Christmas Lights Timed To Music

Kudos for the show, and the cause by tufguysf, 1166932791 Report sent Spam Reply [+3]

I took my friends to see your home last night. They were simply astounded! As a local resident, I have to say that to watch the show "live" is the only way to really get the full effect of how much effort you have put into this. And, as a cancer survivor I applaud your donations (and matching mine) for St. Judes. My partner and I are bringing the parents up to see your home on Christmas evening after dinner. I hope you will be having 'performances' on that night.
thank you very much for sharing your talent!

• Our Dedicated Message Board by GoldRecord, 1192743806 Report sent Spam Reply

  Last year we got 1,200 emails that we could not answer, and most of them were to ask questions about the technology or the web site.
  
  This year we set up an information bulletin board that contains much detailed information. You can post comments or ask questions there since I rarely come into this message display.
  
  Please see the site at "MagicLightShow.com" for the bulletin board and its link to the detailed info site.
• Wonderful News to HEar by GoldRecord, 1166985416 Report sent Spam Reply

  Ah! Now messages like yours are the ones we like to see. Some occasional posters are missing the real purpose of our effort with their odd comments.... warranting an odd reply ;-) This is not a popularity contest.
  
  Yes, seeing it in person is really the experience you need because night time videos and limited camera views don't show all of the detail. In person, you hear all of the songs on our private FM radio station, hear the narrations, get updates on donations, and see the varied light patterns.
  
  Yes, shows continue to run. The last one will be New Year's Eve. Show times have been extended until 10:30 pm because traffic is really backup up at times. Coming before 6:30 or after 9:30 is best. We provide free hot cider and candy canes on most nights until it runs out each evening.
  
  Great that you are a cancer survivor. We want young children to have the same opportunity that you have, instead of knowing nothing but suffering all their lives. Fortunately, St. Jude has a high rate of success, and as you know, they never turn away a family because of inability to pay for their child's treatement.
  
  Merry Christmas from us.
  
• Merry Christmas to you and your Family by tufguysf, 1167000187 Report sent Spam Reply

  Thanks, and all the best to you and your family

Very, very creative! by loveblue, 1166020209 Report sent Spam Reply [+3]

Just wanted to say great, great job from a fellow San Ramon resident. Your home looks stunning (Old Ranch developers realized how important curb appeal is), the display and music is great and you're doing it for a worthy cause to boot. Hope you raise tons of money for the cause. Have a great holiday season!

• Much Thanks by GoldRecord, 1166039715 Report sent Spam Reply

  The comments are greatly appreciated. However, if you have any ideas for improvement, let me know.
  

SO VERY COOL! by volfan615, 1165529409 Report sent Spam Reply [+2]

Great job, Glen! We enjoyed the video...can you come to TN and do our house?

• I'm tired after doing all of this. by GoldRecord, 1165530466 Report sent Spam Reply [+2]

  Well I think you are kidding ;-) This display cost $3,000 and many hours to create the timing sequences. This is solely for the pupose of raising money for St. Jude Childrens' hospital. Thanks for the comments.
• Don't have extra 100 hours for neice?! by volfan615, 1165626675 Report sent Spam Reply [+1]

  Yes, I was kidding. I can't believe you don't have any extra time on your hands!! I think it's great what you are doing for St Jude. I've sent this to all my friends, so hopefully they will all vote! Love you! ~~T.
• JUST INCREDIBLE!!! by Mel G, 1165534945 Report sent Spam Reply

  hey dude, great amazing job, let me tell you that i saw this in the news a few months ago, and i said, "damn, this guy is freaking amazing, he is really creative" and that's true...
  now i'm very grateful cause i can tell you that... and you will read it! thanks bro, that's the best thing about chrismas i've seen!!
• Thanks for the compliments by GoldRecord, 1165538924 Report sent Spam Reply

  Well, these videos travel very fast across the internet at this time of year. I'm just pleased that lots of people will view the video and pass along the link to their friends so we can support this very important charity.

