Paradigm shift in DIY lighting

[Trepidati0n]

I'm be wonky...but here goes..

I think we have all seen it.....what have on houses now is just a TON of lights and a few channels. It seems everyone has a mega tree, leaping arches, and mini trees. The thing is though....just adding more elements sometimes is just clutter. I don't think i'm alone in this thought. I think other people are heading in that direction and I think it might flood next year.

What I believe is going to happen is a large ratio change in lights per channel in the next year or two or more specifically allowing an element to do more. Look at holdman as a simpler example. Almost all elements are tri color.

I would not be suprised if next year we see 12-16 channel mini trees and possibly 200-300 channel count mega trees.

[ben]

well, my mini trees are 5 channels each and my mega is 112. Plus my driveway arches will be make like the leaping arches and wil likely be 24 channels.

Ben

[scharbon]

Trep,
I know what you mean. I think most of us were fascinated by the original wizards in winter video - at least that is what got me going on my quest. But Holdman's video just floored me. It was very simple yet very elegant, not a lot of flash and blink but more fade and shift. It takes more work to make something that simple.

I think you are right,the shift will be to fewer elements with more control. I may try to work on the simple and elegant - at least that is my plan. We'll see how it turns out next year.

Steve

[stempile]

We are a lot different then any of my neighbors who have multiple: Santas, deer, blow up things and lots of other 3D stuff. These days with all the chain stores selling all the same stuff its hard to find unique things. If we bought anything besides lights it would be duplicate of something already on our street. Many houses on our street have the exact same things.

I have 7 bushes, 7 DIY trees, 6 window outlines, 4 eves, 3 columns and 4 bells. Each of those support 4 colors (blue, green, red, white).

ms

[Jeff Millard]

I would not be suprised if next year we see 12-16 channel mini trees and possibly 200-300 channel count mega trees.

I have recently had conversations with a person that has a very large display, and his intent for 2008 is to drive the channel count over 250 on a specific mega tree design. His idea is fantastic, and he is just the person to program it. I have a 60 channel design with four colors plus clear, so I see this flow into more channels firsthand.

My question is: Is this a bad thing? I thought my intent was to be able to completely control every aspect, every color and glow of all of my display. I wish I could afford to have three to five channels on each mini tree. I'd like to make the leaping arches wrap completely around the yard with four colors and clear on them too. I'd like to have the outline of the house...

OMG You're right... It's really happening! What do I do now?
Jeff :lol:

[pete]

Then There's Frank

[Aurbo99]

My first display for 2007.

3 channels across the Evestrough, blue yellow red. 3 channels
2 strings around each of the bedroom windows, 4 channels
8 candy canes, 8 channels
4 blow mold candles, 4 channels
7 mini trees, single color. 7 channels
1 tree rope light, 1 channel
1 star on the wall, 1 channel
Total 28 channels

My plans for 2008

1 LedTriks panel.
Countdown clock

4 colors across the evestrough, 4 channels
3 colors on a plywood Star of Bethlehem, 3 channels
10 blow mold yard candles arranged in a choir, 10 channels
7 minitrees, 4 colors each, 28 channels
12 single light (C7) lights randomly mounted in the trees to simulate snowfall or star twinkle, 12 channels
4 colors around each window frame, 8 channels
2 plywood (C7) wreathes, 2 channels
Mega tree (10 foot) with 48 channels, 48 channels
Mega tree star topper in 2 colors, 2 channels
12 Candycanes around the yard, 12 channels

3 channels in reserve for repair or something I've not though about yet.

Overall my display grows in size very smallish.. only a few blowmold candles 4 extra candy canes and 3 plywood forms go up. The LedTricks mounted over the garage door, and the Mega tree off to the west of the house to balance the Ledtricks. the rest will just find a new layout within my yard thats different from last display.

What's the nice part is even though my over-all display does not grow too much in actual size, it grows greatly in depth.. the ability to change the 7 mini trees through 4 color ranges.

I've not even added the dimming into the mix yet, recieved my Ren-C's on the 28th, Ren-T not ordered yet. This adds yet another dimension I cant even fathom at this point.

I'll leave the 30 foot mega's, leaping arches, and other fund stuff for the football field size displays. =P

I still have to face my neighbors in the morning and they are much more pleasant if they did not have bloodshot eyes and buzzing in their ears from the display each night.

=P

[mark]

i'm sorry, who's holdman? link?

[scharbon]

Trep,
I misread your post - I agree. Some have lots of lights on few channels and the trend seems to be going to more channels while lights are not increasing as fast - so yes, the ratio is changing in favor of control.

