FAQ

 The electric bill is only about $100 or $200 more in December. Although this may surprise you, keep in mind that, because of the synchronized Christmas light show, only a fraction of the lights in the display are on at any given point in time.

Our display is located at 34836 Bridge St. in Livonia, MI.  Click here for a map to our display.

Our 2016 display had 65,000 lights (and around 7,000 channels of computer control).

It really depends on the length of the song.  It can take 25-60 hours per song, depending on the complexity of the music piece.

It is our way to share with others the joy that Jesus brings our family this time of year.  We hope that others will realize the true reason for this season – the birth of Jesus Christ.  

We have over 7,000 channels of computer control, and we use XLights to run the show. A channel is an individual item or strand of lights that you can control with the software. Think of it as individual objects that can be controlled and flashing to the beat of the music.

An entire month, with the help of family and many volunteers.  We start setting up the display in early November.

We use a low-power FM transmitter to broadcast the music from the computer out to the car radios.

We started synchronizing the lights to music in 2006, but have been decorating our house for many years prior to that.

This is a residential display put up by our family of 6 and many volunteers. This means that there is no charge to see our display – we consider it to be our gift to the community.

For our 2016 display, we used the following songs.

1. “Reflections of Earth” – London Symphony Orchestra
2. “Silent Night” – Mannheim Steamroller
3. “Happy Birthday Jesus” – Mike Douglas
4. “Christmas Eve Sarajevo” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

The cable connecting the computer to the controllers is a Cat5e cable (available from Light-o-Rama).  This cable connects to the computer via a USB port and sends the signal from the computer to the controllers out in the yard.

The controllers

The display setup includes 6 16-channel controllers dispersed throughout the yard.  Each controller has 16 outputs.  Each output can have a certain display item plugged into it (like a string of Christmas lights, inflatable, lit up sign, etc.).

The extension cords

Our display setup includes over 1,000 feet of extension cords.

The Radio Transmitter

In order to get the music from the computer out to the cars, we use a low-power FM radio transmitter that transmits the radio signal about 300 feet from the house out to the car radios.  The radio transmitter connects to the computer audio output jack.

If you want to build your own synchronized Christmas light display, then check out www.planetchristmas.com.