These lights fantastic would be worth the trip!
December 9, 2014 5:51 PM   Subscribe

By now, we've all seen those houses where the Christmas lights are synced to music, usually to 'Wizards In Winter' by the Trans-Siberia-Orchestra' (but not always.) Now, however, the bar has been raised considerably higher...
posted by Quasimike (43 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
OK, that's pretty awesome, but I would probably kill myself if I lived in a place like that.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:56 PM on December 9, 2014 [17 favorites]


It could be worse - you could live in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.

I try to bring a gang of friends there every year to bring flasks and take a walk and look at them all. It is AWESOME in an MST3K way.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:01 PM on December 9, 2014 [3 favorites]


oh my, but how about, "raised considerably lower"?
posted by sammyo at 6:18 PM on December 9, 2014 [5 favorites]


'shopped.






I am such a killjoy.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:20 PM on December 9, 2014 [3 favorites]


Conspicuous Celebration...
posted by jim in austin at 6:22 PM on December 9, 2014


Is that drone footage? That is remarkably stable and high-quality imagery..
posted by bird internet at 6:26 PM on December 9, 2014


What a bunch of assholes.
posted by angerbot at 6:33 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]


So, the street to the left are entirely non-xmasites? Because I don't see so much as a topiary uplight.

(Came home today to discover both a wreath on my front door and a tree in my living room. Must be my roommate's revenge for the OCD cleaning extravaganza that is Passover.)
posted by Dreidl at 6:46 PM on December 9, 2014


Is that drone footage? That is remarkably stable and high-quality imagery..

If you look at the details of the video on YouTube, it was released by a company that specializes in making viral videos. They probably found out about the street that does this, got the rights, rented or used their own high-quality drone with a stabilized camera gimbal.
posted by JauntyFedora at 6:53 PM on December 9, 2014 [2 favorites]


Yeah, at first I thought it was shopped or animation, but I think that may just be an artifact of the drone shot. A little Googling led me to this news bit from KXAN in Austin, TX, which has a link to the Yucaipa Christmas Facebook page. Said page has some ground-level cell-phone-quality videos on it, so I'm inclined to think it's real.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:59 PM on December 9, 2014


Actually, that was pretty shitty of me to say.


This is neat.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:01 PM on December 9, 2014


Ot course, it's still not Sexy and I Know It Christmas lights.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:02 PM on December 9, 2014 [18 favorites]


Well, damn, son.
posted by maryr at 7:38 PM on December 9, 2014


I like this one.

Animated faces are interesting. Maybe we'll eventually have a complete animation going on using the house as a backdrop.

People talk about the Internet of Things. I guess controlling the lights across a whole neighborhood is one of those things.
posted by eye of newt at 8:00 PM on December 9, 2014


Eh? No, this is the one.
posted by standardasparagus at 8:07 PM on December 9, 2014 [3 favorites]


I didn't know that drones could hover that steadily – that looks like footage from a ground-based camera. I mean, I realize that the raw video likely had shakiness and wobble that has been digitally stabilized, but even so – the drone can't have drifted more than a few inches from its holding position. Impressive.

There's one house – on the corner of the two streets, just above and left of center – that doesn't seem to have participated. Scrooges!

So what kind of equipment do I need to invest in if I want to do this next year? I'm vaguely familiar with DMX-512 lighting controllers, but these displays seem quite a bit simpler than that – simply turning different power feeds on and off, rather than sending digital control signals.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:19 PM on December 9, 2014


Also: it's a shame this wasn't shot at night! Seems like an odd choice.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:22 PM on December 9, 2014


Oh, derp – there's nighttime footage (with a different soundtrack) in the news article.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:23 PM on December 9, 2014


I was totally expecting the car to do something....
posted by magstheaxe at 8:46 PM on December 9, 2014


I'm vaguely familiar with DMX-512 lighting controllers, but these displays seem quite a bit simpler than that – simply turning different power feeds on and off, rather than sending digital control signals.

From some shots on their Facebook page, it looks like they're using software & products from Light-O-Rama (link is to the company's "Residential Light Controller Enclosure", which can use DMX or their proprietary network protocol.)

