When Michel Poirier was looking for an industry to get into that combined both his and his son’s talents—they are an electronics engineering technologist and an animator, respectively—one field stood out from the rest: laser projections.
“I looked around on the Internet and I found, mostly in Europe and Asia and the States, there are a lot of these laser operators all over the world and they conduct these laser shows,” Poirier explained. “I thought this was an interesting field and I thought we could possibly bring something like that to the Sault.”
His company, Northern Lights, which has been operating out of the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre for about a year, creates custom laser-projected advertising and animated shows for businesses, non-profit organizations, trade shows and other events.
The company is best known for its work at this year’s Bon Soo, Sault Ste. Marie’s popular winter carnival, where it projected laser images against a backdrop during the opening ceremonies at Roberta Bondar Pavilion. Next summer, the company will project an animated laser show right onto the ski hill at Searchmont Resort.
Poirier uses licensed software from Florida-based company Pangolin to create the shows, and prices depend on the complexity of the creation. To reduce costs, Poirier will usually suggest clients choose from a variety of existing clip art that can be animated through the software.
For a customized approach, Poirier and his team can create a show from scratch to fulfill their clients’ wishes, whether it’s for a beam show or an animated show.
“If you have sponsors, you want to acknowledge sponsors, right? That's the perfect medium to do that,” Poirier suggested. “We will flash your sponsor up there with your logo. Whatever you want to acknowledge, we will do it, during trade shows or conventions.”
Michel and Karen Poirier of Sault Ste. Marie can create customized laser shows that advertise businesses, acknowledge sponsors and create animated stories through their new business, Northern Lights.
He’s also playing with the idea of storytelling, creating interactive storyboards that project an animation, accompanied by the audio, to tell a story. The show would pause at certain junctures in the story, encouraging interaction by the children.
Business has been a bit slow in his home city, largely because of a quirky council bylaw that places a moratorium on digital signage, under which laser technology falls. The reasoning, Poirier said, is concern that laser-beamed images would be a distraction to traffic.
The city has agreed to proceed cautiously, assessing each request on a case-by-case basis, while simultaneously working to rectify the situation. Poirier is optimistic the ban will be lifted by the fall.
“It’s a new technology and the city has been working to upgrade their bylaw because it was outdated,” he said. “So they’re trying to come up with a new bylaw that really accommodates the different technologies, be it the LED-type digital signage or the laser-projected advertising.”
Poirier is looking to serve communities beyond Sault Ste. Marie, since there aren’t, to his knowledge, businesses like this offering similar services in Northern Ontario.
He’s also teaming up on a pilot project with the Art Gallery of Algoma to offer week-long workshops that would teach others to use the software. Participants would have access to Northern Lights’ servers for up to a year, on which they can create and store their own creations, essentially operating as freelance artists.
Acting as their “art dealer,” Northern Lights would then try to sell their animations to various markets such as planetariums or museums that use the technology. The company would collect a commission fee based on the sale.
If the pilot project is successful, other art galleries in Thunder Bay and Sudbury have expressed their interest in coming on board as well.
Poirier currently works with one intern, a graduate of the graphic arts program at Sault College, and he’s enthusiastic about engaging college students and bringing on more employees as the business grows. He also plans to invest in more equipment like a fog machine, to really create that “wow” factor.
“Regardless of if it's a large event or a small event, we do it all,” Poirier said.
