How It Works

Unlike traditional holiday lights that only twinkle or are in a "static" on mode, lights in this display feature greater control. That control comes as a result of hardware and software working together to control the lights.

Start Your Own Display

Interested in learning more or starting your own display? Check out this helpful information to get you started.

Software

Each song, known as a sequence, is programmed in a software that is able to communicate with the hardware controllers. Generally each song is cued in intervals of 0.1 seconds. That means a 3 minute song has 1,800 cues that need to be written. Each tenth of a second, we must tell the software which lights we want on, which lights we want off, which lights need to twinkle or be a different color, et cetera. Once the song is cued, it the sequence file is loaded into another program that generates a show.

A show is a series of sequences either arranged in order or set to play randomly. Between each sequence we can add a delay. In this display there is a 3 second delay between each sequence. Once the sequences are arranged and the settings are configured, we generate the show file. Once the show file is generated, it is loaded into a show scheduler software.

The show scheduler software allows you to schedule what time the show(s) need to start and stop. For the purposes of this display, there is one show file that is set to run from 6:00 PM and stop around 10:30 PM. The system is intelligent enough to know not to just stop the show at 10:30 PM if playback is in the middle of a sequence. The system will wait until that sequence is completed and then not load the next one. This will conclude the show for that evening.

Hardware

There are various types of hardware used in this display: 12V LED lights, incandescent lights, LED lights, Par 38 lamps, extension cords, USB to ethernet adapter, ethernet cable, LED communication cable, metal stakes, PVC pipe, gutter clips, a 16-channel controller, and a 4-channel LED controller.

These pieces work together to convert the signal from the playback computer into a signal the two controllers can understand. The extension cords and communication cables then link everything together to tell the lights how to behave during sequence playback.

Whether the light connected to the controller is incandescent or is a smart RGB LED will determine which controller the strand is connected to and what type of cables are used to connect the strand to the controller.

The display does not require special power – standard 120V, 20A, single-phase power is able to power the whole display!

To get the music to your car radio, a miniature FM radio transmitter is connected to the headphone port on the playback computer. The audio is then broadcasted in approximately a 300' radius around the display on 103.5 FM