Computer Controlled Christmas Lights Set To Music

Mike Finley

(Yes, these are Christmas lights not holiday lights)

Enjoy.

MASON, Ohio (AP) - Some people at Christmas time are content to deck their homes with evergreen wreaths and holly, and maybe a few strings of lights made to look like glimmering icicles. Not Carson Williams.

He spends nearly two months hooking up 25,000 lights, then programs them to dance to Christmas music.
Hundreds of cars drive by his house north of Cincinnati every night to see the display, which also is posted on several Internet sites.

"So far, everyone's been really courteous," Williams said on NBC's "Today" show Monday. "I told the neighbors, I told the sheriff, if they get any complaints, I'll shut it down, because the neighbors are more important to me than the Christmas lights. I do the Christmas lights for myself."

This is the third year Williams has assembled the display, which grows every year. He said he merely built on a suggestion from his wife, Sherry.

"She wanted some lights on the house, and I work with computers, so I said, 'There's got to be a way to control it with computers,'" Williams said.

He explored the Web and found examples of other synchronized displays. It takes him about an hour to program each minute of the display, which flashes to music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

That doesn't mean neighbors have to listen to the sound track repeat itself all night.

"The sound, we actually broadcast on a low FM transmitter, so there's actually no sound in the neighborhood," said Williams, an electrical engineer with Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions.

A sign tells passers-by where to tune to listen, and Williams often stays outside for hours at a time chatting with visitors and directing traffic.

"We've had no problems," said Dave Hare, who lives across the street.

But the first year, it took some explaining.

"We called it the psycho house," said Hare's wife, Michelle. "It was just weird random flashes. Then, he told us about the radio station and it was great."


http://members.cox.net/transam57/lights.wmv


http://www.msftlabrat.com/funstuff/jingle.wmv

Tom R

Spoken like a true American.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

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CGofMP

Keepin up with the Jones in that neighborhood has to be a 24 karat bitch :-)

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Cole

For any of you interested:
http://www.lightorama.com/

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TimNJ

Back when I was in high school our Christmas tree lights were in sync with Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" or at least they looked that way after I came home from partying with my friends.

Cole

Classic.

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CGofMP

The theme from the Exorcist?!!?!?

Hahahahahahaha

Musta been quite a party!

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Cole

I remember those days waking up in the morning outside my parents house on the front lawn.

Partying until 4 am and had to be up at 5am to be at work.

Fun times.

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daveincincy

Unfortunately, thanks to media coverage, I was unable to go take the family and view the work before the traffic shut it down. But there is another house in the general area that the wife and I like to take the kids to each year.

daveincincy

ooops, pics. I took at daytime.






You might notice in the first pic a plexiglass covered track. That's where the train runs around, and pulls into the bay window at night.

No doubt, an honor roll student at the Clark Griswald school of holiday decorating.

Mike Finley

daveincincy

By the way, those are lights running all up and down just about every sq. ft. of the roof. Also, you might notice that lights are going up and down the brick on the house. He lets people walk around his yard, and there's a foot path (usually muddy from all the traffic) that goes through all the decorations.....obviously hard to see from these camera angles. The last few times I've walked through it, I find myself marveling more at the maze of electrical cords than the actual decorations.

ProWallGuy

HOLY CRAP!!! Imagine the electric bill for Dec.

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LandscapePro

I'd just like to know how large the check was he got from the Miller Lite guys.

*sigh* The bud lite people really got skunked and that's my brand....... ROFL who knows they may have just been cheap!

Mike
La. Landscape Contractor #2576