What would your Ideal LOR Setup be if building a new house?

[tjschroeder17]

Let's say you're quite affluent, and designing a beautiful new house for your family and dog in a safe suburb with great schools. You're completely in charge of the construction, and you can be sure it wall fall under budget no matter all the glitz and features you pack into your LOR mansion. 

 

What do you incorporate into the design of your new house to help create the best light show ever?

 

 

First and most obviously, outlets. Outlets everywhere. However, instead of these outlets plugging into the normal power system, each one will be connected to a corresponding dongle hanging from the wall in my LOR office. So for every outlet on the outside of my house, there will be the male end of an extension cord dangling in my office waiting to be plugged into one of my LOR controllers. That way, instead of running cords from my controllers in the yard to my elements, I can just plug them into the nearest yard outlet that will eventually plug into a LOR controller on the inside of my house.

 

I like the idea of having four "sprinkler system valve boxes" out in the yard, each with 8 outlets that will be on the LOR power system I just described. Plus, I'll need more outlets in the soffit of my roof, and on both sides of my house. More outlets will obviously be installed near and around the landscaping so those lights will have a short length to run before being plugged in. 

 

That brings me to my second point, my show office/workshop. I would like for this space to be separated from my garage. It will include enough room to store all the decorations, provide desk space for some light sequencing, HDTV displays, breaker boxes, and a urinal. This space will also include my controller bay that will connect to the dongles from the outdoor outlet system. It will be a geek's paradise.

 

These are the main two ideas that I have in mind for my Light O Rama house. What ideas would you like?!

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Trent

[jstorms]

* No street lights next to the property.

* House that is somewhat balanced and symmetrical.

* A flat or elevated lot, not a recessed lot. (also helps drainage)

* Sidewalk on other side of street.

* Smooth surface house that washes well with flood lights.

* House on a loop so traffic can flow in one direction. Not a house on a cul-de-sac with a very small yard-line along the road.

* Low pitched roof so you can work on it without falling off.

* Trees that do not obscure the front of the house.

* Outlets on either side of front door.

* Gutters everywhere on front of house.

* Deep front yard so there is room for lights and inflatables.

* Yard with 12" of soil with no rocks

* House with no front neighbors (a wall, another street, etc. in front)

* Multiple dedicated power circuits.

* Landscaping power outlets along with Cat5 outlets.

* Conduit under sidewalks and driveway.

* A partial pergola over garage door. (I have this and it rules)

* Outlets on eves for remote cameras.

* Roof accessible by a trap door from attic.

* Outdoor speakers on front of house.

* Indoor outlets under front-facing windows that terminate in garage.

* Nicely sculpted landscaping in front yard, including lollipop shaped trees.

* Covered porch or 2nd story balcony giving easy access to entire front face of house.

 

* Best: House with a nice looking back that faces a street in the back. Do the show from behind the house and not have to worry about the traffic out front.

[viennaxmas]

Ha - I can at least do the "Back of the house" part. Even better: it is adjunct to a strip mall parking lot so plenty of space for viewers. Only caveat - the stupid street lights in the parking lot... Still trying to figure out how to get those turned off...

[steve synek]

Speaking from experience to the first part, I had 56 channels- 4 colors each location- wired directly on the house to every window, door, gutter and roof area to a control panel in the basement. My computer is located in an upstairs bedroom overlooking the front yard. I suggest wiring with conduit instead of some other method so when you move in the pixel direction, you can use the raceways for LV wiring. I tore everything out this year and converted back to standard outlets to power LV transformer. I also had to combine some outlets and add timers controlling my CCPs so the garage door opener works during non show hours. This hobby is ever changing so think flexible................spare raceways from your control center to other parts of the house helps with options for future changes.

It takes 6 CCPs and 8 CCRs to outline my house. Between CAT5 and power cords, I don't think you will see more than 50' of exposed wire due to wire management.

The good part was I didn't need to spend any $$$$$ on extension cords .......I still only use about 200 ft. of extension cord for my show- Layout is everything. My pride is in wire management and construction, not so much in programming.

Sorry if this turned into my boasting, but I am proud of my display both day and night- I live in a LOR paradise .

( I am not affluent, but I sink a lot of time into lights!!!!!)

Steve

[Orville]

I would forgo all the traditional LED and Incandescent lights, I would have all DC outlets and have all exterior walls and the roof covered in an RGBW matrix system, all controllers in attic space keeping all wiring hidden.  Would still use an DC-MP3 Showtime Director to run the show.

 

All walls and roof would also be covered with some type of plexiglass for protection, and would also obscure the matrix during daylight hours.  FM transmitter in attic, attic would also be air conditioned and be the work room for the LOR computer.  Outdoor speakers built into all eaves all around the house and accessible from inside attic for replacement if and when needed.

 

And finally there would be a couple of CTB16PC controllers wired to outdoor outlets for some exterior ground lighting, blow molds and off season garden lighting.

 

Now for the inside, again all walls would be an RGBW matrix and also serve as a large theatre system from within any room in the house.  There would be a couple more CTB16PC controllers wired to inside outlets as well, these would be for any additional interior lighting or use a security lighting to turn lights off and on throughout the house, some of the dangles would be wired directly to some overhead light fixtures for this purpose.  I would also use color coded outlets to know which are CTB16PC and which are standard live 120VAC outlets for normal everyday use.  Would probaly use red or green outlets for the CTB16PC controller system.

[Crazydave]

I spent hours and hours planning everything before buying anything.

If i was building new:

1) raceways and conduit everywhere.

2) eves will have a channel dug into them for LED smart strip

[scubado]

I would focus more on what is needed for pixel and RGB strips.  The old 16 channel controllers will be history soon, also better to have the controllers close to the elements and not in a central location.  If you have controllers inside, plug your lines directly into the controller instead of having a butt load of plugs looking like a rats nest.

 

Do all your landscaping lights in LED's, plenty of different form factors and brightness to meet any need.  If it were me, I would do all interior lighting with low voltage led, not on a LOR network unless switchable to run online or offline.

 

If using conduit, don't use 1/2",  use 3/4" minimum for easy additions later.  Run at least two strings with your wire to help aid future additions.