thats the best ive ever seen by avalanche111, 1172612683 Report sent Spam Reply [+1]

wow, that is just amazin, fair play to you for taking the time and enegry to do this you deserve a pat on the back, and for such a good cause. greetings and keep up the good work from the west of ireland xxx

funny by EvilWarPie, 1166148901 Report sent Spam Reply [+1]

watch it without sound and try to guess the song in your head

• Who could guess by GoldRecord, 1166215778 Report sent Spam Reply

  Funny idea. As I drive home at night, I play that game. Guessing which song is playing in our sequence. Of course it is pretty easy for me to do :-)

damn by docdnight, 1165570985 Report sent Spam Reply [+1]

i love tso now i want to do that to my house thanx for postin it here and you have to tell me how long and where did you get the stuff to do it

• TSO (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) by GoldRecord, 1165595778 Report sent Spam Reply [+2]

  This is probably a good time to mention TSO as I see you are knowledgeable as to who made that music. If you like this type of unusual Christmas rock music, then you should buy one of TSO's albums. "Wizards of Winter" is also a popular favorite that is used for a music sequence. It took over 10 hours during summer weekends for me to choreograph and sequence just this one song for this video (a fun hobby). Obviously people are becoming more familiar with TSO's music through videos like this. I created two other sequences to their songs, but have not posted them on any web site. All together, I created 19 sequences over the last couple of years but only show 6 at the house in order to not keep traffic hanging around to long in the streets and causing conjestion.
  
  I will be glad to tell you what is required to do this and how to assemble the equipment, but be forewarned, you are going to need at least $2500 and probably 100 hours of time to do it right and create the layout you want. Then it will take another 15 hours each year to set up your display. The thing is that I don't want to list my email address here because last year I was overwhelmed with thousands of emails, and unfortunately many of those people remembered what I used to do for a living long ago and are still hounding me today to get rock n' roll souveniers. So you need to figure out how to get your contact information to me. Also, I hope you will do as us... and donate any "drive-by" donations to a good charity. You will be surprised how much you could collect. I will post more info in another posting below.
• TSO by theasscrackyourpant, 1166149278 Report sent Spam Reply [+1]

  TSO (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) [ 1 good ]
  This is probably a good time to mention TSO as I see you are knowledgeable as to who made that music. If you like this type of unusual Christmas rock music, then you should buy one of TSO's albums. "Wizards of Winter" is also a popular favorite that is used for a music sequence. It took over 10 hours during summer weekends for me to choreograph and sequence just this one song for this video (a fun hobby). Obviously people are becoming more familiar with TSO's music through videos like this. I created two other sequences to their songs, but have not posted them on any web site. All together, I created 19 sequences over the last couple of years but only show 6 at the house in order to not keep traffic hanging around to long in the streets and causing conjestion.
  
  I will be glad to tell you what is required to do this and how to assemble the equipment, but be forewarned, you are going to need at least $2500 and probably 100 hours of time to do it right and create the layout you want. Then it will take another 15 hours each year to set up your display. The thing is that I don't want to list my email address here because last year I was overwhelmed with thousands of emails, and unfortunately many of those people remembered what I used to do for a living long ago and are still hounding me today to get rock n' roll souveniers. So you need to figure out how to get your contact information to me. Also, I hope you will do as us... and donate any "drive-by" donations to a good charity. You will be surprised how much you could collect. I will post more info in another posting below.
  by ‎GoldRecord , 8th December reply / moderate 927771

uhhh by get@me, 1165560321 Report sent Spam Reply [+1]

how original...(roll eyes)... never seen anyone do this before.

• No Really New Stuff by GoldRecord, 1165596076 Report sent Spam Reply

  Thanks, but this is not real new stuff. Several of us hobbyists have been doing this for a few years now. It is getting more popular now that people see the videos travelling across the internet. About 4 other of my Pink Floyd friends are also doing this in various parts of the world. The original parts about this is that everyone tends to choreograph and sequence their own music and of course the layout of lights are different.
  
  Cheers,
  RH

Awesome Show of Lights by pgorzny, 1198656138 Report sent Spam Reply

Magical... I can not imagine the hours it takes to create such a beautiful display. Wish I could see it in person! The reason for the season with all the beauty and for such a good cause. Thank you for sharing it!

