Carsons video

[scott isaacs]

I am just curious. How many people have had people tell them "Dont you wish you could make your lights do this?" I have had 4-5 people at work send me this video and everyone of them says that to me in some way. I then have to explain that my lights do do that. If anything I think the video has for sure got a lot more people curious in this hobby of ours. I also think when the people we do know realize what we are all capable of, we just might be getting a lot more people to view our displays. Several of the people that have seen the video and found out we do the same thing, just with different songs, have now said they will come out and see my display. Since I live kind of out in the country I do not get as many people as many of you, but there has definitely been an increase this year.

FOR THAT I WANT TO THANK YOU CARSON, YOU HAVE OPENED ALOT OF EYES

Scott Isaacs

[clafournaise]

I had a visitor the other night watching my ANIMATED display, telling me that the Carson video was a hoax. I asked him why he thought so and he talked about the quality of the video (the compression artifacts.) I asked him if seeing an animated display in person made him think different, and he said no.

Uh, ok then!

[Scott_Snow]

I live 2 blocks from Carson. After seeing his show last year in person, I wanted to try a display. This is my first year doing a light show. I'm runningwith one 16 channel LOR over FM.

I was hesitant to put up my show this year when all the publicity started over Carson's show. Needless to say, I was and still am intimidated:shock:But recently I figured what the heck, I'd showcase my house as an "appetizer" for Carson's house. I'm going to add a sequence where I tell people "This isn't the housefrom the Internet, he across the way. Enjoy our little show and get ready to get your socks blown off when you cross the street" or something like that.

Perhaps a few "scraps"from Carson's table (IE: cars) will fall my way :laughing:

Scott

[texasspirit65]

Is the carson video on the net where I can look at it?

[lanichol]

My son is home sick today and said he saw it several times on a commercial this morning.

[Greg Young]

texasspirit65 wrote:
Is the carson video on the net where I can look at it?


To my knowledge, not the high resolution version, but you can get to the standard low resolution version of it by going to the Planet Christmas main page, where you can find links to it.

Also I should mention to you, and others who are just joining our community, that there are numerous other choreographed displays, some much larger than Carson's, here on Planet Christmas.

You can check out many of these displays by using links here at Planet Christmas. If you want something in high resolution, good audio we offer annual DVD twin sets that feature some of the best displays across North America.

Last year's Holiday Lights 2004 DVDs featured 36 displays, many of which were synchronized to music. (including the display of Darryl Brown, thatI understand inspired Carson to develop his synchronized display)

This year's release (Holiday Lights 2005) will offer similar.

These sets sell for $25 which includes S&H paid by check/money order, or $28 if paid using PayPal.

They should come out end of January/early February, once submissions of this year's displays have been received and edited. Information will be posted on the board in the video section and heads up section, when they are available.

Greg

[Carson]

All,

I will be providing a High rez of Wizards in Winter and portions of this years songs, when we get a weather breaks. I now have 2 sections of red lights out and a section of icicles. The "murphy's law" placement of the outage make them unreachable until the snow melts off the roof. (It's 9 degrees right now)

Greg,

The original insiration to synch lights was Ron Lister (ChristmasWonders). I did visit Darryl's display in Louisville 2 years ago and was impressed by his work and talent, but was already headed that way!

Thanks

Carson

[John Pidliskey]

Sorry to hear about the Murphy's Law, figures... Well can't wait to see some of your clips.

I'm getting my 10 seconds of fame today. Local TV station KYW Channel three will be at my house. Hope Murphy doesn't visit me today, although my Sister's family will be here and guess what, her last name is MURPHY! Figures...

I think I'm the only one in Southern Jersey with the synchronized lights.

[East]

Carson,

Sorry to hear about Murphys law attacking the red icicles. However, I can't wait to see the High Rez version of your show. Also, Congradulation oon the Miller deal. Hopefully the weather will let up and allow for a few repairs. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.

Jim :tree:

[firemun]

Just saw Carson's lights on the new Miller lite commercial.Looks great.

jeff



P.s First post...been a lurker for a couple of weeks.

[Greg Young]

Carson wrote:
All,

I will be providing a High rez of Wizards in Winter and portions of this years songs, when we get a weather breaks. I now have 2 sections of red lights out and a section of icicles. The "murphy's law" placement of the outage make them unreachable until the snow melts off the roof. (It's 9 degrees right now)

Greg,

The original insiration to synch lights was Ron Lister (ChristmasWonders). I did visit Darryl's display in Louisville 2 years ago and was impressed by his work and talent, but was already headed that way!

