Every year, the internet and local news stations are captivated by houses with a synchronized music and light routine. Animated Christmas lights have gained in popularity over the last 10 years, ever since Carson Williams’ house captivated audiences in 2004.
Today, they are very easy to create, and you may already own everything you need to get set up. For those looking to upgrade their decor selection, there’s a lot of modern products that make syncing your display to music extremely easy. We talked with WowLights Productions about this subject, and they took us through the process step by step:
The first thing you’ll need to do is decide how big of a production you’re going for. If you’re just going to a small display indoors, there are plenty of Christmas lights available that come with pre-programed songs. If you’re looking for a fully animated display like those making headlines, it’s time to decide how loud you want your production to be.
Divide up your house and yard into the sections you want to animate. If you want a single lit up bush to operate separately then the rest, mark that as a single channel. By selecting that channel, you will flash all lights in that section. There is no way to flash a single light or strand of light if it is not on its own channel. If this is your first musical lights set up, try to limit yourself to as few channels as possible; 40 at most. Make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to work out the kinks and get your set up perfect before the holidays.
If you already have all the lights and decorations needed to fill out your musical home, then the most important purchase to make will be your control system. With the growing popularity of animated Christmas light displays, there are a wide variety of systems available, from building your own to entirely prepackaged controls. A full do-it-yourself system will run you about $5 per channel you want to set up. It involves a fair amount of construction and soldering, attaching the speakers to a solid state relay and then linking it into a power system for the lights. This is how the first musical light displays were set up. As the speaker sends its electrical signals to make the music, the current is picked up by the relay and the lights flash in tune. A pre-built system will cost up to $25 a channel, but there is very little construction, and the set will be accompanied by a handy control.
Next, you will need a way to program the lights to react to the music. If you bought a pre-packaged system, it most likely came with an accompanying program. There are also several programs available online that can help you get your house just right. Hinkle’s Light Sequencer is a free program that can hold up to 24 channels. While more complex, there are plenty of instructional guides found online. Boxed products like Light-O-Rama and Animated Lighting are going to be much easier to use and hold up to 48 channels but will require an investment. Other than hanging the lights, programing is the most time intensive task. Expect to spend up to 4 hours of programing on each minute of song you have.
Now, put it all together. Decide what song and story you want to tell using your lights. Think about your neighborhood and how onlookers are going to hear your music. Do you live in an area where you can continually blast music into the night? Maybe your neighbors are okay with your display, but the same song on repeat could drive them crazy. Consider having a 12 minute line up of songs that keep your public entertained, neighbors sane and encourage onlookers to move on once the set is over. Perhaps the full display only runs at the top of each hour until 9pm. If you only have one song or are concerned about the noise, you can purchase an FM transmitter and post a sign informing onlookers to tune in with their car radios.
