Laser Light Engines, forever after known as “LLE”, was conceived in 2003, as a commercialization vehicle for a novel but complex RGB Laser technology, proven in a series of Air Force Research Labs (AFRL) SBIR grants that began in the late 90s. The resulting prototype produced ~15 watts of combined RGB light, delivered via optical fibers to a small 3LCD projector, demonstrating proof of concept for the goal of “near-HVS-limited”, Laser illuminated projectors for Flight Simulators.
I was tasked to raise Venture Capital (VC) funding to launch LLE. This proved challenging as mentioned in Post 1. I eventually stopped “banging on doors” c. 2005, and went back to Specialty Fiberoptics until 2007, when backers of LLE thought the investment climate might be improving due to growing interest in “Clean Tech”, i.e., using technology to save energy. We hoped to exploit growing interest in Solid-State Illumination (SSI) to improve E to O efficiency in lighting by introducing an advanced, laser-based application.
LLE finally got its “term sheet” in late 2007 and then waited for our lead investor to put together a syndicate. Looking ahead (optimistically), we secured a presentation opportunity at the following year’s NAB Digital Cinema Summit to introduce LLE and Laser Cinema projection. As the conference date approached, the funding didn’t. My co-founder and I were forced to launch and self-fund LLE with our savings and hoped the VCs would come through before the NAB show. LLE was formally launched at that conference in April of 2008, and was eventually VC-financed. The US Economy crashed a few months later. LLE started with three urgent priorities but use of funds became highly constrained.
Our priorities were to:
1. Develop a prototype RGB Laser projector (with fiberoptic delivery) to become the model “Universal Laser Source” that would work with any digital projector
- Convince the “Hollywood Gatekeepers” (from our small base in New Hampshire) that Laser Illuminated projectors could meet the DC-28 specs for Image Quality and “look just like” the new Xenon-illuminated Digital projectors that had started replacing old film projectors around the world
- Convince the US FDA that Laser-ILLUMINATED projectors did NOT emit hazardous “Laser Beams” but in fact, emitted diverging light power, just like Xenon lamp-illuminated projectors, out of the projection lens
LLE’s mission to “rationalize” global Laser Safety Standards was shared by many international projector companies and other industry stakeholders and became the basis for our co-founding of LIPA in May of 2011. Achieving this goal is one of many things we will be celebrating at AGM25.
[end P3 10/19/25]