Rolling into the Christmas season

With only 18 days until the Christmas lights are switched on, I have updated The Lights On Townley website. I'll be updating it one more time this year once everything is set up in order to post new photos, videos, and trivia details about the show. We look forward to you visiting us. The show begins Thanksgiving night, November 25th and continues through the Sunday following New Years Day, January 2nd.

In the works for 2010

We're over halfway through 2010, so what's in the works for this year's show at The Lights On Townley?
This year, the show will feature:

• Approx 15,000 LED Christmas lights.
• 9 Light-O-Rama CTB16PC controllers (144 channels)
• A play list of 9 songs, putting the show length at 30 minutes
• A 15' Mega-Tree split into two tiers
• 12 Mini-Trees
• 5 Color-changing Light Poles
• Lighted Abstract Nativity
• Kneeling Santa
• Bethlehem Star on the roof - blinks Morse code during one song
  
• Red, Green and Blue Arches
• Synchronized video projected in front windows during selected songs

2009 Christmas light show is coming to a close

This has been a wonderful 2009 Christmas season with The Lights On Townley! It is a new year, and we're in the last few minutes of the final show at the time I'm writing this. This has been a very fun way for us to meet other people in our neighborhood. Pray that God will continue to help us reach out and be a blessing to those around us.

We have been thinking of several ideas to incorporate into the Christmas 2010 show: Expanding existing elements, Adding more lights, Adding more channels, Changing the song play list, etc.

2010 will be a terrific year for us in several ways: We are starting a new growth project with McGinnis Mall; We want to increase our donations to the causes/people we currently support; We'll be taking more trips up to the property (after it warms up a bit, of course!); and unbelievably, Hannah will be starting High School in less than a year!

The show begins tomorrow.

This week has been major crunch time for getting the show completed and ready to switch on Thanksgiving evening. While I'm writing this entry, I'm finishing up the video rendering on another computer. Things are coming together for a successful launch; however at the beginning of this week I encountered a very rough set back. One of the hard drives that make up the RAID-0 stripe set on my video editing computer failed. So, video editing was interrupted for a full day while I had to troubleshoot that problem and finally re-stripe the good hard drives and reload data from the backup. The good news is everything is now back in good working order and I was able to finally continue with the video editing.

I also discovered that the Light-O-Rama DC-MP3 Director inserts a small amount of time between each sequence it plays, so keeping the video in sync with the lights was not the easiest thing to accomplish; so much so that I had to slightly alter my approach to synchronization.

I use a NewTek VT3 Video Toaster to run the video with the lights. (Yes, I know that Light-O-Rama will handle playing a video file as its audio source.) ...I always have to make things more complex - ONE video wasn't enough. I wanted TWO separate videos to run simultaneously, both synchronized to the lights and music. A special interface was built for Light-O-Rama to "talk" to the Video Toaster. Really, it was a no-brainer... The Toaster could accept a GPI trigger to signal a transition. The interface is simply a relay. When power is supplied to the Light-O-Rama channel assigned to the Toaster, the relay trips closing the contacts for the GPI trigger. But a small amount of programming and careful setup was necessary to get an automated process to work correctly. Considering that I have the SX-8, not the SX-84 means that the only video output is PGM out. So how did I manage two separate video out content? ...there are ways! My Toaster setup includes dual monitor configuration with an NVidia MX440. I set up my second monitor as a full-screen Preview Monitor. The key is that I have a VGA to NTSC video encoder hooked up to that output. So I project Preview content in one of my windows and Program content in the other window.

Now the challenge of getting two videos to start simultaneously and place one of them on the Program Bus and the other on the Preview Bus. The trick is a little bit of programming in ToasterScript combined with a plan of execution in the switcher setup. I openned 12 DDRs and put them on the switcher inputs 1 thru 12. The content of DDR1 is for Preview. the content of DDR2 is for Program. However, the only way to auto-start a DDR with Cue-In is to transition it to Program. DDR1 is put on Preview and transitioned to Program with a simultaneous transition of DDR2 on DSK. Immediately following the transition, I place DDR1 on the Preview Bus. DDR3 is set up with Black, so at the end of the sequence, the Toaster is signalled again and it places DDR3 on both Preview and Program. I broke up the video into 4 segments to help with the synchronization; that's why I set up 12 DDRs. Through ToasterScript programming, I was able to "walk-thru" the DDRs at the appropriate occasions.

