Can your Christmas Lights do this?

[Mike6158]

I guess he synch'd it to The Trans Siberian Orchestra

[philba]

glad I don't live next to him. what ever happened to "Silent Night"?

[plunt]

That is way cool, thank you for sharing!

[jwax]

What a WOP*!


* "Waste Of Power"

[jollyrgr]

I wonder if this will turn out to be a PHOTOSHOP simulation? Last year some guy setup a web site that supposedly let visitors control his Christmas lights. It was an outright lie and he got busted for it.

[Dave Dixon]

Below is a link to more information. It even has links to instructions on how to do it yourself, and a link to another video of the same house synched to different music! Philba - he was considerate enough to broadcast the music on a low power FM transmitter, so people driving by could "tune in". That still wouldn't stop some kid with high power amps/subwoofers from ruining the "silent night" though! Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to all.
Dave
Christmas light information

[philba]

actually, its the lights and people that it attracts that would bug me. I had a friend that lived on a street called "candy cane lane" at christmas. many of the houses put on big light shows. he had to deal with a traffic jam in front of his house from thanksgiving until christmas. lots of trash and people tromping through his flower beds. some guy drove across his lawn. he moved.

hey, I'm no grinch, I love christmas but not the crass, commercial, wired up, over-hyped, materialistic one we seem to glorify in.

<small>[ December 02, 2005, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: philba ]</small>

[Mike6158]

I just liked the technical aspect of synching lights to orchestra music...

[dacflyer]

OOOOooooo Awwwwwww Flashy !(mezmorised)
i'd love to see that light controller. :p
and i thought my professional color organ was a sight with all that it could do...

[Mike6158]

Look up a couple of posts. Dave Dixon posted a link to the Snopes. It's a real display and Snopes has links to the controller mfg. The software is free. The hardware... isn't

[zotdoc]

Look up ComputerChristmas.com. It has a lot of info on this and info on home made controllers. I'm thinking of doing something like this for an outdoor store display!

[philba]

You might also check out el-wire. It's pretty cool stuff.

[Michael Kaudze]

http://media.putfile.com/Wizards-in-Winter40

Another Xmas display. Same music but different creator.

[kheston]

I think it's cool, personally. If I were his neighbor, I'd try to one-up him.

Speaking of which, did he HAVE to spend all that money with LOR or can dimmer packs be built on the cheap?

[philba]

I went to a party yesterday (yeah, I do get out once in a while...) and the host was showing the first video. He claimed that the guy had to shut it down because there was an auto accident right in front of the house. Something about a dangerous nuisance. Don't know if it's true but it is believable.

Yeah, you can build a light controller fairly cheap. Lots of color organ schematics on the net. The trick is the communications scheme to handle more than a few. Probably some sort of multidrop serial (or snake a LOT of power cords). I think there is a yahoo group dedicated to theater tech that talks about this stuff. Here's one I've looked at before, its well done and would be a good place to start.

<small>[ December 12, 2005, 10:10 PM: Message edited by: philba ]</small>