Behind the Scenes

There are a number of components that run our show.  The equipment is all housed in the attic.

Songs are sequenced using the XLights software on a regular Windows PC. This part of the process involves creating layers of effects which match the beats of a song and assigning them to portions of the overall light setup.

The light sequences are rendered to a special file format that defines the state of every light in the show at every point in time for 20msec intervals.

You will notice that some effects seem to sweep across the entire display as if it forms a single large screen.  For example, in this picture below there is a purple/red/blue gradient that is smoothly projecting across the entire display.

Accomplishing this means that the software used to arrange the effects requires a VERY accurate representation of how all the components in the light show are arranged in real life. 

Approximately 200 photos were taken from various vantage points around the yard when no decorations were up.  The software Reality Capture was used to generate an accurate 3d model of the front yard where the light show takes place (this used a process called photogrammetry).  The resulting 3d model was imported into xLights and a scale between the 3d model and real world was established.

Elements on the house were generally laid out on the house first and measurements were taken to locate the models correctly in xLights.  The trees, spheres and snowman were positioned in xLights first and their location was translated to real world measurements which we use to place each component on the ground.  Something you might not notice is that there are marks on the driveway under each of the props; this is so that they can be moved out of the way to access the garage and then put back into the required location the next day.