Starting back after 8 years..

[roknjohn]

My last LOR show was in 2015 (240ch, 80K lights).  Work and travel has prevented me from setting my show up over the years, but my kids (now in high school) have been begging for me to do it one more time.  So, I decided to give it a go this year.  The show if mostly up.  Just got through with all of the "high" work today.  It looks like everything will be ready for next weekend.  I use mostly incan minis, even on the roof line.  Of course, I had to replace 100 sets of blue.  I'm curious though on what has changed over the last 8 years.  I'm sure most folks are going pixels, but I like the more traditional look.   I wouldn't mind having nonfading LEDs.    Are people using LED super-strings?  If I were to revamp my show for next year, what do yall suggest I use to replace the 100+ super strings that I use?

 

 

[rcktpwrd]

We use almost all LED strings, started out with generic store bought strings, walmart, biglots, lowes, homedepot... The past few years we have been changing over to commercial LEDs, as they become too damaged to repair, from https://www.holiday-light-express.com/ We use mainly the M6 style. 

Edited December 4, 2023 by rcktpwrd

[k6ccc]

A plus for using commercial LED strings rather that big box store lights.

 

[LaughsBrightly]

Welcome Back!!!

Honestly, I've seen very little change in the last few years. Most in the area have moved to pixels, but I am quite content keeping the traditional look, but using the LEDs for the clean and modern look (and less power)

We completed our conversion from incandescent to LED this year. Sticking with the Wal-Mart strings, but the strobes are commercial (Christmas Light Emporium)l. . I replaced the icicles and C7s on my roof line with LED tapes and love the look (so much easier to install).  Looking at a ribbon tree with ribbons from Wow Lights.

Blue lights (LEDs at least) I guess are harder to make and have a far higher failure rate. I replace about 20 a year on my tree.

I also have noticed fewer people locally are sequencing lots of new songs each year. We all seem to be so busy we are re-using a lot of sequences.

 

[Orville]

Superstrings, I'd say most folks that used those now use RGB Pixels, one port handles 100 RGB lights, and depending on Pixel Controller up to 170.  More if using additional options.

I use 150 as a maximum per port on my Pixie controllers (Pixie 4's and a Pixie 16).

So, one RGB string did away with the multiple strings of 3 or 4 different colors.  No more struggling tying(zip tie) several strings together, trying to keep the bulbs together and best of all no 120VAC extension cords going to them, 12V RGB C9, Bullets or square nodes make this so much easier to accomplush and with more colors.

The RGB C9's or Strawberry strings still look quite traditional, just not old fashioned traditional.  You might want go check into them, believe me, been well worth the transition to RGB.  Been a time saver on getting my display up faster too.  At least it would be if we hadn't had an over-abundance of rain this year(Nov. 2023) in my area of Florida.  Which has delayed my display by almost 3 weeks in getting it set up.  Usually start a week or so before official show Thanksgiving night, yhis year I still haven't got everything out and connected, and ut's alrwady Dec. 4, and I haven't even ran my first musical Christmas sequence or show yet.😕

I thought about not bothering putting up a display at all, but the neighbors were all asking, when are you going to get your shoelw going?  So I'm doing the best I can to get things done, but will be a very limited show for this year, just not enough time to update all sequences to the new RGB props or sequence many of the songs I had intended to so this year.  So a much shorter show for this year.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Orville

[dgander]

I have decided to stay all LED AC. It really is a personal preference and also depends if you use lights more than just for one season (other holiday's, just normal lighting everyday, etc). I have bought commercial and store brand. The biggest suggestion is to just make sure the LED can dim. Not all LEDs dim. Personally, I have not found any reliability differences between "name brand" strings and commercial. I have had issues with commercial and with store brands as well. I have had luck with Philips, GE Staybright and even Sylvania from BJs. I can say I had very bad luck with the Home Depot store brand several years ago. I will echo, blue does seem to be an issue. They seem to change hue over time. I had an old warm white philips string that I used for 15 years that I just finally replaced. I also replaced one string I got just last year. I just don't think there is a great difference, you just have to get what works well for you. What I look for now are strings that stay lit even if a bulb is missing. Damn squirrels love to take them and with a lot of bulbs, sometimes it is hard to see that one missing bulb that is causing a whole section not to light. Most of my new strings will light even with the bulb missing. As for RGB, I will leave that up to those using them. Definitely some advantages to them but it comes with detail in programming. All up to how much time you want to sequence and string.

[Don]

If you want to stay LED, then go for it. Just because RGB's are all the rage doesn't mean you have to follow suit. 

I can tell you that in a few of the displays I'm involved with, the LED parts of the display are no less attended than the RGB. 

[Tim Fischer]

Pixels can look like LED stringers if that's how you program them. At this point I don't think there's much use in buying "dumb RGB" in general... Pixels are so cheap and give you more flexibility. And you can always program them as "dumb" if you so choose.

"All pixel shows" tend to have a certain look. I've been trying to figure out what it is... but like you it's not the look I want for my own display (not dissing anyone's display, I still like going to see them and watching their videos). I redid my mega-tree in Pixels in 2012 and worked hard to make it not look "pixel". I re-redid it this year for 2023 and kept that same aesthetic, I hope. 

