How it Works

There are six main components that go into making a display. These are Lights, Software, Interfaces, Power Supplies & Cabling, Controllers and FM transmitters.

There is an excellent general document about Christmas lights, how to build, design and implement at AusChristmasLighting 101.

Lights

The lights I use are RGB bullet style that are constructed in strings of various lengths. Each light, referred to as a pixel, actually consists of three LEDs: Red, Green and Blue. Each LED can be set to 256 intensities, creating the ability to set the pixel to over 16 million possible colors. My 2024 show has 11,857 pixels or 35,571 LEDs. You may think my electric bill is high with this many lights but LEDs are low voltage and use very little power. On average my show uses around 3,000 watts or the equivalent of 2 hair dryers.

Matrix/Sign

In the Christmas lighting community, the sign on my garage is called a matrix. It is constructed with LED panels in a grid. I use LED panels that have 32 pixels x 16 pixels in a grid of 6 horizontal by 7 vertical panels creating a matrix of 192 x 112 pixels.

Software

There are two software applications that I use for the show. One software application is for show generation called XLights and the other application plays the show and is call Falcon Player.

XLights runs on a Windows or Mac PC and is created by a team of very talented programmers and is provided free for use. XLights is used to sequence the different effects such as on/off, fade, twinkle, shimmer etc. and synchronizes it to music. Sequencing is an art form and is very time-consuming. As a result, I belong to a club that provides sequences created by professionals. I choose from a variety of sequences and map them to my house in XLights to create my show.

Falcon Player is the other software application that plays the show. It runs on each of the four light controllers in my system. Falcon Player is also created by several talented programmers and is also provided free for use.

Communication Interfaces

The light controllers and generation computers are connected together on a standard computer network via wired and wireless connections. I have engineered a "show" computer network separate from my home network in order to eliminate potential conflicts due to too much network traffic. Creating a Christmas light and music show requires extensive knowledge of computer networks, topology, routing, etc.

Power Supplies and Cabling

The lights and controllers in my system are all powered by 12 volts DC which require the use of 12 VDC power supplies to convert 120 VAC house power to 12 VDC. My system uses 12 of these power supplies.

Creating a Christmas light and music show requires good knowledge of basic electrical characteristics such as Ohms Law, currents, and voltage drop across wire. Cable selection is important, especially with low voltage DC lighting because of voltage drop across long light strings. As a result, power has to be injected at several points across long strings of lights.

Controllers

I use two Raspberry Pi and two Beatlebones Black single board computers for controlling and playing my show. These computers are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand but are surprisingly powerful and fast devices. While playing the show, one controller is designated as the master and sends sync signals to the other controllers in order to keep the lights and music in sync.

FM Transmitter

The main controller is a Raspberry Pi and utilizes a Sound Blaster audio output that is connected to a low power FM radio transmitter. This device allows me to legally broadcast audio over the FM radio spectrum. I looked for a frequency in the FM band that was not being used in my area and chose 99.9 FM for my show.