Jaynee Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Since purchasing the software this summer I've been able to sequence about 10 songs and 2-3 short clips. I had planned to only run a 13 minute show since it is my first year out and I didn't want to create any traffic problems on my narrow but heavily-traveled street. I was going to fill in with another 17 minutes of music set to static lights, so the show would run every 30 minutes. Now I'm starting to debate whether or not I should change it and go ahead use more of the programmed songs, but instead of having them all in a row, separate them with static songs until I get a full hour of programming. Does anyone do that? Top of the hour, I'd run the THX intro clip that I sequenced. And then a light show song. Then a static song (to encourage anyone there to move on), then a light show song, then static, then light show, etc. going back and forth between animated and static. I'm thinking this may keep traffic running more smoothly if I space out the program to every 3-4 minutes versus a solid 13 minutes. I had recorded an announcement to ask people to be considerate of traffic and drive on if they noticed a backup, but I'm thinking spacing out the programming may do this on its own. Does anyone else do this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Just run the songs you've programmed. People don't come out to see static lights. If traffic starts to get bad, drop the number of songs you run down some. The worse it gets the fewer songs you run. If it gets *really* bad, run one song, followed by an announcement, then run the same song again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMassey Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Check out Bob O's MIIP, mobile phone app and allow your guests to vote for and play their favorite songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 How much traffic are you expecting? Most people, it takes a couple of years before their traffic even gets close to becoming a problem. Methinks you might be putting the cart in front of the horse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slowpoke Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 I am just planning on letting my sequences continuously run on a loop. Am I held accountable for traffic since I have Christmas lights ? Figured it would work itself out . Has anyone been told they have to stop their display for traffic ? Just curious as to what others have been through in this regard, and how it worked out for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaynee Posted November 23, 2015 Author Share Posted November 23, 2015 It's not that I'm expecting a ton of traffic just because of our show, but my road is the ONLY road in and out of our neighborhood of about ~450 homes. I'd say at least 350-375 of those homes are further in the neighborhood from mine which means those homeowners HAVE to drive by my house to get home or leave the neighborhood. On top of that, we have very narrow roads that don't allow for street parking - they are strictly for traffic each way to go about their business. No wiggle room whatsoever. My main concern is not for people coming from other neighborhoods to see our lights, per se, but those who live in the back sections of the neighborhood who are experiencing traffic issues. Having said that, we do get a lot of traffic even for our static display because we are "that house.". We installed cameras last year due to some teenage shenanigans with our display, and would check the footage every now and again - we discovered we got a lot more traffic than we thought we did. And this was for a static display - people would sit and look at everything for 1-2 minutes before driving on. So am I expecting 1000s to come and see our show in the first year? Certainly not. *lol* But I do know that 100s of cars will be trying to get in and out of the neighborhood every evening (ESPECIALLY evenings when the show is running as people are arriving home from work). And I fear that running even just 13 minutes of solid programming every 30 minutes might cause consternation with folks in my neighborhood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santas Helper Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Jaynee, Looks like your thinking about your neighbors and the traffic that could cause problems.That's good your thinking about it.With a scenario like that, it wouldn't take much to start getting complaints it sounds like.I think keeping a good eye on it at first and see if doing static lights in between songs or as Don mentioned, play the same song. Of course if people like it, then they may stay and listen to it several times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slowpoke Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Sounds like you are definately in an area that is going to have some traffic issues . Please post if your programming changes help with that . It's something that I never gave much thought to when I decided to do this in January but you got me wondering now. Now I'm thinking since I live in small town and a lot of people might be driving from next nearest town, they may want to stay awhile to make their trip worthwhile. Hope you get it worked out and don't have issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmienLightFan Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 You could experiment. Make both shows, do the continuous loop and if there are any problems it won't take 10 minutes to change it. My road is busier than I thought in evenings. I have just been out there and there were lots of people coming back. I don't think that traffic will be a problem for me though, as I doubt anyone will notice that my display is done to music in their cars, and people walking all seem to be deaf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcha Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 If you have a second show programmed