Thanks

Carson



Hey Carson:

My mistake,I rememberedChristmas Wonders, but called that Darryl's instead of Ron's display.

Ron's display was on the DVD set last year, so I could be shot for that goof, although Darryl's was on it too, so maybe I can claim a senior moment!;)

I always suggest filming early in the season (hint hint to those reading who are planning on submitting this year) to avoid the lights out phenomena.

Sounds like your display is back on? That's super!! Really glad to hear you were able to come back on, I assume once things died back a bit.

Greg

[dwp49423]

Are there any videos online of Carson's display besides Wizards of Winter (Trans-Siberian Orchestra/2004) and Jingle Bells (Barbra Streisand.what year )

As I sit here typing this, my 21 month old is in my lap watching the Wizards of Winter one for the THIRD STRAIGHT TIME! His eyes are glued to that corner of the screne and every time the video ends he points at that corner of the screen and gets noisy but as soon as I click play, he quiets down! I have a feeling he's gonna help me take my Christmas display to a new level down the road.

Now if I can just find the Jingle Bells one back-else I"m gonna have WIzards stuck in my head for the next week!

[tinkerbell]

is there anywhere to see videos of these shows?

[Greg Young]

tinkerbell wrote:
is there anywhere to see videos of these shows?


Carson's video can be seen by going to the Planet Christmas main page, and following the links.

We will be putting out this years Holiday Lights 2005 DVD twin set late January, which will feature this year's displays from approximately 36 of the best North American displays!

Stay tuned in the chatroom for more details in January.

Greg

[Brian Collins]

"FOR THAT I WANT TO THANK YOU CARSON, YOU HAVE OPENED ALOT OF EYES"

I just wanted to add a couple comments about this show. I brought the high res version, which I can't find anymore online, to work and showed it a couple times. It was almost more fun watching the reactions of those people who were seeing it for the first time. It was really incredible, especially with the design of the show, slowly lighting more and more lights throughout. Each time a new section of lights came on there was more excitement.

And the other thing that I noticed today while looking at the Billboard charts was TSO's Wizards in Winter is # 37 this week on the Adult Contemporary chart. I have to believe this is largly due to Carson's video. It's amazing the power of the internet.

[Nick Diaz]

very ,very,very nice display,i already have family telling me to do that so i might be picking up a 8 channel lor.

how many channels did you use and what type of controller?

regards

nick

[ChristmasAngelPam]

Hi Scott,

If we lived near you we 'd bestopping by. :happytree:

I was sent the Carson video by a friend. I fell in love with it immediately! I traced the link which led to many others including where I am writing to you now.

At least you seem to have a clue as to how to even start putting on a show. I am very green and will need to do lots of reading up to see how I can get our home here in Florida going for 2006. I absolutely love all this. :happytree:

I originally come from NH. I think the show would be so pretty with the snow in the back ground. I would still like to try it here in FL though. :waycool:

Do you know of any homes here in florida around the Tampa area that have done this? I would love to go see one. Tonight is New Years Eve so I will keep searching on line. I'm sure after tonight they will all shut down until next year.

Good luck with your project. I am sure you will do great! :happytree:

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas! ~Pam~ :happytree:

Pam,

The first thing you need to do is update your profile by going to "My Account" above and selecting the Country, then State. By doing this you will find that there are others on PC that are close to you that can help. Here's a quick link to the florida map of people who have updated their profiles:

http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/view_user.php?region=Florida&country=USA

[ChristmasAngelPam]

Thanks so much! Will do it right now. :happytree:

Thanks, it makes it so much easier for everyone!

[Rick Hughes]

ChristmasAngelPam ... take a look in "Show N Tell". A lot of folks posted information on their displays in that forum and most include their city/state in the topic title so you can quickly scan.

Specifically in the Tampa area, look for Joseph Ayo's display in Tampa. There's also http://www.ridgeharborchristmas.com/ in Punta Gorda. I'm not sure what day is their last day for lighting or their hours for tonight. But those are two good pointers to start with.

Welcome. Lots of Floridians are doing GREAT things with computerized lighting.

[ChristmasAngelPam]

Thanks so muchfor the info Rick.:happytree: I am brand new to all of this {as of today} so I will try to find this show n tell that you mention.

