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Christmas Light Show 2017

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Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Chuck Engels » Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:35 pm

I am adding a few new props to my Christmas Light Show this year, a singing snowman and his background singing light bulbs. The snowman is 5 feet tall and about 3 feet wide, the light bulbs are 3 feet high and 2 feet wide. They each have 100's of LED lights. I program them to sing along with the music, open and close their eyes, and the snowman's hand position. Programming them to sing along with about a dozen songs this year. Here is an example of one song by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. Programming is done using the Light O Rama Sequence Editor, the example shown in the video is a Camtasia recording of the Light O Rama Visualizer. The Visualizer is a software reproduction of the lights in the show all displayed on the computer screen. I have other visualizer files that include all of the lights in the show, this one is just the snowman and light bulbs. Once I finish the entire production I will post some more samples :)

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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Dave McElderry » Sun Sep 24, 2017 2:54 am

This is really fun stuff Chuck! I don't know where you get the energy. I'd love to see this when it makes the transition to the real display. Great choice of music, too. :TU:
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Chuck Engels » Sun Sep 24, 2017 4:24 pm

I will be sure to post some footage from the actual display in a few months. I don't get to work on this often, only about 30 minutes or so a few days a week. I started programming songs back in May and only have about 7 done so far.
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby RJ Johnston » Sun Sep 24, 2017 5:06 pm

Wow!

Once you have the lights set up outside, how do you control the animation? What device do you connect the lights to? Where are the instructions?
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Chuck Engels » Sun Sep 24, 2017 5:36 pm

Hi RJ :)

Lots involved here but the basics are...

The lights are all connected to Light O Rama 16 channel light controllers. The snowman uses 9 channels and each light bulb uses 8 channels. There are multiple channels used for various mouth types, eyes open and closed, outline, snowman hands, etc. Below is a sample of the visualizer file that is used to program and view the lights when played in the sequencing software.

I use the Light O Rama software suite, see link below. The controllers connect to the computer through a Cat5 LAN cable and are daisy chained together. Even better are the pixel controllers where you can control a single bulb or LED Pixel. It is amazing what all can be done with a controller, computer and software.

http://www1.lightorama.com/

http://store.lightorama.com/sopr.html

LOR Sequence Editor.jpg


Visualizer.jpg
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Chuck Engels » Sun Sep 24, 2017 5:40 pm

Here is what the actual snowman looks like behind the scenes and when all lit up from the front :)

Not sure why they are sideways...

20170223_222120.jpg


20170223_225215.jpg
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Chuck Engels » Sun Sep 24, 2017 5:50 pm

Here is one song from last year's show, the snowman and light bulbs will be a great addition to the 2017 show. You will see 4 Light O Rama Cosmic Ribbons, they each are 16 feet long and have 150 controllable pixels. Each pixel can be on, off, or anywhere in between, each pixel can be one of 16 million colors. They can chase, flash or do pretty much anything you can think of. If you have enough cosmic ribbons close together, maybe 24, they will even reproduce a video file. All in all they are pretty amazing. I will be adding 3 new cosmic ribbons this year so there will be a total of 7.

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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby RJ Johnston » Mon Sep 25, 2017 12:54 am

Now, that is a production. Besides that, I'm speechless.
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Chuck Engels » Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:55 am

It's pretty small compared to some in the area. One of the largest light shows in Georgia is only a few miles from us. Here is a drone video they did, pretty cool :)

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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby RJ Johnston » Mon Sep 25, 2017 1:53 pm

Everybody trying to outdo the Griswold's.
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Dave McElderry » Mon Sep 25, 2017 1:59 pm

Be yourself; everyone else is taken.

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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby sidd finch » Mon Sep 25, 2017 2:20 pm

Chuck with all the effort you put in I hope you make time to enjoy the season too. I bet when your kids grow up the videos will be a fond memory to look back and enjoy.

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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Chuck Engels » Mon Sep 25, 2017 4:03 pm

Hi Sidd, It is a family event, including our 4 kids and all 7 grand kids. They all look forward to helping put up the display and then coming over to see the end result. We also host a neighborhood gathering twice during the season, once the first night the light show starts and then another just before Christmas. We have a fire pit, hot chocolate, smores and other goodies to share. It is a real hit in our subdivision and everyone looks forward to it. Believe me, I always enjoy the season :)
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby momoffduty » Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:51 pm

Wow, sounds complicated Chuck! Then there is the untangling of the lights :) Please post this years light show!
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Re: Christmas Light Show 2017

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:21 pm

Lights are rolled up very carefully every year, and they still get tangled :pull: All part of the fun :c1:
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