The Software
The lights are sequenced to music using Light-O-Rama's S2 light design software. It breaks the song down into ~.05 second intervals according to the beat, these are the vertical lines. It lists the controller channels that the lights connect to up the left side, these make the horizontal lines. The channels and beats of the music make a grid. When I click a square of the grid, it turns the lights in that channel on for that part of the song. Not only can I just turn the lights on and off, I can make them fade up and down, and shimmer. The software also displays an audio visualization waveform along the top of the window, which lets me line up light events perfectly with the music.
The photo to the right is an example of what the software window looks like. |
The Hardware
So the software decides how the lights will turn on and off, but what actually controls them? The answer: electronic triac boards from Light-O-Rama. My main controllers are 7 of their CTB16PC controllers, which feature 16 channels total which can handle 8 amps or 2400 lights each. The entire controller can power a total of 9000 lights, or 30 amps. They connect in a chain via Category 5 cable that runs from a computer in my basement out to the controllers in the yard. I can have up to 235 controllers in the network, but only intend to add 3 or 4 per year. Of a total 9 controllers, 8 are located in the yard and one in the garage.
The photo to the right shows what the controller I use looks like. |
The Audio
We have the controllers to make the lights blink, but what about the other half of the picutre, the audio? The display just wouldn't be the same if you couldn't hear the music, so I take great care in making sure my sound system is reliable and of high quality. Audio coming out of the computer goes straight into a professional live-sound mixing board, where it is equalized for clarity and sent, at the proper levels, to both a high-power stereo FM transmitter and a small PA amplifier. The FM transmitter is powerful enough that the music from the display is crystal clear several houses down the road. For those that want or need to listen without a radio, there are two small speakers fed by the PA amplifer located in the display
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