In April 2015 we decided to expand our indoor paintball facility in Downtown Edmonton by opening a laser tag facility in the same building. It seemed like a natural expansion as we were already experienced in providing great events for special occasions (birthdays, stags, corporate events, etc) and laser tag would allow us to reach a wider audience of both younger players and also those who simply don’t want to play paintball.

Curiously, Edmonton is home to one of the original manufacturers of laser tag equipment,

so we naturally reached out to them and they came and demo’d their equipment for us. We were slightly surprised as to how “old school” it was. We were starting to wonder if anything had changed in the laser tag business since we were kids playing it 20 years ago, as the equipment seemed like the same stuff we remembered from back then!

After that initial experience, it was onto the internet to learn more! We quickly found a couple of equipment suppliers who clearly had updated their offerings in the last 20 years, and reached out to them.

It didn’t take long to decide that Laserforce was the way to go.

While pricing was competitive, it was the fringe benefits that sold us. Because the North America distributor operates a large and successful laser tag facility in Colorado, they were able to talk to us about much more than just the equipment. They spent a lot of time helping us to understand the business and operation of a laser tag facility, as well as design considerations. This was invaluable.

Obviously being involved in operating facilities, the equipment had many features that an operator would ask for. Seemingly simple things like requiring two hands to be on the phaser (dramatically reduces equipment damage), to more obvious things like having extremely robust and reliable construction.

We purchased a 24-vest system, and had it installed in our new facility. Doug, the installer, was amazing. He was given plenty of time for his trip to the Cold North, and spent that time showing us the ins-and-outs of the system, as well as professionally installing it, making the effort to do the things that would make it much more reliable.

It didn’t take long for us to realize we were on to something good,

so we opened a second facility in Calgary, Alberta (3 hours away) 2 years later. We took what we learnt from the first facility, and made a much larger 2-level arena and purchased a 38-vest system for that facility. Again, Doug came up and installed it for us, and was awesome again.

We now have two locations in Alberta, both powered by Laserforce, and own over 80 vests. In both our facilities we have Bases and Beacons, and we’re exploring adding more of the interactive elements Laserforce offers.

Throughout our Laserforce experience, they’ve always been available to us when we’ve needed help (even though most of the help we’ve needed has been because of our mistakes!). We can phone or email them anytime and get in touch with someone who clearly knows what they’re talking about and has probably experienced whatever issue we’ve caused for ourselves, and knows how to help.

The equipment itself is clearly a product of many iterations, as some of the design features are ingenious. When things do need fixing or replacing (players abuse the crap out of it!), it’s easy to work on and parts are readily available.

We’re going to be opening more locations in the coming years, and Laserforce will continue to be a part of those, as why stop a good thing?

If you’re considering opening a facility, or looking to replace some equipment, you can’t go wrong with Laserforce. If you have any questions during your discovery journey, both about Laserforce or about operating a facility, feel free to get in touch with me – or visit our website to learn more about Laser City Laser Tag!