We took a ride out to the home of Joe Norton on Feather St. in Spring Hill. He is about 45 min. from me. He has a 75,000 light display with some set to music. The lights were nice but we weren't able to hear the music on the radio as he was having problems with it. His neighbor stopped by our car to say hello as he was walking his dog.Very nice man and hehas an equally beautiful display in his large yard.

We absolutely loved seeing it all. Hopefully next year we can get a jump start to make sure we get to some of these homes that have the synchronized light shows. I can't wait!

This all started by a friend sending me the video of the Carson home. OMG! As I am writing this a beer commercial just came on featuring the Carson home. Wow! I had no idea it was THAT popular. You know it's big time when a beer company features you in an ad. lol I can't believe the timing that it came on TV as I am sitting here writing. At the end of the commercial it said, Enjoy the lites. It was for a lite beer. Clever!

As you can see I am so excited by this new found passion of mine. I have always loved Christmas. All this has just made it so much more exciting and fun!



~*Happy New Year to All*~

~Pam~

0:-)

[Rick Hughes]

That's great that you saw Joe Norton's display. He's a member here and we all know him well.

In case you didn't find the "Show N Tell" forum, here's a link to it http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum16/ which will give you lots to look at.

You can do computerized lighting too if you're interested ... take a look in these forums (Light-O-Rama, Animated Lighting) for more information:
http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum25/
http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum23/

And generally poke around all over PlanetChristmas. We're here all year; now's a great time to begin planning and working on your display ideas for next year.

Again ... glad you joined us.

[tcharles]

Happy New Year Carson Family:



I know you must be flooded with e mails but i had to join in the crowd. Great Job! Saw your interview on the today show as well and i must say that the day shots do more justice to the light show then the web video. Everything shows up more clearly as to details. Also wrote the today show about the rude comments made about the display and their headaches. I still do not know if they were referring to TSO or to the flashing lights but both are spectacular and they need to apoligize for that comment. Thanks for showing mw something very different and giving me some ideas for the future.



The Charles Fam........:tree:

[Steven Singleton Jr.]

So, just curious but WHO wil be the "Carson Williams" of next year?? Never know it coule be any of us. lol

[ChristmasAngelPam]

I just read TCharles' note in here. I wish I had caught the Carson interview on the Today show. I wonder if anyone will have a link to that for us to see it? It seems we have so many intelligent and talentedpeople in here who can link us to many differentthings.

I am so grateful to Jeff and Rick who sent me links to watch more of these great videos of homes put to music. You were right. One site leads to another and another and another. I have been watching more and more videos. It has been like Christmas every day since I got into this.

Maybe we can start shows for Halloween??? Or has that already been done? Remember I am new to all this. LoL

When I lived in NH I had a gorgeous 7 ft. white alaskan Christmas tree which I had displayed in my front window that the school buses passed by every day. I got so many wonderful responses, from all ages, to it that I kept it up all year longand decorated it for all the differentoccassion's of the year. I soon had people either stopping by or leaving notes in my mail box with comments as to how much they enjoyed it.

Divorce and moving to Florida was the only reason I stopped5 yr. ago. I miss those days but now I have all these wonderful videos of other peoples work to look at. I Love It!!! Thanks so much! :happytree:

Later All, ~Pam~ 0:-)

[Steven Singleton Jr.]

Yep pam, there are many here who do very cool Halloween shows as well. In showing off of the old forum there were halloween shows as well. I am sure that they will be there once the changeover occurs with the old forum. Remember we have only been on this forum board since roughly Thanksgiving of this year. We were elsewhere for YEARS before that.

[ChristmasAngelPam]

Thanks for the info Steve. I didn't know you just started this Thanksgiving. I just heard aboutany of thisa few days ago.

And I am not really surprised to hear about Halloween with all that talent I see coming from here.I can't wait to see some of those. I will be watching for futurelinks to them. :)

[tcharles]

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=ab5246e5-7858-4130-a16f-715edb504cc2&f=email



Above is the link for Carson's Video...it will play after a MSN commercial......enjoy

[Moebius]

scott isaacs wrote:
I am just curious. How many people have had people tell them "Dont you wish you could make your lights do this?" I have had 4-5 people at work send me this video and everyone of them says that to me in some way. I then have to explain that my lights do do that. If anything I think the video has for sure got a lot more people curious in this hobby of ours. I also think when the people we do know realize what we are all capable of, we just might be getting a lot more people to view our displays. Several of the people that have seen the video and found out we do the same thing, just with different songs, have now said they will come out and see my display. Since I live kind of out in the country I do not get as many people as many of you, but there has definitely been an increase this year.

