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We now have only

163 DAYS BEFORE THE LIGHTS GO ON

At this point, I have only a little over 40 hours expended toward this year’s Christmas Lights Display. That doesn’t count the time I stood out in front and visualized what things were going to look like. Or reading up on the many Christmas related forums. And as my friend Jim keeps reminding me, November will be here before we know it. So far:

• The voiceovers for the three elves, Jingle, Jangle and Elf Judy, has been written, but not yet recorded. Elf Judy was just added today.

• The playlist has been determined and includes:

• Introduction
• The Holidays Are Coming
• Wonderful Christmas Time
• Jingle Bells
• Carol of the Bells (mix)
• We Need A Little Christmas
• White Christmas
• Wizards of Winter
• We Wish You A Merry Christmas

• One frame for holding the coro has been completed and positioned on the roof to ensure it is sitting at the correct angle. Here is a picture of it:

• One song is in the sequencing mode, but not yet completed. Since adding Elf Judy to the cast of elves, I have to reconfigure the channel distribution. Not a biggie, but four of the channels that were assigned to Grounded Lights are now going to be used to power Elf Judy. Glad I didn’t have several songs sequenced at this point. See Jim, not being the fastest may have paid off.

More as things progress.

Is it May already? Where has time gone. And there are only

196 days or 28 weeks

until the 2008 version of our Animated Christmas Lights display is open to the public. While there has been a lot of head thinking since the unveiling of the 2007 show about this year’s show, the actual time spent on making it happen has been less than 25 hours. So I’ve got to get on the stick and do more to make it happen.

At this point, here are the anticipated changes to be included in this year’s display:

• Double the number of computerized channels used, from 80 to 160
• Add one controller that controls DC voltage which will power several MR-16 LEDs used as wall wash lights
• Add more lights. Not sure how many, but probably 10,000+.
• Reposition and reconfigure the mega-tree.
• Add 5 more mini-trees, bringing the total to 21. They too will be repositioned this year (or at least I have a picture of them in my head that I will have to test this summer)
• Make three animated figures, using coroplast (fluted polypropylene) and mini-lights. Two will be Jingle and Jangle, the two elves that stared in one of the shows last year, and the third of Santa. I envision these sitting on the roof.
• Reposition the angel and snowflakes
• Add more icicles on the house eve
• Reconfigure the red and white lights on the two oak trees
• Add ten grounded lights

Songs

The song selection hasn’t been determined at this point. I know how the opening will go and I’ve mixed five separate Carol of the Bells versions into one 5+ minute song. I’ll probably bring back Jingle Bells, since that has been a favorite the last two Christmases, but the rest is open. I do have several that are good candidates, but nothing definite.

Do you have any suggestions? What song or songs would you like to see included in this year’s display? Can’t promise anything, but any input would be appreciated.

That’s the latest. As new things happen, I’ll make more posts.

The lights are down and put away. We were lucky on the front end to have nice weather to put the lights up, and lucky on the back end taking them down. We did have to wait a few days after New Year’s Day for the snow to melt and the wind to calm down, but got it all done with Mary’s help.

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On November 20, we had a preview showing of the 2007 Christmas lights display for those on Fontana. We had about 50 people in attendance, on a crisp and windy night, and received positive feedback.

The lights went on Thanksgiving evening for the rest of the world, but not exactly when planned. I thought I had the controller programmed for on at 6 and off at 10:30. But at 5, Mary comes to me and tells me the light show has started. So I run out to the controller and take out the SD card to stop the show. Then I reset all the timers and sequences on the chip, so it is now coming on and going off when planned. Read the rest of the article »

The lights go on in 4 days, but there is still much to do.

Since the last post, all of the sequencing has been completed. Night two is comprised of five songs plus voiceovers and took only 24 hours to sequence. But the songs are shorter than for the first night. Reflections of Earth will be the opening number each night. Here is a list of the songs that you will be hearing and the length of each show:

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