First Season - Tips & Tricks?

[H3RRS]

Hello All,

After years of thinking and contemplating, I have finally made the commitment to the Holiday Display Community! My first season will be the 2018 season, but I have been doing some research and want to have all the knowledge I can, before diving headfirst with my purchases. I will be using ALL LOR products and be investing only with LOR (Controllers, software, accessories.)

I have been looking at the "starter" packages via LOR and have been really looking into what to purchase. My first season (2018) will be small, but I am looking into about at 10,000 lights for my first show. I will not have RGB my first season, but will be adding that into the 2019 season. If possible, can you kindly advise how many controllers I may need? I am looking into the the "Residential" series. Any tips and tricks, will be truly appreciated, as I embark on this great journey, in which I hope to grow and grow!

Thank you all and I look forward of being apart of such a great community!

-H3RRS

[TBS99]

Download the free software and learn as much as you can on how to sequence. This will give you plenty of time to make you own sequences to your liking and learn to create a show in the visualizer to determine how many controllers it will take to make what you want. I started my first year 2016 with 4 controllers which I found very quickly that was not enough. I am always wanting to build new props. Right now I have 8 and already planning to buy more for next years show. Be forewarned that this is a very addicting hobby and can get expensive very quickly. LOL. Do a lot of shopping around to find good deals. And remember you never have enough extension cords and SPT wire. Have fun with your adventure!

[Dennis Laff]

How many controllers you need depends on what type o f lights your going to use LEDs or incandescent  decide that first and where your going to place them.

[H3RRS]

12 hours ago, TBS99 said:

Download the free software and learn as much as you can on how to sequence. This will give you plenty of time to make you own sequences to your liking and learn to create a show in the visualizer to determine how many controllers it will take to make what you want. I started my first year 2016 with 4 controllers which I found very quickly that was not enough. I am always wanting to build new props. Right now I have 8 and already planning to buy more for next years show. Be forewarned that this is a very addicting hobby and can get expensive very quickly. LOL. Do a lot of shopping around to find good deals. And remember you never have enough extension cords and SPT wire. Have fun with your adventure!

Does LOR offer a free demo software? I will be using their software, so this would be great if I could get a jump on it!

-H3RRS

[H3RRS]

12 hours ago, Dennis Laff said:

How many controllers you need depends on what type o f lights your going to use LEDs or incandescent  decide that first and where your going to place them.

Thank you!

-H3RRS

[lightingnewb]

The software is free to use in demo mode when you download it. When you purchase a license, it activates the full power of the software. Make sure to take a picture of the front of your house during the brightest part of the day and when most of the house is visible from the street. Then, save this to your computer. You'll import this into the visualizer to create your lights "demo" -- The visualizer allows you to see your lights on your house while you sequence.

Use the Visualizer tool in the software to lay out your lights, then the sequence editor to animate them. Lots of resources are available to you. Beware, though, that many of us will be busy preparing for Halloween, and shortly after that - Christmas. We may not be around as much to help for these reasons. However, don't let this discourage you from asking us! We will make sure to answer your questions to the best of our ability. Please feel free to contact me via email and I can work with you one-on-one to set you up with the software and getting you started with animating lights. E-mail: goldinglights@gmail.com

Welcome to the lighting hobby, we're glad to have you onboard. Scour the forums and ask as many questions as you can, we're here to help you get ready.

[H3RRS]

13 minutes ago, lightingnewb said:

The software is free to use in demo mode when you download it. When you purchase a license, it activates the full power of the software. Make sure to take a picture of the front of your house during the brightest part of the day and when most of the house is visible from the street. Then, save this to your computer. You'll import this into the visualizer to create your lights "demo" -- The visualizer allows you to see your lights on your house while you sequence.

Use the Visualizer tool in the software to lay out your lights, then the sequence editor to animate them. Lots of resources are available to you. Beware, though, that many of us will be busy preparing for Halloween, and shortly after that - Christmas. We may not be around as much to help for these reasons. However, don't let this discourage you from asking us! We will make sure to answer your questions to the best of our ability. Please feel free to contact me via email and I can work with you one-on-one to set you up with the software and getting you started with animating lights. E-mail: goldinglights@gmail.com

Welcome to the lighting hobby, we're glad to have you onboard. Scour the forums and ask as many questions as you can, we're here to help you get ready.

Thank you! I have sent you an e-mail!

-H3RRS

[Sparky4u]

You can find many useful programming tips and tricks on utube.com. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Speedster]

If you don't have time to learn how to use the software and create your own sequences, and would rather not run your show from a computer, you might want to consider the TSO ShowTime Central Starter Package, especially if you like a lot of the TSO songs.  It's literally plug-and-play (or rather plug-and-show) and comes with everything you need to put on a 16-channel TSO light show.  That's what I bought during the summer sale, and I also bought extra ReadyToGo controllers for a 48-channel show.  The SD card with the TSO songs & light sequences has a 1-minute gap of silence between songs where the lights slowly fade in and out.  I found this annoying so I installed the software from the SD card and used the software to create a new SD card that has the just TSO songs & sequences,  and eliminated the 1-min gap of silence (much better now!).  I kept the songs in the same original order, but you can change the order if you want, and you can exclude any songs that you don't want to be part of your light show.

To add other songs to your light show, you can buy additional sequences from the sequence store, then buy the mp3s for them from Amazon.  Then you can use the software to create a new SD card with whatever songs you want.  I'm planning on doing a 2-part show with all the TSO shows in part 1, and about 8 - 10 other songs in part 2 (sequences purchased from the sequence store, mp3s purchased from Amazon).

Eventually I'll learn how to use the software to create my own sequences.  But if you're like me and don't have time to learn how to sequence a 60-minute light show, I strongly suggest going the TSO ShowTimeCentral Starter Package route and adding additional songs (sequences & mp3s) to the show via the Sequence Store & mp3 purchase from Amazon.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Speedster

[JPat]

On 10/19/2017 at 12:21 AM, Speedster said:

If you don't have time to learn how to use the software and create your own sequences, and would rather not run your show from a computer, you might want to consider the TSO ShowTime Central Starter Package, especially if you like a lot of the TSO songs.  It's literally plug-and-play (or rather plug-and-show) and comes with everything you need to put on a 16-channel TSO light show.  That's what I bought during the summer sale, and I also bought extra ReadyToGo controllers for a 48-channel show.  The SD card with the TSO songs & light sequences has a 1-minute gap of silence between songs where the lights slowly fade in and out.  I found this annoying so I installed the software from the SD card and used the software to create a new SD card that has the just TSO songs & sequences,  and eliminated the 1-min gap of silence (much better now!).  I kept the songs in the same original order, but you can change the order if you want, and you can exclude any songs that you don't want to be part of your light show.

To add other songs to your light show, you can buy additional sequences from the sequence store, then buy the mp3s for them from Amazon.  Then you can use the software to create a new SD card with whatever songs you want.  I'm planning on doing a 2-part show with all the TSO shows in part 1, and about 8 - 10 other songs in part 2 (sequences purchased from the sequence store, mp3s purchased from Amazon).

Eventually I'll learn how to use the software to create my own sequences.  But if you're like me and don't have time to learn how to sequence a 60-minute light show, I strongly suggest going the TSO ShowTimeCentral Starter Package route and adding additional songs (sequences & mp3s) to the show via the Sequence Store & mp3 purchase from Amazon.

Sequencing can be very time consuming but the reward is well worth it.  We have added to our display this year and currently working a few hours a day on the new items.

OP,   As I newbie last year my advice is to jump in ASAP and get familiar with the software.  I would also recommend buying your spool of SPT1 early and order double of what you think that you will need.