British sound and lighting brand Kam has a long history of serving the mobile DJ industry in the UK and Ireland. During my early days as a DJ, back in the 1990s, Kam CD players and mixers were very common and my trusty KCD960 twin CD player and GMX5 mixer were at the heart of my playback setup for many years. More recently, the brand has enjoyed particular success with its range of DJ-focused laser fixtures. It was – I believe – the first to introduce the now ubiquitous cluster laser to the mobile market and it continues to innovate in the area of affordable, powerful, and unique lasers, the latest of which is the Hyper3D 500.

A 500mW version of Kam’s best-selling Laserscan Hyper 3D, the recently introduced Hyper3D 500 is an eight-in-one laser projector that offers DJs a variety of distinctly different effects from one single unit. The multi-colour laser fixture (RGB) combines 100mW red, 80mW green, and 300mW blue laser diodes to create impressive laser projections that can be directed at the walls or ceiling of a venue or projected through haze to create stunning mid-air effects.

I think at this point it’s worth mentioning why this – and all other RGB laser products – have such a large disparity in terms of the power of their three constituent laser diodes (apologies to those who already know). It is down to the fact that the human eye is more sensitive to green light than red, but more sensitive to red light than blue. Laser manufacturers therefore try to compensate for this by including more powerful red diodes, and even more power blue diodes, so that the resulting beams appear of roughly equal brightness to the human eye. In this case I think Kam have got the balance about right, I found that the green beams still appeared to be the brightest, but they didn’t overpower the other colours.

As I’ve already mentioned, the Hyper3D 500 is a multi-function laser projector, which offers eight very different laser effects. These are all available through DMX control, but can also easily be selected, for either automatic or sound active operation, directly from the illuminated 3-character LCD display on the rear of the fixture. It is also possible to set the unit to cycle through all eight operating modes in either automatic or sound-active mode. However, this isn’t something I’d recommend as some of the effects lend themselves better to creating mid-air effects while others are more suited to surface projection. I’ll now try to briefly describe each of the eight effects, although some are very difficult to explain and need to be seen first-hand to be fully appreciated.

I’ll start with one of the easiest effects to describe, which Kam refers to as ‘Wide Angle Star FX’. This is basically the classic cluster laser effect that Kam introduced to the market around a decade ago. The red, green, and blue laser beams are split up by a refraction grating into countless separate beams that all exit the unit’s laser aperture at slightly different angles. In a hazy atmosphere this creates a blaze of multi-coloured laser beams, which is a great mid-air effect. However, it can also be effective pointing up at a venue’s ceiling to create the impression of a star-filled-sky (albeit it a multi-coloured one!).

This same diffraction grating technique is used to create the ‘Multi-grating FX’. This time, however, instead of single laser beams, simple animated patterns – such as zooming circles and spinning spirals – are projected through the grating. This creates a vast number of repetitions of the pattern, spread out of a wide area. Again, this mode is suitable both for creating impressive wide-spread mid-air effects and interesting surface projections.

The signature effect of the fixture is described by Kam as ‘Hyper 3D Projection FX’. This involves simple moving 2D geometric shapes, such as circles and squares, projected through a special kind of diffraction grating which creates hologram-style 3D versions of those shapes. So circles become cylinders and squares become cuboids. This is a very unique and impressive effect that is ideally suited for projection onto a screen or flat surface within a venue (ceiling or wall), which makes it perfect for events where haze isn’t a possibility.

Another effect that is particularly suited to surface projection, and therefore ideal for smoke-free rooms, is ‘Northern Lights FX’. This uses another type of diffraction grating to blur the sharp laser beams into abstract, psychedelic patterns that are reminiscent of the ‘plasma balls’ that were popular novelty items back in the ‘80s.

The mode described by Kam as ‘Kaleidoscope FX’ uses yet another type of diffraction grating that replicates the main beam projection in a series of concentric circles. This creates geometric effects that are similar to these generated by the child’s art toy called ‘Spirograph’.

Interestingly, another mode is referred to by Kam in the manual as ‘Spirostar FX’, but this generates an effect that reminded me of a kaleidoscope! It’s possible that this is a misprint in the manual, but also that my impression of these effects differs from that of the Kam technical team. As I said before, you really do need to witness this fixture in action yourself to get a true feel for its wide range of unique effects.

The final diffraction grating effect is described in the manual as ‘Wide Beam Grating FX’. This features a linear grating which splits simple laser animations into around 8 or 9 separate projections spread out in a horizontal line. This is ideal for creating mid-air effects, while avoiding audience scanning (hitting the faces of people in the crowd with laser beams).

In addition to all of these unusual effects, the Hyper3D 500 can also be used as a regular laser projector. Using the mode described by Kam as ‘Flat Beam & In-Air Tunnel FX’, the fixture can be used to generate classic laser sky and tunnel effects if you are fortunate enough to find yourself booked to play in a venue that permits the use of haze effects.