New to LOR, 28,000 lights, 48 channels, oh and it's on a float.

[Swoop]

So myself and some dads from our kids Cub Scout Pack decided that for this year's float for the local Christmas Parade we wanted to go big or go home. So once we found out that the Parade theme this year was, "A Story Time Christmas", we put our heads together and came up with a plan. Why don't we make a Polar Express Train car. Then I added, well heck, why don't we do that, put a bunch of lights on it and sync it to music, everyone was in agreement and off we went.

Anyway to make a long story short below is what we ended up with. We had 3 songs, but only two are in the video below. You will have to ignore the person holding the camera, I think on a few occasions she almost got run over by a golf cart. Also she was walking backwards trying to film and we don't have a steadycam .

Some quick stats. This was my first year ever using LOR. I've wanted to do it on my house for years but never did. I will be next year.

48 Channels, 28,000 lights, had to be at least a few thousand zip ties, about 120 hours of work, 3 songs, my wife's laptop, 750 feet of SPT2 wire for custom length extension cords, a crap load of the $1.00 6 foot extension cords at Lowes oh and the most important thing. 2 Generators. Both are inverter generators. 1 is 4200 watts, the other is 2000 watts. We initially tried a regular style generator but it wouldn't allow us to chase or fade the lights. I still think we had a slight issue with the smaller generator because at the end of the second song in the video some of the channels that were on that generator were acting up, but it only happened a few times.

We found out yesterday that we won for best non commercial float and we also won the Grand Marshall award for best float for the whole parade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXeG2HhtLD8&hl=en&fs=1

[jimswinder]

Excellent Job!!!

Can't wait to see what you do with your house!!

[MikeZ]

Very cool, it looks great!

I remember lighting a homecoming float in high school manyyyyy years ago, and someone didn't realize you needed a gas and oil mixture for the generator. The show didn't last long! : /

[Swoop]

Here is another view someone shot, something happened to their sound though, it cuts out right as the video starts. But it's a better overall view of the float in the parade.