I guess where I was headed in my remarks is that this year on/off reigned supreme for Christmas shows (as far as percentage of animated displays), but with the demonstrations of what dimming can do - and how its not really that much harder that on/off, I think you will see a big shift to dimming and away from on/off. This will allow for more subtle transitions and slowing down of tunes. For instance, You really cannot do an on/off sequence to Miracle on 34th street. It would look odd. But you can do a dimming sequence and it will look good. For Wizards in Winter, you can certainly do an good on/off (although some would say it is seizure inducing) but think about what you can do with dimming, fading, and some on/off. So your pool of usable songs just increased.

I think the real shift will be in the subtlty and elegance shows will begin to take as we master dimming and see that in blinky flashy - sometimes less is more. You'll see all the good shows posted on the forum get even better, and you'll see all the really good shows getting great.

But that's my two cents worth and I thought the internet would never be big!!

Steve

[robots4joey]

Here's holdman's website:
http://www.holdman.com/christmas/

And yes, I'm going the same way; everything is going to be 4 color, lots more channels, but only one or two new items.

[zoommedic]

I enjoy all the displays!! YES I am a nubb

Should I go all out and start with dimming or should I get a grinch and just do on and off? I would like to make leaping arches, 10ft tree, and a few mini trees. All Tri color. red / gree/ white.

[mrpackethead]

Well, i'm pretty much doing a complete rebuild of everything for 2008.. A major change for me. And it will be planned and designed PRIOR to being put up..

First thing is that 95% of the illumination will be coming from RGB+W LED elements. That gives me pretty much a full pallete of colour to work with... That will get suplemented with 500 flood lights with colour gel to wash some of the buildings (we are rural, several outbuildings )...

From a technology perspective, everything will be controlled on DMX-512.. I'm going to use Vixen for sequencing.. )

From a technology perspective, i'm distributing my controllers, and having numerous 6 channel controllers, rather than having a big ( 64/128 ) channel controller centralised.. Saves miles of cabling...

I'm building 50 LED lanterns each is 4 dmx channels.. ( red, green, blue and white ), LEds are 1&3 W luxeon stars.. The lantern is a metal and glass thing that was intended for putting tea light candles in.. They are a nice polished lookign thing.. So theres 200 channels to start with!! They pump out lots of light and look great when you let the light spill onto something..

I'd like to figure out how to use some moving lighting as well... smoke is great if i can contain it.. Soon as the wind gets up, its a real challenge.. But i'm wondering if some judious use of wind cloth ( the stuff they use for gardens ) might help the critical parts..

Leaping arches might be old school, but they skill look very cool..

Mega trees.. Again old, but its a great look still..

The other thing i want to do, is go to the next step.. Rather than just having a bunch of sequenced songs, i want to have a 'show' that somehow tells a story... a combination of music, special effects, narratives and of course the lights..

If i do this, i'm goign to do it well.

[fkostyun]

Ahh yes, and then there's me - I had 552 individual channels of control - and controlled it down to the just about individual strings.....

You can get great effects - but - its a nightmare to sequence.

I'm looking to add another 200 channels for next year though, need to keep it simple!

[teberle]

Trep,

I redid most of my display this year that allowed me to control all of the colors individually, every item in the yard was able to transition between red/green/white. The mini trees alone used 60 channels. I increased my display channels from 64 to 128 this year and after looking at Holdmans display earlier I am thinking about doing my C7's to be tree colors. This however will require 3 seperate runs and this is fairly expensive for c7's. Holdmans display is mostly fading and this is nice but I mix the fading (using Ren-C's) and the blinky together and this adds a nicer affect.

Tony

[NOLAlights]

Funny you mention this Trepidati0n... My wife and I where having the EXACT discussion about 4 hours ago.

We've had a pretty big static display for years... To make the switch I'm starting with 256 channels. -starting mind you- I might double that. I teased the wife that she wanted every string to have its own channel and she didn't get the joke. She'd be happy if I could talk to every light.

The topic of non-dimming was not up for discussion much less debate. And we agreed to a "less is more" approach. We don't want to flash the whole house in time to the music, we want to make art.

Now do you see why I want pre-done SSRs? (other thread) I have enough work in front of me. ;-)

[NOLAlights]

well, my mini trees are 5 channels each and my mega is 112. Plus my driveway arches will be make like the leaping arches and wil likely be 24 channels.

Ben

OK I'm right there with you...

My (2008) mega came in at a stout 124 (30 x 4 color + 2 strobes + 2 for the star)

But I'm missing the why 5th channel on the mini trees?????? topper?

[xmus]

I’m a firm believer that everyone should do what makes them happy. My answer isn’t the answer for everyone, so please take my comments with a grain of salt… And I’m definitely not trying to say my way is the only way….

As much as I love this hobby, I really like to use really slow songs… for me “white Christmas” was like the saltine cracker between the samples of wine. (Very slow song, only used white, slow dimming, easily recognizable as “oh we’ve seen this one before, time to drive away”)

I had two slow songs this year (White Christmas and Carol of the Bells), and as was already stated above, it would not have been possible without dimming, so I’m definitely partial to dimming.

