Christmas Display (Off Topic)

[LaRue Medlin]

that is just tooooooooooooo cool!

 

[Travis Munday]

BillV-

That flashing light left of the house is the clearance light for a tower. Although usually at night the lights are red and are a slow fade, not white with a quick flash.



I'm not seeing any dropped frames or grass movement between frames, maybe the new link isn't as high of quality as the old one.



It also doesn't appear to be made of just single shots, the light fade in/out isn't the same as with flip-flop style stop frame animation. If it's not real, someone did a really good job at editing, and someone has lots of time to do it.

 

[Gavin Allan]

Here's some details and information:

 

[Nelson Atwell]

Tiger, I've seen those towers with the white flashing lights a few places around the country. I believe they are the new technology, which will eventually replace the old red lights we are used to seeing, at least in non-residential areas. They definitely show up a lot better than the red ones.



I included an article on the subject...see the link.

 

[Tom R]

It's real and was done by "Carson Williams of Mason, Ohio, who used 88 Light-O-Rama channels to control his 16,000 christmas lights." (From Snopes.com)



This is some of the type stuff we do daily at the company I work for. He was most likely using DMX protocol for the sequencing along with Midi time code referencing for the triggering and synchronization of the show. He put some time and effort into the programming, but it's not really that hard with the proper equipment at your disposal.



I saw the clip before I found out who did it & I know it is do-able. I guessed (pretty close) that it took about 90 DMX channels, and would take roughly 900-1200 individual steps within the 3 minute sequence shown. It would need to be triggered by the Midi time code reference step by step throughout the whole show. It would take hours to setup all the trigger points, but only has about 30-50 individual scenes that get bounced around to create the show.

I also found a glitch in his programming at the 02:06 mark, he inadvertently left one of the "P"s from "Happy Holidays" on, no big deal, but I caught it.



The kit that Rob T pointed out will not do everything he has going on in his show, that kit is only 16 channels that is already preprogrammed and doesn't allow you the access to reprogram individual steps, even though you can link more 16 channel boxes to it. The "Light-O-Rama" stuff used in the video cost him close to $1,800.00 not including the Christmas lights and other stuff like the ton of extension cords he had to run. I bet if you saw a daytime shot of his yard, it would look like a snakes nest, imagine 5 of these 16 channel packs and one more 8 channel pack all wired up to the strings of lights, lol.

Here's a link to another of his shows, more basic, but still impressive.

 

[brandon mena]

Wow, then I take it back. That's really something.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

What Tom R, said. It's real.



Furthermore, this VERY house and that VERY display was profiled on a segment, complete with an interview of the family on the Today show this AM (Dec 5) between the 7:30am and 8:00am EST slot.



Here are some of the facts I jotted down:



- They are the Williams family of Mason, Ohio (reportedly outside of Cinnci)



- Mr Williams is a computer engineer



- He first started with "simple" light automation from a PC after visting a website about eight years ago (reportedly www.planet-xmas.com...but that is now a card site, but it could now be www.planetchristmas.com)



- He upgraded three years ago to fulld audio support after visiting another site (www.christmaswonders.com).



- No speakers are involved, it is quiet. The sound is transmitted from a local FM transmitter to car radios.



- He has had no complaints from his neighbors



- His light bill is about $150 add'l each month that he runs the lights.



TJR

 

[Wes Davis]

Some more on this.