Guitar Hero Christmas Lights Creator Speaks with JimOnLight.com!

After posting the article about Guitar Hero christmas lighting this morning, I was able to get ahold of the display’s designer to ask him some questions about how and what he did to have such a great display.  The designer’s name is Ric, and he was gracious enough to answer some questions I had about his work and his background.  I hope everyone enjoys the little interview I was able to get with Ric about his rig and his process.  Check it out!  Also check out the Light-O-Rama site for the control stuff mentioned in the article – very cool!

JimOnLight: Do you have a background in lighting? Your display and control is impressive – I am curious as to if you’re a professional or a hobbyist with some skill!

Ric: I’ve done some lighting, but most of my background is in media production and theatrical style illusions. The Christmas Light show is really more of a media presentation with lots of light edits in time with the music, made like a music video.

JimOnLight: How did you come about the idea of having such a large christmas light rig? Was there a muse or inspiration of some sort that led you to put it together?

Ric: I’ve always loved doing Holiday light displays, and years ago I experimented with simple sequencers. Eventually I was able to put together my first show using MIDI controlled dimmers and programmed it in Garage Band on a Mac laptop. The year after that I discovered Light-o-Rama kits and started building them. Each year more controllers get built and the shows get more elaborate.

JimOnLight: What types of lighting you use for your display? I assume that there are a mix of LED and incandescent lamps – can you give me some insight into your mix?

Ric: I’m starting to use LEDs more and more. I love the single color strings that punch through everything with dichroic style – single frequency light. Especially the blue and violet. LEDs switch on and off instantly allowing stunning music sync. I still have a lot of incandescent lights for the big white moments. I’m not happy with the white LEDs yet, the color temperatures are all over the map, even within a single string. There is a warmth to the white incancesdents that still can’t be matched with LEDs.

JimOnLight: Please tell me about your control system – we would love to have some insight! Are you using some kind of timecode (MIDI, SMPTE), or do you have something proprietary that you’ve created?

Ric: I started with MIDI, but quickly got frustrated with the limitations. Light-o-Rama controllers offer amazingly cheap cost per channel. I usually buy 16 channel kits for around $100. I experimented with some bank switching circuits to allow one board to control separate sets of lights, but that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. To do the 09 xmas show I added three new controllers for a total of 7. LOR software is quite good, and has been able to handle everything I have come up with.

JimOnLight: Do you provide a way for your neighbors and passersby to listen to your inspiration music to your display?

Ric: The audio plays at a low level until around 9:00 for pedestrians. Any time the show is running, the audio is broadcast on a low power FM transmitter so people can listen in their cars as loud as they like.

JimOnLight: Something that everyone probably wants to know – how are your electricity bills?

Ric: Not bad at all! Compared to the last year we had a static display, the shows use about 75% less energy, mainly due to the fact that in a show any given light is off much more than it is on. Now with all the LEDs, power use is down even more.

Ric, thank you so much for your time!  Everyone should check out Ric’s youtube channel (he’s kumbaric on youtube) – he’s got videos galore and lots of skill!  Enjoy!