You could certainly do something on a smaller scale with some basic DMX dimmers and a controller.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:55 PM on December 9, 2014


Gah, what homeowners associations are making people do these days.
posted by daHIFI at 8:55 PM on December 9, 2014 [7 favorites]


I don't know.
I saw this one the other day, and coincidentally, watched that "Christmas lights contest" show on one of the networks.

They all seem to be an exercise in "More lights! Blink Faster! Faster!".
I admire the work, dedication, and coordination inherent in setting up a display like this.
I sure don't have the patience.

But honestly, it's pretty... boring.
I'd like to see one with some slow fades, some static elements.

Damnit, Internet, do things the way I want them!
posted by madajb at 10:21 PM on December 9, 2014 [2 favorites]


Is that drone footage? That is remarkably stable and high-quality imagery..

Cheap drones ($300-400) can get some pretty good footage.
More expensive ones ($1000+) can take amazing shots.
posted by madajb at 10:24 PM on December 9, 2014


1. Having a display like that is just shy of calling for justifiable homicide.
2. In the last video, I bet you $100 that the person in the house on the bottom right was asked to kindly turn off his lights during the DAYTIME shoot and his/her response was all "FUCK YOU I DO WHATTA WANT."
posted by nestor_makhno at 10:38 PM on December 9, 2014


Yeah, this video is completely in line with the footage I've seen pulled down from UASes in the $1k-$5k USD range. I wouldn't say "it deviated by only inches" -- I'd call it +/- a few meters (and it definitely drifts more than that in the middle of the video). The thing is that aerial video enthusiasts have developed a combination of good vibration damping (using rubber under compression to isolate the camera gimbal from the platform) and active stabilization (to keep the camera in a constant, stable orientation no matter what the platform it's attached to is doing). Also, most COTS UAS autopilots (and a good number of the DIY solutions) support GPS position hold, so you really can just park your UAS somewhere and say "stay put" for 5-10 minutes, no problem, even in moderately windy conditions.

I really want to read a writeup of how, technically, the lighting was synchronized over such a relatively large area. I can think of a few options, so I'm very curious what the actual solution was.
posted by Alterscape at 11:13 PM on December 9, 2014


Something I've never understood about these displays: they only really make sense with the music, so does this mean there are speakers outside somewhere blasting out the same power ballad every fifteen minutes for a month? Because that seems like it'd drive everyone involved crazy.
posted by metaBugs at 12:39 AM on December 10, 2014


From the Cadger one I get the impression that they use a low-power FM radio transmitter for the music so you can drive by and tune your car radio to their frequency.
posted by rhizome at 12:46 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Strong HOA in that neighborhood. "You vill celebrate ze Kringle vith us! Look! Ze drone!"

I like subdued, optional lights. I don't want to live in a beer commercial.
posted by pracowity at 12:52 AM on December 10, 2014 [3 favorites]


Makes sense.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 3:06 AM on December 10, 2014


So how does it go from kinda bright-and-sunsetty to dark in just 3 minutes?
posted by Bugbread at 3:39 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Never heard the Christmas Can Can song before.

It has markedly improved my day. Great post.
posted by Faintdreams at 4:38 AM on December 10, 2014


The DMX controllers I've seen only have three settings: stop, drop, shut 'em down & open up shop.
posted by dr_dank at 4:47 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Well, okay. I'm officiially old now.

The whole faster-briighter-louder-more thing has me so annoyed I can't even. It's sad. Every day I see heaps of trash lying in yards that infllate and light up at night. Some have moving elements, some have strobes. Half the houses on our street bear the same strings of "icicle" lights. "Licensed" images are everywhere.

One of our neighbors has a simple wooden creche. No lights, no inflatables. I'm not religious but it's my favorite house. It seems like a lonely rebel now.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:12 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


One of our neighbors has a simple wooden creche. No lights, no inflatables. I'm not religious but it's my favorite house.

