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, Linux, and Mac, designed to make it cheaper and easier than ever before to create your own laser show. The program can output directly to laser DACs for real-time control over your laser projector, and export to ILDA files that can be played by projectors with SD-card readers or other laser show software. 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. It runs on Windows (x64) / MacOs (x64 + arm64). |
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Create and perform laser visuals on any laser projector. Modulaser 2 is a ground-up rewrite with a new engine, quick effects, multi-DAC output, and a workflow built for professional laser shows. Modulaser started as a creative instrument for laser visuals. Modulaser 2 keeps that direct, hands-on feel, but rebuilds the editor, file system, rendering path, and output workflow for rigs that need more than one projector. Runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac. |
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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. Runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac. |
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Complete solution to create Audiovisual Shows Theater / Dance / Videomapping / Interactive installation. Millumin is a creative solution to bring your ideas to life. It is tailored to play your live shows and tell your story. Connect all together an ever growing number of devices and softwares. Build your own workflow. Runs on Mac. |
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Beamplex is a visual design tool for laser shows - with two powerful workflows. Build real-time content in the Node Graph by wiring 268+ nodes together, or sequence multi-track shows on the Timeline with clips, automation, and projection zones. Both workflows output to any ILDA or IDN laser projector, control DMX fixtures via Art-Net - and they work together seamlessly. Runs on Windows 10 and any modern browser. |
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Design, program, and perform professional laser shows across desktop, mobile, and browser, all powered by the CloudLase ecosystem. Runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Browser. |
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Spaghetti Laser Show is a timeline-based Windows application for designing and playing laser light shows. It meets the modest requirements of amateurs while offering features and performance found in applications designed for professionals. |
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HE Laserscan is a software for controlling multiple laser projectors. It is used for both playback of pre-programmed laser shows and control of live shows on site. For more information about the current status of HE Laserscan, contact the originator Erich Hans e.g. via Lasershow-Oberpfalz. The software uses IDN for laser projector communication across networks. The IDN.dll (developed by Laser & Light Lab/Uni Bonn, Germany) was included in the installer of HE Laserscan software since version 7.1.f dated 14.11.2018. |
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tSlice GizmoTweak for Windows tSlice GizmoTweak is an ILDA frame and animation tool based on automated change guides called "Gizmo". These Gizmos visualize changes applied to a frame or animation. They are combined into groups and guide fully automated transforms called "Tweaks". The tweaks include 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. Changes in optimization settings in ILD Render are immediately visible on the projector. ILD Render inherits layers from Blender/Inkscape and can optimize each 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's first interactive laser games system, using a unique ILDA Award-winning detection technology named LAARIS. It was created by Theo Dari, inventor and first performer of the 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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The HeliosPRO Laser DAC is a network ILDA interface/adapter used for connecting laser show projectors to your computer. It is an upgraded version of the classic Helios Laser DAC, with the addition of network connectivity and more features.
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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 that 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 |
Open Source
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LFI Player is a simple yet powerful 3D laser display application written using MS Visual C/C++ and MFC. Its object-oriented design provides extensibility for displaying multiple laser file format types and using a variety of output hardware. |
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The LASERfIRE LASER Controller software is the result of over 25 years of work. It is a Windows application and is provided for free. |
Tools
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The IDN-Toolbox is a software for an IDN consumer that can visualize incoming IDN streams
(both IDN continuous and discrete graphics mode, aka wave and frame mode) on a computer
screen. |
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IDN-Laser-VR
The IDN-Laser-VR is a flexible tool for 3D/VR visualization of IDN (ILDA Digital Network)
laser stream data. The 2022 version (2nd generation) is optimized to work both with VR
headsets (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest/USB-Link) and without VR headsets (screen
preview, configurable controls by keyboard or game controllers). |
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Parsec is a multi-platform tool framework around IDN, written in Java. It currently provides tools for management and playback of playlists and general IDN streaming. IDN file editing and optimization are planned. For IDN streaming, Parsec uses DexLogic's portable DexConnect IDN streaming library (currently running under Linux, Windows, and macOS). Parsec and DexConnect have been used successfully during multiple ILDA conferences and in client installations. Although, due to the scale of the project and available resources, the project is still in an early stage and sometimes features get added by use case. Please contact DexLogic for further information. Tim Walsh has created a Zip file that contains tutorials and sample files for IDN recording and playback with Parsec. |
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The IDN-Laser-Tester enables you to easily test your IDN enabled hardware (adapter or
projectors) from anywhere at the event location, just using your smartphone, tablet, or
laptop. |
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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. |
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. |
Guides / HowTos
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.
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 lightweight alternative.
IDN-Stream discrete mode driver
The repository contains a driver that 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.
Source Code and Libraries
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The OpenIDN Laser DAC Framework is a set of adapter drivers around an output abstraction layer and a modular, open source IDN (ILDA Digital Network) server implementation. The server receives IDN streams and forwards the payload to laser DACs and DMX512 interfaces (audio output is planned). In general, the OpenIDN core software can be compiled and used on Linux, embedded platforms, or Windows systems (with possible adaptations). The availability and functionality of adapter drivers depend on the specific platform. Laser DACs can be connected through various interfaces (like USB, SPI, etc.). The framework is particularly 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.
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. |
Open Hardware
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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. |
Meetings
Monthly Zoom meeting, open to all interested in IDN. Find out more, give us feedback and suggestions. Usually the last Thursday of each month. To get on the mailing list of monthly Zoom notices, contact mail@ilda.com.
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).