How much does your electric bill cost?
In 2021, we spent about $300 over our normal electrical bill to run the light show. The show ran from Thanksgiving through New Year.
How many days does it take to set up/take down?
Our light show takes approximately 5 days to set up and 2 days to take down. We rent a boom lift to place the second story lights on the house. My mom is terrified to fall off the ladder.
Where do you store it?
All of the props are stored in the attic and garage. Everything breaks down and is fairly convenient to store.
Where do you buy the props from?
The lights, power supply, and controller boards are sourced from the internet. All of the props (the structures the lights are pushed into) are made by our family. Most of the materials can be bought from Home Depot or Lowes.
How do you make the lights “dance” to the music?
We use a free open sourced software called Xlights (www.Xlights.org) to create the musical sequences and to set up the show.
What kind of lights are these?
Our Christmas lights are LED RGB pixels. Each bulb is composed of 3 light emitting diodes (LEDs) and contains a red, green, and blue LED. The amount of power administered to each LED determines the color. Each light is capable of 6 million color combinations.
How does the radio station work?
The music and show files are stored on single board computer called a Raspberry Pi. The audio files are sent through a FM transmitter. The transmitter uses available radio wave frequencies on the FM spectrum. This sound is pushed out over the airwaves and your car receives the sound, just like it does from the local radio station. We use available frequencies that are not being used in our area.
How long have you been doing this?
Our first official show was in 2020.
Is this a family project?
100%. My dad builds the props and the controller boxes. My mom helps with the networking and sequences the songs. I built and maintain the website. My little sister made our logo. We all help with song selections, pushing pixels and carrying the props to and from storage. This light show is something that we work on throughout the year.
Is that a TV in your display?
It’s an LED P5 panel and works off of the same principal as the rest of the lights. The P5 panels are small click together boards each containing 2048 pixels, which gives us the ability to show images or play video with better resolution. A single board computer stores the media content locally and keeps time with the rest of the show. Our P5 panel consists of 24 total panels (4×6) and there is a total of 49,152 pixels. Because of the amount of lights and how close together they are it gives the illusion of a TV, even though it isn’t. For comparison the big Christmas tree is a total of 3,200 pixels.