FOR THAT I WANT TO THANK YOU CARSON, YOU HAVE OPENED ALOT OF EYES

Scott Isaacs

Count me in as anothernewbiebrought in byCarson. I had been watching the Millier commercialfora few weeks before I did anything from it. Iloved the commercial (been a TSO fan for years), but just assumed it wasjust edited to the music. Then one day I'm sitting on the couch with my laptop when it airs, so I decide to search around to see how they did it. A couple of google searches later, I find out the truth, and find PlanetChristmas.

I'm already scheming ideas on things I could do, though for me it's a long term plan. We rent a house right now, that is unfortunately on a very busy street. Regular lights already cause some traffic problems, so I'm certain any attempt at an animated/sychronized display would be shut down by the police (I even toned mine back a bit this year). However, we're hoping to buy a place in the next year or so (recovering from wife being laid off for a year) and then it's on :D

Carson has definately opened my eyes, and for that I thank you too.



Jason

[ChristmasAngelPam]

TCharles, I just wanted to zip a quick line to thank you for the Today show link with the Carson Williams family. We loved seeing it! Although we were a bit disappointed in some ofthe interviewers negative comments liketelling the Williams family that after 30 seconds the music gaveone of the womena headache and at the end saying, "Now turn off that music!"

All in all I think most of us agree we absolutely love what the Williams family has done.

~Pam~ (From NH to FL and hoping someday to see The Williams home in person)

[Santas Helper]

Ohhhh Pam, there sure will be Halloween discussion on this forum if I'm a member here (and I am). Besides the magic of Christmas this forum displays, I think you will see the magic of Halloween as well. I'm sure there are many members here with the addiction to synq lighting who can't wait for another reason/season to dazzle their talents to the community. Even July 4th is mentioned as another great avenue to wonderful light show displays. You just about have to check back no less than weekly here at PC just to make sure you don't miss any useful information. I check back daily. Yes, I'm addicted and see no cure in site (not that I'm looking for one).

Welcome aboard, Tom

ChristmasAngelPam wrote:

I just read TCharles' note in here. I wish I had caught the Carson interview on the Today show. I wonder if anyone will have a link to that for us to see it? It seems we have so many intelligent and talentedpeople in here who can link us to many differentthings.

I am so grateful to Jeff and Rick who sent me links to watch more of these great videos of homes put to music. You were right. One site leads to another and another and another. I have been watching more and more videos. It has been like Christmas every day since I got into this.

Maybe we can start shows for Halloween??? Or has that already been done? Remember I am new to all this. LoL

When I lived in NH I had a gorgeous 7 ft. white alaskan Christmas tree which I had displayed in my front window that the school buses passed by every day. I got so many wonderful responses, from all ages, to it that I kept it up all year longand decorated it for all the differentoccassion's of the year. I soon had people either stopping by or leaving notes in my mail box with comments as to how much they enjoyed it.

Divorce and moving to Florida was the only reason I stopped5 yr. ago. I miss those days but now I have all these wonderful videos of other peoples work to look at. I Love It!!! Thanks so much! :happytree:

Later All, ~Pam~ 0:-)

[SamSwashbuckler]

Carson wrote:
All,

I will be providing a High rez of Wizards in Winter and portions of this years songs, when we get a weather breaks. I now have 2 sections of red lights out and a section of icicles. The "murphy's law" placement of the outage make them unreachable until the snow melts off the roof. (It's 9 degrees right now)

Greg,

The original insiration to synch lights was Ron Lister (ChristmasWonders). I did visit Darryl's display in Louisville 2 years ago and was impressed by his work and talent, but was already headed that way!

Thanks

Carson

Any word on these videos? It's been about a month since they were mentioned :)

[Greg Young]

SamSwashbuckler wrote:
Carson wrote:
All,

I will be providing a High rez of Wizards in Winter and portions of this years songs, when we get a weather breaks. I now have 2 sections of red lights out and a section of icicles. The "murphy's law" placement of the outage make them unreachable until the snow melts off the roof. (It's 9 degrees right now)

Greg,

The original insiration to synch lights was Ron Lister (ChristmasWonders). I did visit Darryl's display in Louisville 2 years ago and was impressed by his work and talent, but was already headed that way!

