65,000 lights across 206 LOR channels

[Charles Belcher]

I finally managed to get the time to put these videos together. It
has been a very busy season for us. We have been featured in the Dallas
Guidelive, a newpaper media supplement and Guidelive.com, the on-line version of
the same. Both media are owned by Channel 8 in Dallas. We were also
chosen "Yard of the Month" for December in our city of Rowlett which
has 55,000 population and we were featured in the Rowlett newspaper.
Today another reporter from a Dallas newpaper called and we talked for
about 30 minutes. Needless to say this has driven traffic to our display
in a big way.


It poured down rain last Friday night and Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus danced
in the rain anyway. I put a tent up over the stage and about 200 people came in
their cars and stood outside under their umbrellas in disbelief that
the Santas would actually show up. Saturday night was beautiful and
we gave away 800 candy canes so we probably had around 1,000 people.
Sunday night we gave away about 500 candy canes.

Our display is an 18.5 minute series with no breaks and all of the
pieces segue from one to another. I have only made videos of three so I had to cut and paste somewhat to make it happen. The three videos listed below include a thoughtful piece, a traditional piece and an entertaining piece and are as follows:

The thoughtful piece is the "Gift of Giving" which is a program I put
together from 7 different songs plus my narration. It includes a choir of angels, an
angel who "flys" in from a 30' tree to play a harp with lighted
strings then "flys" back up again. LORII is driving a set of relays
which connect to a dc motor which raises and lowers the angel. During
the height of the piece a faux fireworks display is triggered off of
the roof peak.

The traditional piece is an unaltered version of "The Most Wonderful Time
of the Year" by Johnny Mathis. This one includes many of the 65,000
lights we have including the LED wash lights on the house and lawn, a snow machine and a fog machine which are controlled via the iDMX1000.

The third piece is the "Evolution of Dance by Mr. and Mrs. Santa
Claus" and includes 19 songs in 15 second segments rolled together
beginning with Elvis and ending with Justin Timberlake. The "We Wish
You a Merry Christmas" finale' concludes this piece.

The Gift of Giving

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Evolution of Dance by Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus

Dan and John, I hope 2008 settles down a bit for you. Thanks for everything.

Happy Holidays to everyone!!!!

Charles and Vickie Belcher

[LightORamaDan]

The dance video is my favorite.... you guys are insane (but cool)

As far as relaxing in 2008... we have plans that will dwarf what we accomplished in 2007. It is going to be a very busy year at Light-O-Rama...

[Brian Mitchell]

Yes, you guys are definitely insane. Are you out every night, all night? Or do you do this on weekends or something.
My wife, daughter and I do a little routine to Mr Heatmiser and Toy Sack but nothing like you do. Actually we don't do the routine if there are a lot of people watching, it's pretty pathetic....but fun.

Awesome Job!!

[Charles Belcher]

Brian,

We dance 8 shows a night Friday-Sunday nights only plus Christmas Eve and Christmas night and in-between shows we hand out candy canes. Monday-Thursday we have a regular "lightstomusic" show and change up the music.

Charles

[Charles Belcher]

Dan,

Glad you liked it--put it on your website:D The iDMX1000 worked like a charm. Next year, if all goes as planned, we will do LED tubes (2"x30") across the roof like DECK THE HALLS. Each tube is 30 dmx channels and we will have 5 banks of 27 units so lots of dmx channels.

Charles

[Guest wbottomley]

Charles... you have one fine display! The dancing just makes it perfect. My 2.5 year-old loves watching your part on the Holiday Lights 2006 video.

That's what Christmas is all about.

[Charles Belcher]

Mountainwxman,

Spreading joy and having fun is what we try to do for our guests.

Thanks for the compliments.

Charles

[tkhowse]

Can you explain how you made the angel move up and down? That was a really neat effect.

[Charles Belcher]

Timothy,

One channel for up, another channel for down. Each channel fed a separate 120v relay which when "hot" allowed the 12V dc battery to activate the 12v dc motor. I used 60lb "Spider Wire" and a 4:1 mechanical block and tackle set up.

Charles

[lkcubsrule]

That fog is AMAZING! I LOVE that effect...may have to get myself some! I've never seen that before! AMAZING DISPLAY!

[Charles Belcher]

Luke,

It is a really effective way of making the lights POP out; especially when you use a wash light background to a bulb foreground.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Charles

[Charles Belcher]

This publicity we have been receiving is driving too much traffic to our house! We handed out over 1500 candy canes tonight from 6:00pm until 10:00pm and it took my daughter, my neighbor and his daughter and one other neighbor to handle the cars. We ended up making our street one way for the night.

Charles