The ultimate neighborhood Christmas lights!

Ok, I had to post this: http://media.putfile.com/WizardsofWinter-SM. Some engineer in Ohio rigged up a serious Christmas lighting display on his house and front yard… completely choreographed to some Trans-Siberian Orchestra broadcast an low-band FM. This is getting me pumped to see them at the Pepsi on the 26th! :-)

Here’s an article all about the display:

ChannelCincinnati.com
Christmas Light Display Draws Attention On Web
Lights In Sync With Music

POSTED: 12:59 pm EST December 5, 2005

DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Some people at Christmas time are content to deck their homes with evergreen wreaths and holly, and maybe a few strings of lights made to look like glimmering icicles.

Not Carson Williams.

He spends nearly two months hooking up 25,000 lights, then programs them to dance to Christmas music.

Hundreds of cars drive by his house every night to see the display, which also is posted on several Internet sites.

Click here to watch Carson’s display

“So far, everyone’s been really courteous,” Williams said on NBC’s “Today” show Monday. “I told the neighbors, I told the sheriff, if they get any complaints, I’ll shut it down, because the neighbors are more important to me than the Christmas lights. I do the Christmas lights for myself.”

This is the third year Williams has assembled the display, which grows every year. He said he merely built on a suggestion from his wife, Sherry.

“She wanted some lights on the house, and I work with computers, so I said, ‘There’s got to be a way to control it with computers,”‘ Williams said.

He explored the Web and found examples of other synchronized displays. It takes him about an hour to program each minute of the display, which flashes to music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

That doesn’t mean neighbors have to listen to the sound track repeat itself all night.

“The sound, we actually broadcast on a low FM transmitter, so there’s actually no sound in the neighborhood,” said Williams, an electrical engineer with Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions.

A sign tells passers-by where to tune to listen, and Williams often stays outside for hours at a time chatting with visitors and directing traffic.

“We’ve had no problems,” said Dave Hare, who lives across the street.

But the first year, it took some explaining.

“We called it the psycho house,” said Hare’s wife, Michelle. “It was just weird random flashes. Then, he told us about the radio station and it was great.”

The display runs until Jan. 1

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

u comment i follow 2 Comments

  1. John
    Posted December 18, 2005 at 4:51 pm | Permalink

    I came across that a couple weeks ago and at the time I was wondering if, in fact, the music was TSO. And now I know. I was curious about the volume of the music. And now that mystery is solved, as well.

  2. Tony G
    Posted December 19, 2005 at 2:10 pm | Permalink

    I saw it on http://www. killsometime.com and wondered if it was legite or not. The article posted says it all.

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