.: Welcome
Welcome to the internet home of Merry Digital Christmas, an animated Christmas light display located in Sylvania, Ohio. Use the navigation links above to check out the videos, technical information, how-to, useful links, chat, and other Christmas light show displays.
The upcoming 2009 Light Show is scheduled to launch on Friday, November 20, 2009. The show runs from 5:30 pm to 11:30 pm continuously and repeats every 10 minutes.
Songs for 2009!
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Wizards
In Winter
Yule - Amazing Grace (Edit)
Cali - Carol Of The Bells (Edit)
Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration - Reflections Of Earth:
Prologue
Total time: 10 minutes
|
Countdown to... | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Halloween Show Launch [?] | Christmas Show Launch | ||
| -352 days | -290 days | ||
.: Blog
~2009~
9/10/2009 - Let the Programming Commence
Over the next 8 weeks I will be programming for the 150,000
animated Christmas light display at CedarCreek.tv AND for my own
display. The next update you will see here will be when I begin
setting up the Christmas display. See you in a couple of months!
9/9/2009 - Halloween Display is Ready
The Halloween display is up and I'm just waiting to actually
fire it up--probably a week from this Friday. I just keep
telling myself I am SANE.
8/21/2009 - Planning and Setup for Halloween Display
Plans for Halloween are made and I will take my time over the
next couple of weeks to set it up.
7/20/2009 - Strobes Are Here
My 30 LED strobes arrived from CDI today. Can't wait to test
them out when I get my SPT-1 and C-7 sockets from Action
Lighting.
7/18/2009 - Website Update
I spent the better part of two days updating the website for the
2009 show. I added a countdown (above), many new links, a
link to donate, redesigned the logo, and made various other
cosmetic changes.
7/16/2009 - Initial Purchase
I purchased the strobes, SPT-1 wire, plug ends, C7 sockets, and
the new 16-channel controller today.
7/14/2009 - Planning stage complete.
These are the major additions to the 2009 show:
- New 16-channel controller (now 48 channels total)
- 12-Channel Megatree. (one-color; multicolor)
- 30 Strobes.
- (and hopefully) A new welcome sign.
I also plan to elaborate on existing elements. You'll just have to see the show if you want to know what I'm talking about.
6/15/2009 - Songs Chosen
The lineup of songs has been chosen for the 2009 Show. They are
Cali's Carol Of The Bells, Trans-Siberian Orchestra's
Appalachian Snowfall, and Yule's Amazing Grace. I may add
another song to lengthen the time but most people just don't
seem to have the attention span or tolerance for the cold to
watch a 20 minute show. The current run-time is about 8 minutes.
4/4/2009 - 8 Months Out
We are about 8 months away from launching the 2009 Light
Show. I started the planning process and I am very excited for
this years show. I don't want to reveal too much though. More
updates to come.
~2008~
11/28/2008 - We are a go.
Everything is up and running. Show times are M-F 5:30 to 10:00 and Sat & Sun 5:30 to Midnight.
11/15/2008 - First lights going up.
I started putting up lights today. I am not adding any elements to my show or building anything so nothing interesting to report on about the install.
11/1/2008 - Merry Digital Christmas on Hiatus
The Merry Digital Christmas light show project will be on hiatus for the next 2 weeks while I help at the Church to install 100,000 lights on 300 channels.
10/16/2008 - New "Home"
I Just purchased a new domain for the website you are viewing
right now. MerryDigitalChristmas.com.
10/16/2008 - Cruise control
The 2008 Christmas light show project is on cruise control at
this point. College has me pretty busy and, as usual, I am planning
a Halloween display using LOR. I will not post another blog entry
until I make plans for buying the lights I need. I plan to start
setting everything up on the day after Halloween.
10/15/2008 - Producing the
video & Recording voiceovers
I used Windows Movie Maker to make the video. It is an
intro/intermission song with a voiceover counting down the time
until the show starts and album art slides. For the audio track, I
used Audacity Digital Audio Editor to dub the voiceovers to the
intermission music. Then I used Photoshop CS3 to make slides with
album art, song info, and sequence info. For smooth song
transitions, I cut all the songs together to make one video/audio
track and overlaid subtitles for the voiceover parts.
10/6/2008 - Programming is complete
I will take a break from my project and pick up again in a week to
produce the video.
10/2/2008 -
Almost done programming
I am almost done sequencing (programming). After I finish I will go
over each song multiple times to tweak, tweak, and tweak some
more.
9/12/2008 - Programming the lights to music
This stage requires a lot of time and dedication. It is time
consuming and often difficult but very rewarding. Using the
LightO-Rama S2 Sequence
Editor It will take about 40 hours to program the entire 10 minute
show (about 4 hours per minute).
9/7/2008 - Planning the 2008 Christmas light show
The planning stage is complete. I will begin sequencing
(programming) the show next week.
