Ridgetop Lights Display

[meman]

Heres my first (lame) attempt at some video of this years show. The show elements are spaced so far apart I have to get way back to fit it all into frame. Maybe I'll try a drive-by video for some of the other tunes to get a closer view. 

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OK, a lot of questions (I'm flattered!) so I'll edit this to answer them with words and pics as best I can:
- The song is called "Decorations" by Bob Rivers.

- Show is 99% LED; the xenon strobes and a few incan candy canes are the exception (I convert the $2.98 walmart canes to LED after they die).

- The house sits on an acre, corner lot at the intersection of two fairly busy streets. Viewable frontage I'm trying to light up is 125' across the front, 300' down the side. The house sits 85' back from the road, so my main playground is the rectangle front yard 120'W x 85'D. See daylight pic below.

- I use 8 Aether IIs for floods for the house. Six across the front, two on the side. See pic.

- Strobes are all xenon tube style with the octagon lens. Several folks used to carry these, but I can only find them at christmaslightshow.com now. Everyone else is selling the lame "blinkers" with the round lens and white base that have no pop. I use hundreds of PVC stakes for strobes and to defined borders. 1" dia of varying heights, notched on top for strobes. 1/2" notched in the middle and top to hold red/white light strings for boarders

- The "Candy Cane Tree". I was so disappointed I couldn't get RGB elements added to my show this year and had to change something in the yard fast to try and create a dramatic difference from last year. My diabolical plan worked and everyone asks about the candy cane tree. It's taller than a three wire power pole, so guessing the highest cane is up 55' or so. Only uses two channels I had as spares on the LE running the arches...one for red, one for green. Climbed the tree about eight times to empty a 250' reel of spt1, vampire plugs and three way splitters. An extendable painters pole helps tremendously. There about 18 canes...I'll use a bunch more next year as it was such a hit. If you try this, it is essential that the lights be secured to the tube or the stresses of wind, weight of wire, etc will rip the lights right out of the tube. I use a dremel to cut two slits about 1" from the base and secure the light string with a zip tie.

[RJ]

Love it! Always thought that song was funny.

RJ

[drlucas]

Ok. I have a lot of questions

How big is the property? You seem to have it lit up really well!!

How many aethers are color washing the house? They look so unbelievable awesome how they change colors smoothly and consistently cover the entire place.

Finally there appears to be a huge tree that is lit up with maybe candy canes in the front left side of the video (I'm watching on my phone so that could be why it's a bit hard for me to view). What is the size of the tree and what is decorated inside/on it? I think Alan and myself have big pine trees in our front yards and want to do some serious decorations with it. Any ideas you can share are appreciated!

And this is a great "first" attempt. Well done.

[Rich Renn]

Very nice Job







Richard

[caretaker]

Nice sequencing! The only way you will be able to create a video that doesn't look like your "far away" is to shoot the same song 3 or 4 times each time with a different view or angle.  So the first shot might be of your house and yard in front then second shot is left yard, third shot is right yard and a forth shot of "special" elements.  The you get the fun job of editing,  Start with the main shot and transition to different shots as different parts of the display are hi-lighted. It's a lot more work but the results are well worth it.

[UncleBuck]

Very nice. 

[arw01]

Great job, made me smile.  Do share the source on the song, I think i have to put that into rotation next year!

As I have lots of questions too.  You have some strobes over in the yard, do tell about those and how you run those.  The christmas light fight made my wife want some strobes, but I don't want to over do it and torn on what to buy on those.  The pre-sales have the big c9 style on sale for about 1/2 price, but I see our buddy Ray has .75 watt white led "strobe" strips too.


+1 on the aether..  I have 3, going to 6 or so next year as I just cannot get them very far back without having them out in the grass and cannot get the whole house wash effect like you get.

Yes, Alan too has a big pine tree and will be posting a separate thread on that shortly.  My wallet is clamming shut  over at costs of lighting that sucker..

Again, nice job, and Rj is right, that song cracks you up..

[Jeffl]

All these years and I have never heard that song.  Also glad to see somebody else that has to use a wide angle lens to shoot video.  The poor others that get to shoot up close just don't know how easy they have it.

Thanks for sharing.

[taybrynn]

Nice work, looks great!   Love that song also !!

[tbone321]

That song is awesome and the show looks great as well.  Perhaps you could provide a link where we can purchase that song.  I would like it just to listen to, never mind adding it to the show.

[meman]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I'll try to add some more info and behind the scenes pics to the original post.

The song is hilarious. I had to add it this year. It's called "Decorations" from Bob Rivers "Chipmunks Roasting On An Open Fire" parody album. 
I found an amazon link, it's also om itunes for those who have it.

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Mike E.

[LtKadeo]

DLA now has a theme song - love it

I Nominatate you for this years Griswalt award.


Ted K

[WWNF911]

I Nominatate you for this years Griswalt award.

Too funny. I had the same thought. Man for such a huge property I thought you've really got it lit up well.   

Great job! That tree with the candy canes blows me away! You have to rent a cherry picker to get way up there?

Leon 

[Gary]

- Strobes are all xenon tube style with the octagon lens. Several folks used to carry these, but I can only find them at christmaslightshow.com now. Everyone else is selling the lame "blinkers" with the round lens and white base that have no pop. I use hundreds of PVC stakes for strobes and to defined borders. 1" dia of varying heights, notched on top for strobes. 1/2" notched in the middle and top to hold red/white light strings for boarders

I remember previous discussions about strobe light "pop"... are you comparing your octagon black-based Xenon strobes with round white-based LED strobes? Last year, I added white-based Xenon strobe lights to my lawn but they tended to flash at the same rate, so this year I borrowed some of the black-based ones that were 3-4 years old from a friend and the randomization looked great. Since the visual results were good, I was considering buying some for myself, but there were some issues that my friend had with the quality--of lack thereof. He had lots of problems with water leaking in while they were hanging upside-down in his mega tree, which shouldn't be a problem for me as it looks like the boards are coated now, and mine would be mounted base-down on the ground. The other kicker was that the threaded portion tended to easily detach from the plastic base if you tighten them even moderately. Does that happen to yours?

[arw01]

One of the sites that still sells the octagon ones mentioned needing to drill small weep holes for water yet, that the boards were coated, but it was still best to allow some water to be able to leave should it get in there.

Alan