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When you have paid for the system, it is yours. We do not charge an ‘intellectual copyright’ fee, or whatever else it may be called.
The equipment is covered by a standard 12 month warranty after which spares and servicing are supplied at a modest rate. We do not offer long-term ‘warranty contracts’ which actually cost you more to set up than to actually have the equipment repaired. Keep it simple, we say.
We operate a quick turnaround for parts returned to base. However, there is very little to go wrong on the guns and vests, and any printed circuit board can be changed by an unskilled operator within a few minutes. Full technical back-up is of course available.
There may also be software revisions available from time to time which are generally free of charge and can be programmed directly into the gun in only 10 seconds using the Programming Port.
IR (Infra-red) is used to pass data between phasers and vests. The laser in the phaser is in line with and used to sight the IR. This is the long established method of operation. The alternative is to use a modulated laser and do away with the IR. The two main reasons given for using modulated lasers are that -
a) This is a more reliable method. This is a nonsense – in fact, a laser is statistically far more likely to fail than an IR diode.
b) improved accuracy. This is on the basis that a laser beam is only a millimetre or two in diameter. What this actually means is that the player has to aim with far more precision than a fast, active game like Laser Tag will allow, which in turn leads to immense frustration in the less-skilled or younger players and loss in repeat business.
Never
forget:
Your customers are there first and foremost to have fun.
Therefore, the IR in our guns is channelled to give a beam narrow enough to not make scoring too easy, but also wide enough that you stand a chance of hitting someone whilst moving or at a distance. This is, after all, not a military training exercise!
Why don’t you use modulated lasers instead of IR?
It is easier and simpler to modulate the laser beam rather than use an additional IR emitter. The problem, as mentioned above, is that the laser beam has to hit the sensor area of the vest very, very accurately, and no matter what method of sensing you use, the shooter has to be able to more or less pinpoint places on his/her target.
We conducted tests with modulated lasers and found that, since Laser tag is a fast moving game (at least ours is!), players could easily become frustrated with the effort required to make a hit on another player. So, that’s it. IR works, it has been around a long time.
Note: We do use modulated laser beams in our ‘Mission Impossible’ maze game.
How reliable is the equipment?
We have 15 years experience in this business and have seen what can and does go wrong. We know what works and what doesn't. Unlike any other laser tag manufacturer we know of, we think we are alone in that all manufacturing is done in house. We do not sub-contract any stage of the manufacturing process, whether it be the phaser moulding, the electronics or whatever. More than 30 years of experience in broad-range electronics design, not just Laser Tag, has given us a variety of skills that other suppliers would be hard put to match.
So we build a product to the highest possible standard, in a manner that we have learned over the years to be the best way to build it.
It would be foolhardy to suggest that accidents never happen to equipment and so equal emphasis is given to serviceability. There is no part in the equipment that cannot be changed by an unskilled person within ten minutes or so.
Quite simply, we are manufacturers first and foremost; we are not just a sales company who buys in a product from sub-contactors. We make, on our own premises, all of the equipment using in-house facilities. Part of the cost savings are because there are no middleman costs and because LaserVenture products benefit from the volume buying capabilities of Sequoia Developments.
Tell me more about the Mini-Bases.
This highly versatile unit performs a variety of functions (listed below), all of which enhance the arena in one way or another. Operation can be by variable auto-timer, or by external trigger. The Mini-Base can be used in conjunction with full-size ‘Alien Monster’ or ‘Robot’ graphics in order to create inter-active targets.
• Three types of mine – Wildcard, Fatal Mine and TimeKiller.
• Recharge Station – re-energises a ‘dead’ player.
• Various levels of lives and shots top-up.
• Quarantine – Rowdy player? Zap him and he has to wait by the Mini-Base until his sentence is up (30 seconds, say).
• Shoot-Em-Up – When energised, hit this target to trigger sound and lighting effects.
Will I need planning/zoning permission?
Obviously you must check with your local office, but Laser Tag is not generally subject to special restrictions. Whether planning permission is required will depend on the existing status of the venue. The normal provisions need to be made for fire exits, emergency lighting and so on, as you would need to do no matter what you were using the premises for.
What is the smallest floor area I could use?
We can make you a workable single level arena down to 1000 sq feet (93sq m). At this low size end of the scale the price per square metre would rise, because the matrix of the maze would reduce from 1300mm to 950mm to enable more panelling to be fitted into the smaller space. Have you a small site? If so, let us have details and we will prepare of proposal for you.
What is the largest area I could have?
In principle there is no limit, and of course you can introduce changing themes and levels throughout, maximising interest. What you need to consider is what would be the best size to suit the demographics for your area. You need to carefully estimate the potential client base and thus the number of phasers that would be a practical proposition. This will decide the maximum sensible size for the arena. Make it too large and a small number of players will rarely encounter each other, and they risk tiring quickly because of the amount of ground they need to cover. If in doubt let us have details of your propsed location and we can do the estimates for you.
We can always build a slightly smaller arena allowing the remaining space to be used for our other money making equipment, such as the 'Mission Impossible' laser game!
Why is the phaser called "The Dog"?
We will let you know when you buy a system from us!
