and storage of animated sequences into files. |
Turnkey Products
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LAARIS Interactive Laser Games LAARIS Games One is the world first interactive laser games system, using a unique ILDA Awarded detection technology named LAARIS. Created by Theo Dari - inventor and first performer of worldwide multi-Awarded Laserman and Laserfighters acts. The software uses IDN for laser projector communication across networks. |
Laser Projectors
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LaserAnimation Sollinger -- PHAENON accurate The PHAENON accurate is the first commercially available laser projector to integrate the ILDA Digital Network protocols as an option to the analog ILDA ISP connection. The projector can be operated with IDN or AVB compatible firmware (please specify). While IDN focuses on compatibility, off-the-shelf component use and routing options, AVB/TSN would be the choice for applications where tight timing of the entire network is already available or crucial for the project. The IDN firmware option was introduced and demonstrated at the ILDA conference in London 2022, exactly 10 years after the first IDN operated transmissions took place at the ILDA conference 2012 in San Antonio -- and won the 2023 ILDA Fenning IDN Award for Technical Achievement. |
Converter Hardware
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Network receiver for the ISP-DB25 (ILDA Standard Projector standard of the International Laser Display Association) with all optional signals implemented, including the DMX512 extension ISP-DMX. StageMate ISP won the Fenning Award for Technical Achievement in 2014. |
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Network sender for the ISP-DB25 (ILDA Standard Projector standard of the International Laser Display Association) with all optional signals implemented, including the DMX512 extension ISP-DMX. StageFeed ISP won the Fenning Award for Technical Achievement in 2014. |
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OpenIDN network adapter for the Helios DAC The Helios OpenIDN adapter is a small box with an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi antenna, and a USB port. You can plug a Helios Laser DAC (sold separately) into the USB port, and then use either Ethernet (recommended) or Wi-Fi to reach the DAC from your software on the same network. The adapter acts as an IDN (ILDA Digital Network) server which forwards input sent to the IDN server to the Helios DAC. |
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StreamTap Pro Ruggedized network receiver with etherCON compatible RJ45 socket, powerCON inlet/outlet and ISP-DB25 output (secondary ISP-DB25 output, ISP-DB25 input or DMX512 output optional). Please contact Thomas through his website: automatic-BRAIN |
Drivers
SDK for Helios Laser DAC
The C++ SDK has been updated to include IDN (network) support. This means that if you implement/update
the Helios library in your application, it will also seamlessly enable support for any other network
DAC using the IDN protocol, including the Helios OpenIDN adapter, StageMate ISP, and upcoming Helios
products. This also enables more capabilities such as higher resolution and more data channels. This
is reflected by the choice of multiple WriteFrame*() functions, such as WriteFrameHighResolution() and
WriteFrameExtended(). The original WriteFrame() with 12-bit XY resolution and 8-bit RGBI channels have
been preserved for backwards compatibility and a light-weight alternative.
IDN-Stream discrete mode driver
The repository contains a driver which allows existing laser software to use an API and pass
over laser data (X, Y coordinates and colors R,G,B) on a frame by frame basis, which will be
sent over the local network to IDN capable consumers.
The development of this software started in 2013 in student projects at the University of Bonn
in the course of our activities on the ILDA Digital Network for the International Laser Display
Association (ILDA).
If you have programming experience with laser show software and have already implemented
interfacing e.g. to old EasyLase.dll, Etherdream.dll, Helios_DAC.dll or similar laser controller
APIs, then using the IDN.dll should not be a problem.
OEM Components
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OEM module for projector manufacturers. The module offers the same functionality as StageMate ISP but has mounting holes, EtherCON compatible RJ-45 and opto pipes for being mounted inside a projector. |
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OEM module for equipment manufacturers. The module offers the same functionality as StageFeed ISP but has mounting holes, EtherCON compatible RJ-45 and opto pipes for being mounted inside a case. |
Guides / HowTos
Platforms
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ViGraph is a platform for creating complex systems by plugging together simple modules, either graphically, or in a simple text language (VG). It started as a primarily creative platform for audio and laser graphics, but it is expanding its horizons all the time...
Spice up your shows with stunning algorithmic video and laser graphics - control from keyboard, mouse or MIDI, or automate with sound active animation. |
Tools
IDN Toolbox
The IDN-Toolbox is a software for an IDN consumer, which is able to visualize incoming IDN streams
(both IDN continuous and discrete graphics mode, aka wave and frame mode) on a computer screen.
IDN Laser Tester
The IDN-Laser-Tester enables you to easily test your IDN enabled hardware (adapter or projectors)
from anywhere at the event location you want, just using your smartphone, tablet or laptop.
The IDN-Laser-Tester has just been released after a presentation at the ATW (Advanced Technology
Workshop) at the 2019 ILDA Conference in Orlando, FL (USA). The Uni Bonn team would be happy to
have many people to trial the IDN-Laser-Tester and give feedback to them. You can trial the
IDN-Laser-Tester even without having own IDN consumer hardware. All information, instructions and
feedback evaluation form are given on gitlab.com.
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tSlice Scanner for Windows tSlice Scanner is a detection utility for IDN devices and can configure manufacturer specific parameters like name and network addresses for IDN DACs. It includes a test pattern to test the full projection zone. Please contact Theo Dari through info@theodari.com for further information. |
Source Code and Libraries
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The OpenIDN-Laser-DAC-Framework is a set of software modules to receive IDN (ILDA Digital Network) laser data streams and forward to a laser DACs for laser projection output. In general, the OpenIDN software can be compiled and used on any Linux based operating system (with possibly minor adaptations). It can be used on embedded devices and laser DACs can be connected through different interfaces (like USB, SPI, ...). The framework is in particular open for adaptation to platforms and DACs not yet supported. Feel free to contribute to this project. |
IDTF player
Open source, fully functional, command line based IDTF (ILDA Image Data Transfer Format)
player targeting IDN receivers.
IDN-Hello Scan
Open source, ILDA Digital Network demo code for finding IDN-Hello servers
IDN Server List
Open source, ILDA Digital Network library functions and demo code for IDN-Hello server management
ofxLaser
An openFrameworks addon for controlling one or more laser projectors, it's particularly good at
rendering graphics. It works with a number of DACs including IDN controllers.
Network Programming Playground
The ILDA Digital Network (IDN) - Network Programming Playground (NPP) is a collection of tools
to get you in touch with simple network programming tasks to control the output of an ILDA / IDN
based laser projector.
Components
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OEM module for equipment manufacturers. The module offers Laser projector optimized functionality with ISP compatible pinout from a serial bus (SPI). The DACs are daisy chained (and multiple modules can be daisy chained as well) such that the module can be operated from complex operating systems using drivers and background DMA. This is an open source KiCAD project hosted on GitLab. |
Documentation and Presentations
ILDA Technical standards
This link points to the official ILDA Technical Standards for laser displays page.
Laser & Light Lab Uni Bonn
This link points to the YouTube channel of the Laser & Light Lab of University of Bonn (Institute of Computer Science 4).