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I'm "live"! It's awesome!


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Posted

I went live on Saturday. Literally worked up until the last minute getting everything ready. Showtime was 5pm, I finished working at 4:50pm. What a mad rush to get everything finished. Had most of my stuff done on Friday afternoon. Then we had a windy night and 3 of my 4 signs got blown down...so had to change their design and redo them. Followed by a computer challenge...I had all my songs set up and ready on a thumb drive on my laptop, I went to transfer it all onto the show computer. It transfered fine, but the links to the songs were all lost. I had to go into each song/sound bite and do the "edit media file" thing. Then lights on at 5pm. First song went off perfect. Next one had no lights. Huh?? Realized that I hadn't checked the controller/channel numbers on the borrowed sequences. Mad scramble to make sure all the channels were labeled right. Lights back on at 5:45. Finally, all was working well.

It's absolutely awesome. Even though I only have 16 channels, I'm thrilled. I've got 8 minitrees and 8 light strand trees. My kids love it, they went outside and rode their scooters for hours on our walkway watching the show. After the kids went to bed, I sat with my wife and had a nice glass of wine and watched from our window. It was cool to see the results of our hard work. Of course, my mind was also going 100mph with ideas for next year... :D

The biggest challenge we have is parking and finding places for people to stop and watch. We live on a country road, not a development. No shoulder on the road. I've set up an area on our side yard that people can park, but the view isn't ideal. I think next year I'll rotate our display so that it faces the part of our yard people can park in, instead of facing the street.

Anyhow, I wanted to thank everyone for their support. Not only the direct support I got from so many people here, but also reading all the posts from you experienced folks. I couldn't have done it without all the help, especially the sharing of sequences. Sequencing is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I'm learning. I'll start sequencing for next year really soon.

I'll try to grab some video, but our yard is fairly wide so not sure if I can get it all in camera view. Thanks again for all the help, I'm hooked on this!!

  • Like 1
Posted

You'll get the same or better great feeling next year too! Congrats!

Posted

I never get tired of seeing it for the first time each year. Still gives me the same shivers as it did the very first year. Enjoy!

Posted

I went live on Saturday. Literally worked up until the last minute getting everything ready. Showtime was 5pm, I finished working at 4:50pm. What a mad rush to get everything finished. Had most of my stuff done on Friday afternoon. Then we had a windy night and 3 of my 4 signs got blown down...so had to change their design and redo them. Followed by a computer challenge...I had all my songs set up and ready on a thumb drive on my laptop, I went to transfer it all onto the show computer. It transfered fine, but the links to the songs were all lost. I had to go into each song/sound bite and do the "edit media file" thing. Then lights on at 5pm. First song went off perfect. Next one had no lights. Huh?? Realized that I hadn't checked the controller/channel numbers on the borrowed sequences. Mad scramble to make sure all the channels were labeled right. Lights back on at 5:45. Finally, all was working well.

It's absolutely awesome. Even though I only have 16 channels, I'm thrilled. I've got 8 minitrees and 8 light strand trees. My kids love it, they went outside and rode their scooters for hours on our walkway watching the show. After the kids went to bed, I sat with my wife and had a nice glass of wine and watched from our window. It was cool to see the results of our hard work. Of course, my mind was also going 100mph with ideas for next year... :D

The biggest challenge we have is parking and finding places for people to stop and watch. We live on a country road, not a development. No shoulder on the road. I've set up an area on our side yard that people can park, but the view isn't ideal. I think next year I'll rotate our display so that it faces the part of our yard people can park in, instead of facing the street.

Anyhow, I wanted to thank everyone for their support. Not only the direct support I got from so many people here, but also reading all the posts from you experienced folks. I couldn't have done it without all the help, especially the sharing of sequences. Sequencing is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I'm learning. I'll start sequencing for next year really soon.

I'll try to grab some video, but our yard is fairly wide so not sure if I can get it all in camera view. Thanks again for all the help, I'm hooked on this!!

I had that joy three seasons back, worked frantically until the last minute. In my case nothing work, spent hours retracing everything to find out I had never plugged in the controllers. Felt really stupid but 5mins later it was "WOW"!!

  • Like 1
Posted

I feel ya...I have been going nonstop the past three days and was working all the way up to show time @ 6pm last night. Went to start and laptop was being screwy, first song was acting up, one of my channels wasn't working, and lights out on a mini tree. One hr later, after switching laptops, fixing channel configuration, plugging in an ext cord that came undone, and replacing bulb. Show is now up and running smoothly :)

Posted

SO cool. That story reminds me very much of my first year; the missteps and the enjoyment at the end. Wonderful. Cheers to you!

Posted

I just placed an order for my first 16 channel controller and software. I live in the middle of the woods and no one will even see it but my wife and kids, haha. Can't wait to get something set up and try it out. Always wanted to do this and decided it was now time to pull the trigger even if its just for the kiddos. (and me haha) They are 4 and 2.

Posted

Best of luck with your show, mighty-mace. Start working on the sequences now while you are waiting on your controller. Here is an excellent list of sequences which you can customize:

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B86vzf3chl0oTjdPRjRNa1oyVzA/edit?pli=1

My show is nearly ready to go. Couple of unknown bugs in the show editor and schedule editor but I'll figure them out. It still looks awesome to have everything going.

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