Lovingham Lights of Arlington, TX ** Video's inside **

[Toaster]

Well, here we go. One of my sons did all the video work, and creating the web page. The truth is, without my entire family, this project would still be in my kitchen, or worse - in my head. My two sons, my daughter and my wife - All contributed to this entire project... From soldering, to wiring, to building, to sequencing, to designing --- EVERYTHING. Many thanks to all of them for their hard work.

The basic technical specs of our lights and display is: 20,000 lights, 2 snow machines, 128 channels of control, from a pair of Olsen 595 controllers, Belkin Tunecast 2 with Antenna mod and Antenna amp. All being controlled by the wonderful VIXEN software.

These video's were shot on my wife's cell phone (Nokia N95-3) which records MP4 320x240 video at 30fps. Its not the best quality - but its what I have to work with at the moment.

If any of you live near the DFW metroplex, please come by and see our display in person.

http://lovinghamlights.googlepages.com


Carol Of Bells
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/InzJkt5ezCE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">


Sleigh Ride (Kay Thompson Jingle Bells)
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dLNBdgmdcVM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">

THX Intro
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vRIOeRLmWjY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">


Mister Santa
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/96qy4yN81Ls" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">


Merry Christmas to you all!

[Deast]

I love the THX intro. Classic!

[RJ]

Great Job! hope you get large crowds and they all go nuts for it.

[Trepidati0n]

I just showed my wife the THX into...she is DEMANDING that I do the same thing to our show. She has always loved those intros (I even made her a DVD with all the intros so she can play them in our theatre)

[Toaster]

Thanks guys. Not sure why the audio sounds like that in the Youtube video? It sounds good in the car, and its in STEREO... so the sound flies around as the tree's circle each other :)

[bchapp]

Its a small world!

I am over on Faireast CT:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=5308+Faireast+Ct,+Arlington,+TX+76018,+USA&ie=UTF8&ll=32.655021,-97.092876&spn=0.023775,0.040169&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=1

I'll come by some night and see the show!

[wbuehler]

I like it

The THX intro is a nice touch

Bill

[Toaster]

Its a small world!

I am over on Faireast CT:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=5308+Faireast+Ct,+Arlington,+TX+76018,+USA&ie=UTF8&ll=32.655021,-97.092876&spn=0.023775,0.040169&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=1

I'll come by some night and see the show!

LOL... Very close by... Do you have a display? I'll come check yours out too! :)

By all means, come by and see mine.. The snow machines are on for about a minute on a couple of the songs.... Make sure you catch the snow machines going. I think I need to add 1 more... 2 doesn't cover enough area.

Check it out, and post your comments.. I'm interested in knowing how good the FM sound comes in... what you think of the display, etc.... Can't wait to hear your opinions.

THANKS! :D

[blake_l]

OK - I've got to know... where did the THX intro come from? That's great! I just spent 10 minutes on Google and haven't come up with anything yet... any hints?

[biffklg]

I don't know where he got his from but I had to plug my dvd player's audio into my computer and copy it from the dvd "CARS". I looked hi and low on the internet for it but found every onther THX intro but that one.

[bchapp]

Toaster,

My wife and I stopped by about 8:00 tonight and we loved it! She has fallen in love with the way you did the snow flakes over the garage! The dance version of Jingle Bells was amazing! Where did you find it??? I really loved how the polar bear seemed to shake his head to the music! We sat right in front of your house across the street and the music was perfectly clear.

Great Job!

~Brian (and wife)

[wbuehler]

I have a VOB file of the THX intro that you can use to get the sound from if you would a copy I can post it.

Bill

[Toaster]

Woohoo!!! THANKS!

Tonight we actually left just before 8pm :( we took the drive out to west ft worth and saw a couple of displays over there tonight... LOTS OF CARS AT THOSE DISPLAYS. WOW. Both displays we visited had a LINE of cars the whole time we were there, and more cars just kept coming! Impressive... One display was done really well, and the other had nice elements, but not that great on the sequencing (if I can be honest).

I've still got another 160+ channels NOT being used (or built) yet... MORE STUFF FOR NEXT YEAR! :)

Just before we left tonight, I actually got to talk with my first set of "watchers", and we had like 3 cars at the same time... thats a record for me! :) And I have to tell you, it made my night!

Thanks for the compliments. The snowflakes on the garage were my wife and sons idea... We had 7 LED snowflakes, and #1 (top right) died last night - and we don't know why. It blew a fuse on the plug, we replaced it, it blew again, we hard wired it in and let the smoke out! :( HAVE NO IDEA WHY.

Thanks for the compliments everyone... BTW: I will post my THX file for you guys... I actuallly ripped it from a AC3/DD5.1 trailers dvd I bought off ebay YEARS AND YEARS ago... I will warn you all, the THX sound IN STEREO (which gives great effect) for some reason has a hard drive being transmitted? It sounds the same in the car as it does in the youtube video - EXACTLY. Cuts out in all the same places. That same MP3 file plays FINE on the computer and while sequencing in Vixen....? I DUNNO.

[Toaster]

Small world. I've met 2 other people in my very close area that are also DIY chrismtas light guys. I've met several others around the Dallas area who are LOR guys, and the 2 people in my area are both DIY.... Kind of cool! :)

[Brad Riley]

Could I barrow you family for a few months? I got no help. The family thought I was nuts, and the display wouldn't work. Thanks to wjohn, Brian, and a few others I made it happen. Haven't figured out how to take a good video yet.

Brad

[Toaster]

Could I barrow you family for a few months? I got no help. The family thought I was nuts, and the display wouldn't work. Thanks to wjohn, Brian, and a few others I made it happen. Haven't figured out how to take a good video yet.

Brad

LOL.... SURE! take 'em!

I been there, done that. I got the strange looks, the rolled eyes, and the whispers of how crazy I am and it would never work. Then when we got blinky flashy on the first try !!! WOOHOO... My oldest son said "Dad, we've worked on a lot of projects, this is maybe the first one that ever worked first time out of the gate" LOL!!!

My youngest son, who was never interested in this from the get go... saw the blinky flashy, got excited (for all of 1 night)... started vocalizing his ideas for sequences... Turn this on here, flash this at this part of the song...etc... Like I said that was short lived... but he got excited :)

Video wise: JOIN THE CLUB. None of my 2 camcorders will take a decent video... I got better results from the wife's cell phone!!! Albeit, its a nice cell phone. I've got a total of 7 songs, and the last one (Carol of Bells by David Foster) is amazing... its the most recent sequence, its not so blinky, and its impressive (I think)

THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENTS GUYS. (ahem! keep'em'comin' ahem!)