TAKING LIGHTS TO EXTREMES
The tech-savvy are increasingly putting up elaborate displays in neighborhoods across Central Florida and nationwide.
Etan Horowitz, Sentinel Staff Writer
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While some of his neighbors were decorating their houses with multicolored lights and illuminated Santas, Tony Hansen was building an assault on the senses. Using $10,000 worth of professional lighting and sound equipment that he borrowed from his job as a lighting designer, Hansen’s 25,000-light display is synchronized to five songs, which he broadcasts over an FM-radio frequency so passers-by can pick it up in their cars.
When “Snoopy’s Christmas” plays, strobe lights timed to gunfire in the song flash, and at the end, when a champagne cork pops to signal the “holiday toast” between Snoopy and the Red Baron, half of Hansen’s lights cut out as if they’ve been hit by the flying cork.
“The same controller that is used in many of the clubs in downtown Orlando is running my Christmas lights,” said Hansen, who lives south of Orlando. “If I am going to keep ahead of the Joneses, I have to use a few things that they can’t get their hands on.”
This Christmas, tech-savvy people such as Hansen are increasingly building the biggest, most elaborate holiday lights in neighborhoods across Central Florida and throughout the country. They typically work in fields such as computer programming, Web development, engineering or audio and visual services and are armed with a technical knowledge that the average person lacks. They trade tips and stories on message boards and set up Web sites with step-by-step descriptions of how they installed their lights as well as pictures and videos of the finished product.
‘I call us freaks’
“There is a whole following of Christmas-lights aficionados, to put it gently,” said Hansen, who helped design the lights and music on rides at Wet ‘n Wild. “But I call us freaks.”
Hansen, 39, said holiday-lights displays set to music have been around for years but are more popular than ever this year. At Disney-MGM Studios, this is only the second year that the Osborne Family’s Spectacle of Dancing Lights has been synchronized to music.
Most people trace the trend to an Internet video that first gained popularity in 2005. The video shows a holiday-lights display set to “Wizards in Winter” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The video has been viewed millions of times on YouTube and was used in a Miller Lite beer commercial.
That video, which shows the Ohio home of engineer Carson Williams, inspired Rush Frisby, who lives east of Winter Park, to animate a lights display this year.
To create his 20,000-light, six-song display, Frisby bought a system called “Light-O-Rama,” which is what Williams used for his display. The system connects his lights to a power source and a computer. Using a software program, Frisby imported his songs into the program and then decided which lights he wanted to turn on and off at different points in the song. To see how the finished product would look, Frisby used a computer-animation feature that ran a virtual version of what the real thing looks like.
The program also lets him automatically schedule the lights show to turn on and off at specified times each night. He also broadcasts his songs over an FM-radio frequency.
“I like big projects, plus I already have the technical knowledge,” Frisby said.
Frisby estimates he has spent about $2,000 on his display, but he is avoiding adding the costs up for fear of angering his girlfriend. He has been documenting his display on a Web site, rushlights .com.
Besides the original Internet video, there are a few other factors fueling the popularity of animated displays, Hansen said. Big-box stores such as Home Depot, Costco and Wal-Mart are selling machines that allow lights to be synchronized to music, though they don’t allow as much customization as Light-O-Rama.
The do-it-yourself culture is also hotter than ever thanks to cable-TV shows and Web sites such as planetchristmas .com, the most popular place for holiday-lights advice.
“We are Americans, we are do-it-yourselfers and we always want to go to the next level,” Hansen said.
‘I’m just a hobbyist’
Not everyone who has an animated display comes from a technical background. Ron Lister of Kissimmee, who has one of the most well-known animated displays in Central Florida and even won a national award once, has been using Light-O-Rama for about five years.
“I’m just a hobbyist,” said Lister, 50, who is in charge of the commercial drivers at Walt Disney World.
This year his 45,000-light display is synchronized to about eight songs.
Although Hansen’s display is one of the most involved in the area, he said he was conflicted this year about whether to put it up. He was worried that an extravagant display might take away from the true meaning of Christmas.
“Around October, somebody was just walking around my neighborhood, and they told me they really liked our lights and that it really made the season for them,” Hansen said. “If I am the one that triggers the season for somebody, then it really makes it worthwhile.”
CONTACT: Etan Horowitz can be reached at 407-420-5447 or ehorowitz@orlandosentinel.com