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SCMP Reporter

Anyone who has been to the giant theme park in Seoul called Everland is likely to have seen a 30-metre wizard rise up out of the water.

During a recent trip to Australia, eight Hong Kong students visited the birthplace of the wizard, Laservision Macro=media, one of the world's leading organisers and designers of laser shows.

The company is located in a quiet scenic suburb about an hour's drive from Sydney.

On their arrival, the students were greeted by the founder and managing director of Laservision, Paul McCloskey.

Mr McCloskey, who insists he is 48 years 'young', lives next door to his company. 'When I think of something at two o'clock in the morning, I can come here [to the laboratory], put it together and see if it works,' he says.

'Perhaps it works. Perhaps it goes 'boom' and covers the lab in thick black smoke - we've had quite a number of those  - but then I have satisfied myself, and can crawl back into bed and sleep.'

Once Mr McCloskey sets himself a goal, nothing and no one can stop him. He once beamed a laser advertisement on to the Sydney Opera House because 'there was no law against the transmission of light'; and he quit studying engineering at university after a year because, in his words, 'they were teaching out-of-date technology'.

After university he spent six years in television production and developed a keen interest in entertainment technology. He began dreaming of laser shows, but the banks were reluctant to help.

'They had never heard of laser shows. So they asked if I could profile a few successful cases. But there was no such business around,' he says.

Frustrated, he spent the next five years installing hi-tech discos to save up enough money, while at the same time working on the technology needed for his business.

In 1984, Laservision opened with Mr McCloskey's patented laser beam control mechanism.

The next few years were not easy. 'I was raising a young family, building a house, the office and a business while doing the research and development.'

Laservision has since won three awards from the International Laser Display Association among others. The company ran its first show overseas in 1990, and now most of its business is outside Australia - 80 per cent of which is in Asia.

The company also made it into the Guinness Book Of Records  with what was called 'Australia's biggest party' in 1993, held to celebrate Sydney's victory in its bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games.

The moment the announcement was made, the words 'We Won' were beamed on to the Sydney Opera House, followed by a series of dazzling laser animations.

Backstage the workers heaved a collective sigh of relief. They had only prepared two programmes in the beaming machine: one for Sydney, and another saying 'Congratulations, Beijing'. If another city had won, they would have had problems.

'That would have meant trouble,' Mr McCloskey says. 'It would have taken at least half an hour to upload another [programme].'

Stressful as the business can be, Mr McCloskey enjoys his work, and with good reason.

'Since my business is basically attending the best parties around the world and getting paid for it, I get younger every day,' he says.



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