TSO Carol of the Bells - SuperStar Christmas Light Show in Allen Texas

[cadplayer5852]

2 people are dead inside.

[mbmjr81]

one question: HOW?!!!!!

[flattld]

I am a concert lighting designer show designer and I must say, I am impressed with your vision and programming skills...you must be of the industry yourself! Very well done indeed!

[mypieguy217]

That. Was. So. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ocean19961]

Major props to you man. This is awesome. I like the polar bear.

[jeclovesken1]

omg super cool my class saw it and we were speechless

[JaCoBlUvEr7]

This gave me major goosebumps!!!! SO COOL!

[toontownminimin]

SICK

[Raeverney]

I love how it is simply a tree --- A Christmas tree!! Love the song, love the group, love this families light show

[lupitalegaspi]

Hi!! I would like to know how you do this, I would like to do something like that too!!! Or can you tell me wich software you used?? I would really appreaciate it =)

[scottraposo]

Awesome mega tree

[squish20001]

some1 got a lump of coal

[PianoKing609]

This song is actually called Christmas Eve/ Sarajevo 12/245

[glasshaed02]

kick ass dude



[dvddmc]

Very nicely Done Very Clean!

[Jimbomania]

Dude kick ass, so creative!!!

[sabbath2173]

perfect...!

[bbstudiosmovies]

Wow that's awesome

[fredjudymom3]

I remember watching this last year for Christmas '09! =) Never got old and never will get old.

[teecee2468]

how long did it take to program that sucker???

[cornyratbag]

Awesome work mate! You have utilised all 64 channels extremely well! I take my hat off to you :)

[xboxfriek]

duuuhhhhaaaammmmm!!!

[gulis4u]

Har du et 64-kanalers anlegg og nok pæng, så kan du ta opp konkurransen.

[DickSimmons2]

you must have one crazy electric bill lol

[lpskat]

Simply amazing



[DeeSnider88]

must have cost a fortune!

[Apocalyptichist]

Amazing. Only one person missed the like button. First time I've seen that happen.

Even more amazing is this light show! It's spectacular!! I'm glad you uploaded it.

[laeinc]

ONLY 64 channels for that amazing set up?? WOW!

lol Love the work :)

[7thheaven2000]

awsome video, great job. thanks for sharing

[princhezza730]

Way outstanding!!!!

[toddluv1]

very nice! how many channels did u use

[PhysicsDude55]

We used 64 channels total.

[nailbunnygirl]

FUCKING AMAZING!!!!!!!

[BeccaT572]

this is just amazing!!! great job!!

[savvystevedotcom]

VERY NICE!

What did you use to allow you to control the lights so easily? Was is amazing is it looks like you are controlling one strand or part of a strand at a time.

[PhysicsDude55]

Thanks for your kind comment.

We used Light - O - Rama controllers. The display is made up of 2 sets of LED rope lights (white and green), cut into segments of varying length, which are each individually controllable.

[fredjudymom3]

@PhysicsDude55 This is truely amazing!!! I'm so glad I saw this video. :D 5/5 subsribe. And I was wondering if you would kindly send me a few tips and tricks for next year please. :)

[TheProjectOrigin]

ZOMFG

[AUGSTFA]

I like this you didnt over do it and it looked cool :D

[YoBraydon]

Lights remind me of guitar hero at 2:07

[mightytrazz]

YOU

ARE

AWESOME

[theoneandonlyDOOF]

This isn't Carol of the Bells, it's Christmas Sarajevo.

[PhysicsDude55]

Yes, we are aware of that, we included the correct song name in the video description, but everyone knows the song as "Carol of the Bells", and we figured people would have a harder time finding it under "Christmas Sarajevo".

[jukingeo]

I used the same song for my Holiday display. But You Tube wouldn't post it. I figured you had one up on them by titling it "Carol Of The Bells", but I didn't title it anything nor use any song names in my description and they blocked it again!

Oh, and don't worry, but display with the song isn't anything compared to what you did. This is sheer genius.

[PhysicsDude55]

Last year when we posted the videos, they tried to block all of them for copyright infringement on the songs (they have an algorithm that detects songs, even if you only use parts of it), but eventually allowed us to post the Trans Siberian Orchestra songs.

They blocked the "Linus and Lucy" show for almost a year, and just allowed it about a month ago. I believe they just recently eased up their restrictions, as they have iTunes advertisements to download the song.

[jukingeo]

So I guess you had your troubles too, huh? How did you get them to allow you to post? I figured they had something that must sense the music content. I had wondered if I should do a voice over the music...that might throw it off :).

[PhysicsDude55]

If you appeal the DMCA claim, after a week or 2 they will usually let you post the video. At least that is what happened to us.

Best of luck to you.

[jukingeo]

Basically what did you say? Did you tell them that you were using the song for a holiday display in which there was no monetary gain? If so then hopefully they can see that. Really if anything, it is TSO that has anything to gain from the display.  As it stands I believe it is the "Christmas Lights to Music" people (us) that really put TSO on the map. I don't know of a single person over at the Christmas lights & music forums that DON'T use at least one TSO song in their display.

[jukingeo]

Well I will say for the most part it is wrap for this season. But I will be back next year and I will be curious as to what you will create then. BTW, this post was from Jan of last year, so what did you do for this past Christmas?

[PhysicsDude55]

We did not change the display this year, but there is another, much more complicated and awesome display in the making, stay tuned :D.

[TheShannnOnn]

Awesome! it's sooo simple but yet awesomely awesome lol

[raradra]

very awesome! I love TSO and you did an awesome job :)

[crazygracie3212]

freaking. awesome.