Thanks for the Comments and Compliments by GoldRecord, 1166985796 Report sent Spam Reply

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment. This is not about trying to be the best. It's about raising money for a good cause and doing something that we like.

Contact Information by GoldRecord, 1165816317 Report sent Spam Reply

A few people haave suggested that I put some contract information.

To answer inquiries, a direct email address was established just for this purpose. Depending on the volume of email, replies to everyone might not be possible. For anyone interested in helping to promote our charitable cause, match contributions, donate to it, want to use it for publicity, or simply send your remarks, contact "LIGHTS-OF-HOPE" at SturdyLink.com

Details about how this is done by GoldRecord, 1165599294 Report sent Spam Reply

Some people emailed to ask for more information about this video. I'll mention a general idea here. If you want more info about how to do it and set it up, leave a way for me to contact you and I'lll send more info. It's far too much to post.

To control the lights, there are 5 control boxes (the size of a large bread box) in various locations outside the house. Each box cost about $350 and controls 16 separate light circuits. One circuit can control one or more strings of lights (3,000 watts total if needed). My setup controls 80 channels (80 separate circuits). There are 100 light strings containing about 7,000 bulbs. Most are LED lights. They are more rugid and last for years.

Control information is sent to each box by a wireless signal from a computer in the house. You can run a wire out to the boxes, but it is more cumbersome. A software program runs on the computer and determines when each show starts, how long it last, and which songs to play. The software plays standard music file formats and sends signals to controllers that time the lights to music.

Here is the tricky part. This does not just happen automatically. Each song must be choreographed in advance by using the software to time the lights to match beats and instruments of each song. You can control each set of lights to set any level of brightness at any time. Often it requires timing the lights down to thousands of a second. The program can be used by anyone with good computer skills, but you don't have to be a programmer. My rule is that it takes about 2 hours of design time to sequence one minute of music. So the video you see here (3 minutes) took 6 hours to create timing for the lights. Of course, once you do it, you have it forever and can share it with people that have similar equipment.

You need to get music out to the street. To not bother my neighbors by blasting music every night, I use an FM transmitter (mine cost about $300). It connects to speaker outputs of the computer and transmitts stereo sound out on 95.5 FM. People driving by the house in their cars can hear music by tuning in on the car radio. A sign on the lawn mentions the frequency.

For good measure, there are security cameras. I use ones already installed around the house. This is a great neighborhood and crime never happens, but just to be sure, cameras are pointed at various parts of the house and constantly recording. The twist is that whenever anyone touches the lock box to insert a donation or touches any controller, the cameras zoom in on that area and take high resolution photos. At the same time, photos are taken of cars on the street.

Everyone thinks the electric bill must be huge. No, since lights blink and aren't on constantly, the use less electricity. Also, LED lights use 1/5 the amount of typical lights.

PLEASE, no comments about personally ide... by GoldRecord, 1165596472 Report sent Spam Reply

Friends and colleagues, Please don't use my personally identifiable information in your postings. I already get far too much contact over this stuff. The goal here is to support a charity, not create a fan club. Leave names and other info out of postings.

Last year, I had to change my email address after a friends slipped it out. I got 12,000 emails in one week and had to just delete them all.

Excellent! by momcann, 1165524995 Report sent Spam Reply

Excellent! Great Job
thank you

Awesome! by pavlinaz, 1165520759 Report sent Spam Reply

This is a wonderful video - great job Glen! And what a thoughtful cause. Thank you!

TSO by jd96039, 1167191779 Report sent Spam Reply [-1]

Ifyou ever get the chance to see TSO live, GO!!!!! One of the very best concerts I have ever seen. P.S. THANK YOU for posting

THAT WAS TOP by hazeydaze, 1166149038 Report sent Spam Reply [-1]

WELL DONE MATE THATS THE SPIRIT HO HO HO TYPE HAZEYDAZE INTO THE SEARCH BAR AND LISTEN TO MY MUSIC AND PLEASE CAN YOU COMENT HAPPY CHRISTMAS