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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Quite possibly the greatest X-mas lights display ever

OK, I have seen some crazy light displays in my time, but this is truly incredible. Check this out. (It's a WMV, in case you're wondering).

This display was the work of Carson Williams, a Mason, Ohio, electrical engineer who spent about three hours sequencing the 88 Light-O-Rama channels that controlled the 16,000 Christmas lights in his annual holiday lighting spectacular (from Christmas 2004). His 2005 display includes over 25,000 lights that he spent nearly two months and $10,000 to hook up. So that the Williams' neighbors aren't disturbed by constant noise, viewers driving by the house are informed by signs to tune in to a signal broadcast over a low-power FM radio station to hear the musical accompaniment.

Alas, after a 6 December 2005 traffic accident in his neighborhood, Carson Williams agreed to indefinitely discontinue his 2005 Christmas light display because it was causing severe traffic congestion problems.

The rough quality of the video has led some viewers to believe it was put together in stop-action form from still photographs, but that is an artifact of the high compression used in the clip circulated via e-mail. Mr. Williams has posted instructions for recreating his "Wizard in Winter" sequencing, and another of his choreographed Christmas light music shows can be viewed here.

UPDATE!: Carson's display has been made into a Miller Lite Commercial! Ah, Christmas. Taking the truly unique and mass-marketing it to everyone as fast as possible. Oh well. Major thanks to Hubler for giving me the tip.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This accident thing is so stupid. I mean, for example, are we gonna sue Macy's, Sears, etc. for having holiday sales which draw people to malls, cause congestion in the lots and create more accidents? Think about it.

12/24/2005 1:09 PM

 
Blogger Lindsay Jones! said...

well, the guy has the last laugh in the end, as now we get watch it on television, and he probably gets a decent chunk of change without a bunch of people hanging out in his front yard....

12/24/2005 9:14 PM

 
Blogger Kirk said...

i saw the commercial today. just when you think your cool and get to tell all your non-internet nerd friends about it, it gets bought by a huge company and exploited.

i enjoy your blog writings btw. check mine out if you get a chance.
kirknoggins.blogspot.com

12/25/2005 1:40 AM

 

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