I Know, I Know

[AZ Griswolds]

Another newbie wanting to jump on the bandwagon of animation. First let me start by saying y'all are AMAZING!!!! Next, when are the absolute best times to buy from here? I see Summer but like around what months and dates?

Now, onto my MAIN question, I currently have all LED lights, everything ran off 1 - 20amp circuit with one set of outlets on each side of the house. I have upgraded the electrical just because and now have an additional set of outlets on the non-garage side on its own 20amp circuit. I've added a 4 bank of outlets on the garage side with its own 20amp circuit. I installed a pass through pipe on the garage side with twist off caps to allow wiring to go from my garage inside to the outside and have added a 4 bank of outlets on its own 20amp circuit inside the garage. Everything is right at my 15' bench/work station. I've seen others setups and love how signal and power all run through what appears to look like XLR cables and I've seen some running RJ45 looking cabling.

I'm so lost as to where to start?!?! I'm a fast learner and just need some guidance. Do I use what I have or just start from scratch? I think using what I have will be a little boring making it all just blink on and off to the sound of music. I love how y'all can basically build a giant led wall and get video on it, I was thinking of doing that over the garage doors and maybe on the roof or something. I'm thinking I will replace fencing we just built for 4' tall leaping arches which I'll build. My flagpole can go up to 30' and the base is 10' dia, could I make this into a giant pixel tree? UGHHHH so many questions!!!!

I guess really is where should I start small to fiddle to get an idea of how it all works? A small setup I can just play with in the garage to see how the software works? I'm looking to get a new Windows laptop hopefully this week just for this since I'm a MAC guy LOL.... Thanks again everyone in advance! Heres my display from last year. 

 

 

[ItsMeBobO]

Welcome AZ Grizwolds!   I am never the first responder but somehow it worked out that way this time.      That is one awesome static display!    You have what it takes to animate, no question about that.   

There are many ways to do everything you mention.  But it does take   planning    time and a budget.    Yes you will need a PC but two would be better!   A smaller one dedicated to running your show and a better one for sequencing.  Many people use a single one.  But you cant correct a sequence or check it while the show is running.  The larger your show the more need there is for a sequencing machine.  

 

[AZ Griswolds]

Okay, so maybe start off with a laptop, small setup to tinker with in the garage and learn the software and how it works with the hardware and then when I'm ready to move forward buy a PC Desktop, dual monitors and the rest of my equipment and send it LOL!!! I know I won't be able to have it rolling this Christmas but plans are to know how all this works, buy everything on the Summer Sale and be ready for next Christmas.

Is the Summer Sale the best sale of the year?

[PhilMassey]

While you are deciding what route to take, you could download the LOR software demo and start to get a feel for it. It is fully functioning except you can't  control actual lights until you buy a licence 

There are several starter packages which include the hardware and software in the LOR store.

There are usually two sales during a normal year.

The spring  mad grab sale with limited quantities and a time limit. First come, first served.

The summer sale ( just finished) with unlimited quantities but not quite such deep discounts, typically 

[AZ Griswolds]

Thanks PhilMassey! Do you roughly know when the Spring Mad Grab Sale runs?

[k6ccc]

April (give or take) for the spring sale.

 

[tlogan]

Welcome to the club! Great static display to start with, so you should have pretty good ideas about what you want to do already, which is a big plus.

You've gotten good advice already. I would just throw out there that you should start out using the S5 version of the software. There is a learning curve from S4, so you can save yourself a lot of time by starting on S5.

Good luck!