Thanks

Carson

Any word on these videos? It's been about a month since they were mentioned :)




Christmas Wonders is one of the 36 displays that will be featured on Holiday lights 2005 when it comes out February! There are some very exciting displays on it this year.

Just so folks understand hi-res vs low res, the vast majority of everything you get off the internet, is at the best very low resolution.

It looks fine playing in its window on your pc monitor, but just try to play it on a tv (esp. a larger screen.. yikes!)

Our DVD productions use truly high resolution video.

To give you an idea, the video files I use to create the DVD run approximately 1.5 GIGs per 5 minute clip. A 2 hour video goes about 42 GIGs, which is why I use very large striped drives in tandem. Truly hi def video (the kind you see commercially on the networks) is much, much larger still!

When you take decent video and use any of the compression programs designed to store iton a webpage, it looses a tremendous amount of quality (esp. if youhave it stream, as opposed to have it designed to be downloaded as a file before it is played on a users pc).

So, if you want high resolution, view it on a DVD (which even in that case introduces a fair amount of compression, to arrive atits 4.7 GIGs). The new hi-def compatible DVDs (blue ray vs HD ray) will store 70 GIGs per disk, which is required when filming true high def video.

If you want a freebie, you can download segments of many user's displays in very low-resolutionoff the internet. If you want quality (hi-resolution), buy a DVD!


This is a classic case of you get what you are willing to pay for!

Greg

[kingsislandtechservices]

well carson is getting some more attention here in cincy,oh.

yesterdays inquirer :

DEERFIELD TWP. - Everyone seems to want a piece of Carson Williams.

First, the Deerfield Township man's computerized Christmas light display became an Internet sensation.

Then his house was featured in a Miller Lite beer commercial.

He's been featured on national talk shows and fielded more telephone calls than he can count.

Traffic gridlock in his subdivision caused by the light display forced him to shut it down weeks before Christmas.

Just as Williams was preparing to take a break, a new phase of fame developed.

Several big organizations - including the Cincinnati Zoo - have courted the computer engineer to set up Christmas displays for them this year.

Williams admits it's gotten a little crazy.

But the 40-year-old husband and father of two insists he's still having fun. "I have a laid-back approach to it," he said. "I'm taking it in stride."

Williams spent about two months stringing 25,000 lights on his Winding Creek Court home and yard, then used software to synchronize them to 12 minutes of Christmas music, including an energetic piece by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Williams transmitted the music from his computer to an FM radio frequency that passers-by could pick up on their car radios.

Williams posted his 2004 display on the Internet last February, and it spread across the country and into Europe.

Since Dec. 1, Williams has been featured on the "Today Show," "Inside Edition," "CBS Evening News," and several radio shows. "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" even played the Internet clip.

"It's a hard thing to comprehend," Williams said.

His wife, Sherry, and daughters, Amanda and Brittney, have had a ball.

"My wife loves it. The lack of privacy is kind of annoying but the popularity is great," Williams said. "My daughter came up and said, 'I saw our house three times in school.' "

Since Williams shut down the display Dec. 6, the calls have dwindled.

Mostly, they're from businesses.

Williams is being courted by a motor speedway, a major retailer who develops shopping malls, a shopping mall in Guam that does a small show and wants Williams' advice, the zoo and another "major park in town."

"They've all wanted Christmas displays," Williams said. "A few of them want the big Internet display, and others want me to do something custom for them."

Williams won't give names or details about the requests.

The zoo confirmed it would like to bring Williams' show to its Festival of Lights next year.

"We've had dancing waters and laser shows over the lake, a magic castle at the lake, ice carvers and puppet shows," said zoo spokesman Chad Yelton. "We have a long history of bringing in new entertainment. His would rank right up there as one of the best shows."

Williams is tickled at the interest.

"From a creative point of view, it's nice that people appreciate the work I've done," he said. "It'd be nice to be able to do it full time, but I still need a job."

His employer, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions, has been receptive to the time constraints on Williams' life. "As long as I get my work done," he said.

As for the big question: Will the show be back next year?

Williams said yes, but not at his house.

"I'm looking to put my display somewhere else and point people there," he said. "I'm not done doing it, I'm just done doing it here."

E-mail jlbrown@enquirer.com


http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060116/NEWS01/601160376/1077/rss02

[Joe Dell]

Carson's recent story also ran in The Chicago Sun Times. This boy is way over his 15 minutes of fame. Congrats to you Carson.