[lovin1959]

Excellent ! Look forward to Wizards of Winter if u post it

[PhysicsDude55]

Thanks for the comment. I do have a show for Wizards in Winter posted (check my channel or "More From: PhysicsDude55" on the right).

Honestly, I think this song (Carrol of the Bells) is the best one we did.

[Actionfan19]

nice lighting

[gprm1999]

this is by far one of the most awesome light demostrations that i have seen on the tube excellent job!

[MileyHannahJonas777]

wow!!!! that was amazing!!!

[Spike2082]

That is just incredible!! Great choice of song, and even better execution.

[exploreralpha]

Awesome. Most of the light displays on here are over done. Your simple design with slick execution makes it shine above the rest. Thanks for the idea. I'm going to copy your design up here in Montana.

[PhysicsDude55]

Thanks for the kind words :).

We had the exact same thoughts when we designed the set-up.

Best of luck to your holiday efforts.

[SoNotKairi]

... well shiz. I must say, that was pretty epic.

[kathleen1311]

Brilliant, thank you from Canada.

[chronic762]

duuude this is freaking wicked!! awesome man!!

[cullenster4]

w

t

f

how did they do that?!

[Kristi888]

WOW We love it!!!

[MasterRonin123]

That was unreal. thanks for making this season a bit better.

[jukingeo]

Question: Are you using separate light strings for your color changing or did you use hacked multi-function colored light strings? I am assuming you are using LED's for the display, correct? The response time just seems to be very fast for mini-bulbs. At any rate you did a fantastic job with programming and the ending has to be the best I have seen on any centerpiece effect like this. Excellent work.

[PhysicsDude55]

Thank you for your comment!

The display is made using LED rope lights. There are separate strings of white LED rope lights and green LED rope lights.

We specifically used LEDs primarily for their low response time.

[jukingeo]

Ahh, so you only had the two colors then. I am assuming that you are using Vixen for the program, right? What are you using for the controller though? Is it a Renard based system?

[PhysicsDude55]

We used 4 Light-O-Rama controllers to control the show, which connect to a computer. There is Light-O-Rama software on the computer which is used to control the light show and music.

[jukingeo]

I found the Light-O-Rama products to be VERY expensive. However, I came across the Do It Yourself Christmas site and you can build the controllers yourself and use Vixen to run the program. This year will be my first outing with Renard controller setup. While building the controllers does require some knowledge of electronics, the cost savings is tremendous. A 16 channel LOR costs over $200 (pcb asmbly, premade system is about $400). A Renard 16 channel would be around $60 (pcb asmbly.

[homeboy1004]

I'd like to know more about this DIY before I go spend 400 on Light-O-Rama please.

[jukingeo]

All you do is search for Do It Yourself Christmas. It will take you to a forum. Just look at any thread that says "Getting Started" and you will be on your way. The nice thing about the DIY is that you have several types of systems to choose from. You can go simple non dimming (parallel port) or go full dimming (Renard). The people are very helpful. But I will say that it does help to have an electronics background, but it isn't fully necessary. The point with DIY Christmas is that you DIY

[PhysicsDude55]

Yes, we are aware of the DIY kits.

Creating the display and programming shows are extremely labor intensive, so we weren't interested in spending more hours of labor to save a few hundred bucks on the controllers. The bulk of the cost was the lights and display, not the controllers.

LOR is very user friendly, and plug and play.

What we spent a lot of time doing was wiring the controllers in such a way that we can individually light up each of the 288 rope light segments with 48 channels ;).

[jukingeo]

Heck, I hear you there. I would do the same too, IF I had the money. LOR was one of the first systems I checked out. However, the past few years I have been faced with the situation of rising living expenses, two extra mouths to feed and on top of that a shrinking paycheck. So DIY right now is the ONLY option for me. The good thing is that I have an electronics background so that helps me out as well. Anyway, once again great work on the display. I don't find many that top this one.

[SuperMetalmania666]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wicked awesome dude

[Raptiosaur]

Who would put in the tim e to program those lights like that...

Epic

[magicalistic77]

you would be surprised at how many people do this in my town

[ilodder]

this was aweosme absolutely loves it

i love Trans Siberian Orchestra

[kuliimjulischreiben]

This is the most awesome thing I have ever seen. I wish I knew how to do this!!!!

[thelightguy1]

Great timing! This does seem to be over 100 controllers, but 4 68 channel LOR controllers? You sure know how to conserve! Happy sequencing!

[PhysicsDude55]

Thanks for the comment, the entire show is controlled by 4 controllers with 16 channels each, for a total of 64 channels (48 for the "starbeam" and 16 for star, trees, and bear).

Your shows are good as well, and also happy sequencing :).

[gabbe81]

wow, only 4? Thats incredible. I tried to count the controllers and i landed on about 100 considering you have both green and white colors and so many segments. I just bought my first LOR controller, and this seems impossible to do with only 3 more... Did you program it yourself? I would love to have that sequence...

[PhysicsDude55]

There are 144 white rope light segments and 144 green rope light segments, which are wired in a such a way that we control all 288 light segments with 48 channels.

The display is custom made, and all songs were written by myself and my father.

Thanks for your interest, best of luck to you.

[gabbe81]

Holy moly!!! this was excellent! There has to be over 100 controllers here....

[PhysicsDude55]

The entire show is ran by 64 channels (four 16 channel controllers), which control 288 rope light segments, along with the star, polar bear, and trees.

Thank you for your comment and compliment :).