PQHolidays.com
A Computerized Christmas Lights Display
in San Diego, CA
How it's done:
The lights are computerized using controller boards from Light-O-Rama. Each song has to be preprogrammed beforehand using special software. It's a process that can take hours depending upon the complexity of the song. To control the lights, each "channel" or circuit of lights is wired directly to one of the control boards and a data cable runs from the computer to each control board. When the show starts each night, the computer sends the instructions to the control boards that then carry out the lighting commands. The computer also plays the music which is sent to a small FM transmitter inside the garage.