My display has been built up over 20 years and contains a bit of everything... and I like it that way. We used to be the highest-tech-looking display in the Twin Cities but now people call it "traditional" lol (even though I have a ton of pixels as well)

 

[Tim Fischer]

As for what to do next year... for starters definitely upgrade to LOR S6 and get familiar with it. There's a large learning curve but it's worth it. 

Spend a lot of time on your preview and getting motion rows. If you, like me, have older LOR hardware it doesn't directly support motion rows. But there's a workaround: just run your older boxes in DMX mode. I switched to all DMX this year, eliminating the LOR proprietary network I've used since 2003. I already ran a lot of DMX so this simplified my wiring as well. I made some adapters to get to the correct pinout... eventually I'll post more info about those.  It's dumb that LOR limited motion rows to Gen 3 controllers... they say it's a hardware limitation but I don't see how since I'm still using that hardware with motion rows under DMX. Maybe it's an LOR protocol thing...

But anyway, motion rows make programming things like rows of arches or other AC props much simpler.

I knocked out two new sequences this year at the last minute in record time. I haven't sequenced anything new for years, since it was just too daunting to do it in S4 and prior (I used xLights for my pixel effects since it was Nutcracker in 2012, but now I no longer need to).

[roknjohn]

Thanks all for the feedback.  Yes, it took me a few minutes to clean away the cobwebs, but I got back in the hang of it with S3.  Luckily, I was able to salvage most of my show from 2015 without having to do a lot of sequencing.   I run my show from an old WinXP notebook, which hasn't moved in 8 years.   I fired it up, plugged in the cat5 that was still routed out to the garage, flipped on the radio transmitter and it came to life!   I had a few "bad" channel that needed remapping, but other than that the show works.  Last night was the first show.  I must admit, I can feel the "bug" coming back.  Already thinking about building new props for "next year".

I've also been thinking about how much of an investment switching to LED would be.  I don't think that I would be happy with RGB, be cause I like the look of a prop, e.g. bush, when it changes color using a superstring.  The lights "move".  Just have  a bulb change color isn't what I'm going for.

I do want to get away from incans, though, but if my count was right, I just hung over a half mile of superstrings:  140 superstrings, plus 200ft of icicle, and about 120 strands of clear.    So what could I expect to pay for 700-800 (100ct equivalent, 21') LED strings, in 150 Red, 150 Green, 150 Blue and 250-350 Warm White? (70ct, M6, 4" spacing, I guess)

[rcktpwrd]

It will be expensive to do a wholesale change over from incan to led, especially if you go with a commercial grade led. It will be worth it, they use less energy, the colors are brighter and more vibrant. 

The commercial grade strings have sealed bulbs and are rectified, also the spacing is much more precise. 

[Tim Fischer]

Maybe buy some pixels and see if you can get the effect that you want. I absolutely want that classic look as well, not the modern pixel display look. Just this past weekend I had some xlights pixel users over and was complemented at how "retro" my display looked. Made me chuckle as 21 years ago we were the first music-synced display in the Minneapolis area, and thus the most technically advanced... and now we're 'retro' lol. But honestly that's always the look I've been going for: home-grown with a little tech thrown in. I absolutely am not going for the "everything punched into neat rows of coro or strip" look that virtually every all-pixel display goes for. Not dissing those displays at all... just not what I want for mine.

That said if I were starting over and wanting multi-color props I would personally not be looking at "super strings" anymore. In 2012 I switched out my old incan mega-tree which was one of the first to use "super strings" and be 3 color, with pixels. I programmed maybe half the show to use the old original sequencing from my original tree, and the other half to do some more modern pixel effects, at that time generated by Nutcracker/xLights and imported back into LOR.

Anyway... you'll have to figure out what meets your design aesthetic. In this day when I can buy pixels for $17/100 shipped, it makes little sense for me to recommend "super strings" of standard LEDs where you'll spend upwards of $15/100 x the number of colors you want, and then have a tiny fraction of the flexibility. As I mentioned above, you can program pixels to look like dumb stringers, but you can't program dumb stringers to look like pixels. 

But ultimately it's your display and your design aesthetic.

[Dr_Aplet]

My display has Incandescent, LED, and RGB floods.  I would just run what you have until you want or need to replace them.  There are some Pixel things that i like and want to add.  Peace stakes for example add tremendous movement for such a simple thing.  I have been watching great american light fight an i am amazed at how little the Pixel people win the show even though their shows are usually technically perfect and far more advanced.  But i think i can relate this way.  With the digital age in music the clarity of sound was so great compared to a record or a tape that people were adding the warmth that comes from a record, tape or even tubes.  Incans have a warmth that led will never be able to have and incan and led have a personality that RGB does not have and vice versa.  RGBs are super clean and uniform.  But that is not always what people want.  I would say use them all where they fit.  Use floods, incans, leds and RGB(Pixels) to make your show complete then add your stamp too.   My show is mostly vintage music like Bing Crosby but i dont play the music on a record player either.  We use all the part to make one whole.  Retire the parts you are not excited about and add whatever tickles your fancy.  

[roknjohn]

Well, the show was a success, despite a wind storm knocking over my 24' mega tree.  Folks were surely glad to see the show return this year.  I may have the "bug" again, as I have lots of ideas for next year.