Captain Rick: The holiday light and sound show at my desert oasis in Gilbert Arizona is always an enlightening experience. My 20th presentation includes 3600 LEDs dancing to ‘Little Drummer Boy’ by Mannheim Steamroller.
Click the above photo to view my 2017 light and sound show or …
View Captain Rick’s 2017 Holiday Sound and Light Show
Presentations of previous displays follow in the YouTube Playlist
How it works …
A ‘Holiday Brilliant Spectacular Light and Sound Show’ controller provides 3 channels of signals to my trees and shrubs, each wrapped in 3 bands of red-white-blue or white-multi-white, connected with 50 extension cords. The device accepts a SD card loaded with hours of favorite holiday songs. As it projects quiet music across the yard, a device receiver analyzes the audio and programs the controller to display 3 bands of lights on the plants and trees, resulting in an awesome sound and light show of 3600 LEDs dancing to the music.
Oasis Light Show History …
My Gilbert Oasis was the first in my HOA 20 years ago to present a holiday light show and has done so every year since. 2007 marked a record with 12,000 lights, requiring two 15 amp circuits running at maximum capacity. Addition of one more string of lights would blow a circuit breaker. Three years ago I began to replace older incandescent lights with energy efficient LEDs. They consume about 1/6 the power, are many times brighter and rarely need to have a light replaced. Over half of the lights in this years show are LEDs.
Setup and takedown …
In past years it would take 20 or 30 hours to install all of the lights and cords … and about half that time to take it all down. Having done this for 20 years, I have increased efficiency. Setup and takedown now requires about half the time, including the addition of the new light-music control equipment.
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