uncledan Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 "We need to expand next year" are great words coming out of the wife's mouth. Sounds like mine. I bit off more than I could chew this year. But when wife told me I needed to added pixel tree, I gave in.. She really had to twist my arm. Its great having a spouse that supports my addiction. At least one of them. LOL. I should change my name to 1965FordMustang351W, like 1983ss454. That costs more than lights Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 The home with the gazzilion intelligent pixels in El Paso, was sure nice but the cost of all those must have been staggering. As others have indicated, he didn't do it alone either. Obviously he's well off with a huge home and his own business to support it and all the power too him for earning his way!!! How many of us can afford quantities of pixel nodes like he has? The computer needed would be something else with a lot of individual TCPIP ports along with multiple controllers out there. So unless he's a computer expert, he paid someone to figure it out for him. I'd love to see how he did it but even so, I could never afford that many lights. I looked yesterday at Ray Wu's site and the strings I'm using are now $17 each....ouch when it comes to huge quantities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1983ss454 Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 5. Bring in Professionals... Putting up a spectacular Christmas display isn't easy. Fred Loya contracted his maintenance chief to produce his amazing Christmas lights show, and the man spent the entire year searching for the best people who could help put on the most spectacular show possible. He also brings in electricians, and sound technicians, hires off duty cops to control the crowds, and flew in a computer programmer from California for his Christmas spectacular. This was in an article online about putting on large shows, they interviewed Fred for the article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffF Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Sounds like the show is now open to commercial displays... so why doesn't Disney enter? But for real... dude has all those people working on his display so I can't see why it's put in the same category as the DIYers. Make yet another new show, this time for commercial displays maybe?Personally, I like seeing the more realistic displays. The show doesn't hold my interest when the displays are waaaaaaaay over the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbaker4 Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 (edited) Looks like ABC got wind of Fred Loya back in 2011... http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/20-secrets-unbelievable-christmas-lights-displays/story?id=15207047 I saw one article that said he had over 65,000 intelligent RGB Leds. (Perhaps more now). I agree they should level the playing field... have displays like Brian Larsen's and Fred Loya's compete with each other. It also makes me wonder if Holdman's home display was up against Loya's - who would win? Edited December 10, 2014 by wbaker4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Disney owns ABC so they can't, nor can their employees...like the guy in California, http://www.lightsondisplay.com/#, he's amazing but works for Disney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_dog_501 Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Big surprise that the Disney House won on ABC network show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince4xmas Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Max-Paul regarding Allen-Bradley PLC's. I ran the last 4 years using an Allen-Bradley SLC500 PLC with 12 slot rack of relay output cards. I changed over this year to LOR and sold all my PLC stuff online.Writing PLC logic code took forever and started having relays fail on my output cards. Also, AB Logix software could only run on a XP based PC. I did it for 4 years but glad I switched over to LOR as programming is easier as well as I could get rid of all the "homerun" multi-conductor cables that ran back to my one and only PLC rack. Knowing what I know now, I should have switched over to LOR years ago. Just had the PLC equipment on hand and decided to use it for my Christmas Lights. I have a lot of experience regarding AB PLC's due to my background. If you need any additional information, please let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 (edited) I know some about PLCs too but never wrote software for them. It was already done where we were using it before I retired. Very fast and good system for controlling industrial items. Most of my software was written for high speed data acquistion and control systems but was mostly all HPIB/GPIB with some fiber TCPIP comm too. Either he fabricated an interface for them to LOR or LOR could somehow talk to them already. It looked like it was LOR running his show but I'm not sure about that. Edited December 10, 2014 by dgrant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince4xmas Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 If he was using LOR software, curious to see how it was interfaced to PLC. Don't see how it could be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randyman Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Does anyone have any specifics on the Fred Loya display? What software do they use? I kinda have pixel envy.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Cockroft Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Loya uses Madrix software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iflights Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 http://livedesignonline.com/elation-helps-create-holiday-spectacle-abcs-great-christmas-light-fight-winner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 http://livedesignonline.com/elation-helps-create-holiday-spectacle-abcs-great-christmas-light-fight-winnerHere is a clip from the above. Lighting control is from Elation CompuShow PC lighting software using the easyshow timeline to trigger all the fixtures. CompuShow also triggers a Madrix LED lighting controller which handles the mapping of almost 400 universes of RGB Christmas lights. So looks like alot of expensive stuff tied together. First the CompuShow software then the Madrix software. Did you see all of the professional lights he used. I agree, Fred should have been in a different category than the other folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KStatefan Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 (edited) I am looking forward to seeing the house in San Antonio on tonights show. Edited December 16, 2014 by KStatefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 Ya about 35 more minutes here in St. Louis. Cool, lived in S.A. for a few years back in the mid 80s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhunt240 Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Theres a local house from Owensboro on the show tonight, i dont think its very impressive but it looks good.... i doubt he has a chance but we'll see Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 He was not my #1, but not last place either. The show has 2 or 3 that a tough to choose from. And almost always one that hits bottom real quick with me. But you just got to salute all 8 houses. There is no way I would want to compete with any of them. My show is the biggest around here in the sticks. I was told by the OATs driver (transport for retirees) that a few who have seen my display in the past few years were looking forward to seeing my display this year. I decided to take this year off. Well those retirees are disappointed that I will not be running this year. That is enough for me. I do not desire to do a local TV or newspaper, news blurp. And surely not looking to be on national TV. So, I have to bow down to all of the shows. But if I had to vote, then the above statements about the one is easy to toss to the side and then get down to the 2 or 3 others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KStatefan Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 I thought all four displays on the first hour were good. The one complaint that I have is this is the second time the first hour winner was Disney themed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iflights Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 I would like to see Loya's house competing with this one. This is Paul Tudor's house. Sorry, they've not yet posted 2014. http://eclecticprecision.com/#/holiday2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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