Our displays in the past were static meaning that the lights came on and sometimes blinked. We built different “scenes” in the garage and told a story about the scene on podiums located outside of the garage. Although it was beautiful, in 2006 we decided to take our display to the next level- Computerized.

       Computerized lights has opened a whole new world of decorating for us. We include music and choreograph the lights in an animated fashion to dance to the music. Once we made the decision to take the jump into computerization, all it took was some additional electrical equipment, ideas and some time to complete.

       A lot of enthusiasts have computerized their displays. We wanted to do something unique that no one else was doing though so we included animated characters in our garage to “play” the music. At Halloween its “Singing Pumpkins” and at Christmas its “Santa’s Garage Band” which includes Santa, Mrs. Claus, the elves and some snowmen. 

We plan all year for our display and the show by picking and mixing music early, usually by February or March. All of it’s done here at the house in a mini recording studio in our basement which allows for mixing and voice recording. We use music selections from the extensive collection we have acquired throughout the years.      Then we come up with ideas and what the show should look like when set to music. Every light is computerized and choreographed to the music at 1/10 of a second.      To do that, first you have to start with a lighting control system. We Utilize Light-O-Rama (LOR) products exclusively.  LOR Is a computerized lighting system designed to control elaborate lighting displays.      The controllers are micro-processor based and are equipped to produce a number of lighting effects such as fading up or down, dimming, twinkling, shimmering, and constant on/off and much more.      Currently we have 8-16 circuit 30 amp controllers. Each “prop” or strands of light in the    yard utilizes one circuit. This year we have 128 circuits, doubling the number from last year, which control all aspects of the display.

     The computer which controls the light show is located inside the mini recording studio in the basement. 
           A CAT5 cable is run out through strategically located “holes” in our home and into special light control boxes located near the displays. The boxes are linked together to provide a "lighting control network" of sorts.

       Then through the sequencer and hardware portion of the LOR program, the computer tells the show when to start and when to stop each night. During the show, the computer sends impulses to the circuits and tells each one what to do such as on/off/fade etc. All that is programmed to synchronize to the music selection that was selected and mixed earlier.