In my parents' neighborhood, there's a street where everyone collaborates on their own block display on Christmas Eve - they save up gallon-size plastic jugs all year, from milk or whatever, and then put candles and sand in them and line their whole street with homemade luminiaras on Christmas Eve. Everyone has their own displays on their house as well (and since this is staid and traditional Cape Cod, usually it's just plain white lights and maybe a spotlight on the wreath on your door; one guy used the lights to make a peace sign his garage, but that's it), but there's this trail of luminiaras running the whole length of the street. It's gorgeous.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:26 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


The DMX controllers I've seen only have three settings: stop, drop, shut 'em down & open up shop.

Newer models also feature "Up in here" and "Go all out" modes.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:43 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Am I the only one who thought that the huge amounts of effort and technical coordination that obviously went into this were pretty much ruined by the fact that the lights were actually totally out of synch with the music? It seemed like it was at least half a beat out most of the time, and it was like watching a badly-done DVD rip where the audio gradually drifts out of synch with the video until everything looks dubbed even though it isn't. They went to all that work to do the light show, and then couldn't be bothered to tweak it so that it lined up properly with the music?
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:23 AM on December 10, 2014


The timing isn't perfect, but it doesn't seem that bad to me.

Honestly, I'm more impressed by the engineering here than the actual display. The musical selections are pretty uninspired, and the display itself is just a bunch of flickering. This show is impressive for its scale, but many of the single-house displays I've seen are far more artful.

When sequencing something like this, can you work with an on-screen mockup, rather than actual lights? Seems like it'd be pretty impractical otherwise. I mean, I know that's technically possible; I guess I'm just wondering whether the hardware/software used for this sort of thing supports it.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:42 AM on December 10, 2014


Am I the only one who thought that the huge amounts of effort and technical coordination that obviously went into this were pretty much ruined by the fact that the lights were actually totally out of synch with the music?

The music in the video is almost certainly over-dubbed.
So the failure is probably in video editing, not in the actual light display.
posted by madajb at 8:51 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


I think the desync came from Youtube. The 'considerably higher' video was rock-solidly on the music for me. I want to say that YT gets off-sync more often when you're using the Flash player; I was watching it on my iPad so definitely didn't get that. What were you watching on, AOANLA?
posted by egypturnash at 9:49 AM on December 10, 2014


I was using the Android YouTube app. And the music was definitely over-dubbed, it just seemed like a weird oversight not to bother synching the dub properly, after doing 99.9% of the work so well. But I guess it's just a software glitch, which I suppose is comforting. I'd hate for someone to go to all that trouble just to have it ruined in the very end by something stupid and sloppy.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:17 AM on December 10, 2014


I really want to read a writeup of how, technically, the lighting was synchronized over such a relatively large area. I can think of a few options, so I'm very curious what the actual solution was.

I mentioned above that I think they're using a software/hardware package from a company called Light-O-Rama.

Here's a page of "typical setups."

And lo and behold, the company sells a pre-programmmed 'Wizards in Winter' sequence where the basic programming is done, and the user can modify or add to the sequence as they choose.


When sequencing something like this, can you work with an on-screen mockup, rather than actual lights? Seems like it'd be pretty impractical otherwise. I mean, I know that's technically possible; I guess I'm just wondering whether the hardware/software used for this sort of thing supports it.

These are usually known as "visualizers", and it seems the Light-O-Rama software includes one. YouTube video tutorial for the visualizer.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:35 PM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Know why I don't play this game? I suffer from a rare condition called "UltraSound Ruined Me", ( which in this variation is called "Morpheus Lights Ruined Me" ).

I can't do things half-way, so my entry-point would be a real controller.. That's 20 - 30 grand, so that means rental. And down the rabbit hole I would go.

"the only winning move is not to play."
posted by mikelieman at 2:12 AM on December 11, 2014



escape from the potato planet: "I didn't know that drones could hover that steadily – that looks like footage from a ground-based camera. I mean, I realize that the raw video likely had shakiness and wobble that has been digitally stabilized, but even so – the drone can't have drifted more than a few inches from its holding position. Impressive."

Ya, I figured it for a boom lift shot for sure.
posted by Mitheral at 6:39 PM on December 13, 2014


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