to run the various options ( 3-4 min show, 3-4 static, etc), try that and see how the traffic flows between the tow options. That will give you the answer you are looking for. Nobody knows how every looker will respond to your lights. Some people feel entitled to parking in the middle of the road and watching, leaving headlights on, not moving for others, yelling at you to make the lights work (during static displays). Others will be considerate and do as most of us would and not create any issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mitchell Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 I use about 20 sequenced songs. I break these up into 8, 10 minute shows. I run a show on each quarter hour so 10 minutes on and 5 minutes off. Between shows I play songs with slowly changing lights and teasers on all the props. I play different songs between the shows all night. So basically I'm on a two hour loop for shows with different music playing between shows all night. It's a bitch to schedule but works great. I find that running sequenced songs ALL night drives me nuts. The five minute breaks help and clear traffic also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Shepherd Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 I run a one minute static sequence between each song. I actually think people enjoy the static lights as well as the music. I do this between 5 and 9 each evening then static until 11. I have tried different length intervals but this seems to work best for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightzilla Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 I run a one minute static sequence between each song. I actually think people enjoy the static lights as well as the music. I do this between 5 and 9 each evening then static until 11. I have tried different length intervals but this seems to work best for me.I do almost the same thing except I do 3 songs & then a one minute static sequence, then 3 songs & another 1 minute static sequence & so on. The time frame for me is 6 pm to 9 pm & then all on until 10 pm. The weekends to 11 pm & then 2 am Christmas eve, Christmas day, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaynee Posted November 24, 2015 Author Share Posted November 24, 2015 Thanks for the input, everyone. Tonight I think I'll create a show that has a sequenced clip, then a sequenced song, then a static song, then clip, sequence, static, etc etc etc. I think I'll be comfortable doing that for a few days once we go live, and then adjust as necessary if there is an issue. Last night I talked my son into spending a couple hours each evening between 5-7 p.m. passing out candy canes to passersby, so I'll be out there during the high traffic times and can always direct traffic during those times, if need be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh28 Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Hmmm.... This year I had MUCH more traffic for Halloween than in years past. To help move cars and allow as many people to see the show as possible, I simply ran one 3 1/2 minute sequence continuously, that way the cars would watch and quickly skedaddle.... Bottom line... see what the traffic looks like and adjust from there. If traffic is light, run as many songs as you want. If you're overloaded, do the opposite.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaynee Posted November 30, 2015 Author Share Posted November 30, 2015 Thought I'd update here. This weekend we got everything installed, and using our surveillance cameras, we did a traffic count on the static display without any LOR show running (we won't be starting the show until Wednesday or Thursday evening) On Saturday from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. we had a total of 150 cars go by the house, and only 9 actually stopped for any length of time. We had six families walk by and stop to look at everything. On Sunday from 6:00-7:00 p.m. we had a total of 225 cars go by the house, with 14 stopping for some time to look at everything. Again we had six families walk by (but only stopped for 10-15 seconds since it was beginning to rain). Of course, this was a holiday weekend so there were a lot people out of town to see family, so I'm going to do another count tonight from 5:30 (the time our lights come on) to 6:30 p.m. I'll be curious about tonight's count since that'll be "rush hour" when people are coming home from work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randytenn Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 We run back to back sequences. It's amazing how some people will sit and watch the entire 58 minute show, and some people will drive up and spend 15 seconds and leave. We are fortunate to have some parking areas, so people do get out and watch. I'm always concerned about traffic and neighbors, but in the previous three years, this is not been a problem. go for the sequence show, because you can always back down from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaynee Posted November 30, 2015 Author Share Posted November 30, 2015 We have no street parking in the entire neighborhood and the road is only wide enough for traffic each direction - so I'm loathe to have continuing sequences. Instead, I've created a 2-hour block that alternates between: 1) A welcome announcement and traffic request2) A sequenced song3) A thank you announcement and traffic request4) A static song5) A welcome announcement and traffic request6) A sequenced song7) A thank you announcement and traffic request8) A static song etc. for the full two hours. I'm using the same 4-5 programmed songs throughout, but the static songs are all different. I recorded 4 different announcements to go between the songs, which cycle and repeat. We have about 250 candy canes ready to pass out to those that sit and watch the show for a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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