Only 10 more days

Things have gotten so busy I've not really had a good opportunity to post updates lately. The nativity is the only element still under construction. All the mini trees are done, the arches are done, the faux poles are done, the stars are done, the sign is done. All light controllers have been built. All lights (except for the nativity) have been put up outside and powered by the light controllers. The spider box is in place and cabled up supplying power to the controllers. The transmitters are in place and working. A number of test-runs have been performed (and will continue until fully ready for Thanksgiving evening.) One of two video projectors have been set up. It turns out there is a very small lag between songs as the DC-MP3 unit performs the sequences. Normally, you wouldn't be aware of it; but when synchronizing video in the show, it becomes apparent after a few songs. So I'll have to account for that during my video editing.

Preparations continue

Lights have now been clipped onto the Bethlehem star and the Mega Tree-Topper star. During the clipping I discovered that one of the LEDs was missing both the light-body and lens. The LED with it's bare wires was simply soldered in the line, looking rather goofy without the molded plastic body and lens. At this point in my clipping process, I had to find a way to make it work for me. Just a week earlier, I had purchased a small pack of heat-shrink tubing for another piece of the Christmas project. So, with electrical tape, the heat-shrink tubing, and a little finesse, I created my own light-body which could then be clipped to the star frame and secured in place with a zip tie. I doubt anyone without knowledge of the missing lens would notice. For those that read this blog, this can be a fun challenge for you to find this unique LED when you come to see the show.

My brother, Miles helped me wrap a couple more Mini Trees. Only two left to go now.

My daughter, Hannah helped me wrap the last of the arches. Blue now joins red and green. I also found a picture I took of D.O.G. "helping" me with the red arch.

If things weren't in high gear before, they certainly are now!

I figured it was time to post another update. Things are very busy now (as if they weren't before??)! This post should catch everybody up to where things stand at this point.

Several weeks ago, I ordered some book from Barnes & Noble on behalf of my brother who lives in the boonies. When that package arrived, there was an advertising flier included for ordering printed material from Vistaprint. Deep discounts and Free offers caught my attention, so I ordered 500 business cards to promote our light display. Since that time, I've received a limited time promotional offer from them for several free products. So, I'm working at deciding exactly what I want.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the LED lights arrived from LED Holiday Lighting. To save on shipping costs, William and I and one other person formed a group shipment delivered to one address. In the end, LED Holiday Lighting wound up making a number of mistakes. They shipped the other guy's lights separately to his own address; Wrong amounts were charged to credit cards; Some light strings were mis-picked (wrong item shipped); And some strings were missing entirely from the shipment. Then we found out that Travis (of LED Holiday Lighting) was diagnosed having H1N1 (Swine) Flu. I am pleased to announce that the credit card charges have all been corrected and a shipment is scheduled to arrive Tuesday having the corrections to the orders.

I've sorted and labeled all the lights I've received so far, identifying the string count and the string's purpose within the display.

On facebook, I have commented on several occasions my progress on building extension cords, wrapping arches and mini trees, eating peach pie, etc. Here are a few pictures of some of the finished items. All of the extension cords are done. I have one more arch (the blue one) yet to wrap. I have four more mini trees to wrap, and the peach pie was delicious!

I started work on building the Nativity scene. 3/4" ACX Plywood is Expensive! But it is all worth it! Last night I transfered the pattern to the plywood with black graphite transfer paper and cut out the overall shapes. There's still a lot more work to do on them: more cuts to make, 420 holes to drill, lots of sanding, painting and attaching lights!

I bought the parts, and William wired up a GPI trigger interface for me. This device will trigger the synchronized start of the video elements in the show.

The light sequencing... oh, the light sequencing. At the start of this project, I chose 18 songs for the light show and declared that I was either crazy or extremely ambitious. I am sticking to that statement! I have 3 and a half more songs to program light sequencing.

Like I said, if things weren't in high gear before, they certainly are now!