Okay, this might offend some folks, please don’t take this personally, do what’s right for you, not trying to judge you, just sharing my thoughts…. My kids are 3 and 5 and pre-season I thought “how can I do wizards or Christmas eve in Sariavo (sp?), it is so heavy, my kids wont like it, kids in general wont like it…” Well we made the rounds in Boise, and saw 5 other houses that do flashy/blinky to music, and one had those two songs, no matter how low I turned the stereo volume, my kids kept saying “its too loud”, they lacked the vocabulary to express it in better terms. I settled on TSO – Halelujia (chopped it down to 90 seconds) fast but not to hard sounding.

This year I wanted one song just for the kids, stuff going everywhere (chasing galore) and that was Jingle Bells….. fast, busy, fun.

To each his own, I personally LOVE houses with stuff every 12 inches, reindeer, inflatable’s, flashing almost randomly to music, but it isn’t my style. My wife doesn’t like those kinds of displays… but I kind of look at them and think “man that guy put in 10 times the time I did, WOW, I could never go that big”. (I also wonder how many storage units they rent!)

But I would never go that “busy”, I like going “minimalist”. This year I had 5240 lights, and next year I’ll definitely stay below 10K, and I’d probably never get over 10K in the future (where would I find the time!).

So I respect all displays, but mine will always be well spaced, not overloaded, a mix of tempo and dimmed, and I might throw in one “heavy” song next year, but maybe not….

The only upgrade I plan this year is to go from 12 single channel mini trees to 16, 3 color mini trees. (adding 36 channels). (160 this year, so 208 next year, probably closer to 256 perhaps)

Okay, well I’ve pontificated long enough… I agree with the original post, displays are using less lights, and more control.


“Minimalist flashy blinky”? Is that like a “simple wedding”? Does it really exist? 

[Greg in Canby]

We all have our own definition of art. Our houses are the canvas and the "light and darks" the medium. We paint with strings of light bulbs in various colors for a common goal, peace on earth and good will toward man.

Dim, blink and flash away.

[xmus]

We all have our own definition of art. Our houses are the canvas and the "light and darks" the medium. We paint with strings of light bulbs in various colors for a common goal, peach on earth and good will toward man.

Dim, blink and flash away.

I completely agree...

[NOLAlights]

You guys get it....

Xmus, I'm working on a version of Silent Night, that is aimed to bringing tears to people's eyes. (ok maybe that's pushing it lol)

Point being I think like any art, what makes it art is knowing what NOT to add.

[xmus]

You guys get it....

Xmus, I'm working on a version of Silent Night, that is aimed to bringing tears to people's eyes. (ok maybe that's pushing it lol)

Point being I think like any art, what makes it art is knowing what NOT to add.

Be sure to follow up with a youtube video...
My dad always used to say "Art is knowing when to stop". Words to live by.

[Greg in Canby]

You guys get it....

Xmus, I'm working on a version of Silent Night, that is aimed to bringing tears to people's eyes. (ok maybe that's pushing it lol)

Point being I think like any art, what makes it art is knowing what NOT to add.

Be sure to follow up with a youtube video...
My dad always used to say "Art is knowing when to stop". Words to live by.

I just try not to be an over achiever . . . I strive for the absence of ugliness.

[kmc123]

Did you guys notice that Holdmans neighbors voted 13-11 to keep the gates closed in his gated community during Christmas - Effectively shutting him down?
NICE!
There's the Christmas Spirit! NOT!!!

[sandy]

Holdmans inspired also to go in a slightly different direction.
I love those color changing trees.
At the after Christmas sale at Wal Mart they had the white (what they called) wire trees on sale for $8.
I wanted more, but bought 2.
They have 360 white lights and I'm adding 450 or Red, Green and Blue each.
They are even in 3 sections so each tree could have 12 channels,
top, middle and bottom, with 4 colors each.
I've got the top and middle section wired, and working on the bottom.
This could (should) be cool, but it will be a little bit before I get the whole thing wired, tested and then hopefully a video posted.

[scharbon]

Sandy,
I saw these trees too but I didn't buy any because I thought the "branches" wouldn't stand up to three extra stands of lights. They seemed to bow under pressure of just the white lights (at least the ones at target did). Are your trees standing up to the weight of the lights?

Steve

[sandy]

You're right,
they do bend a bit more,
But they are holding up fine.

The longer lower ones bend the most but they fold up and seem to be fine when down.

I'll try to get some pics taken this weekend.
I had the tree flashing to Wizards, but it din't come out well.
Did I say din't?
I mus b ginnan ta sounds like-a hip-hip arteest .

Oh well, I'll still try to get the pics and post them.