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Ultimate Christmas lights |
Mr. Williams has placed 25,000 Christmas lights on and around his home, which is north of Cincinnati. 25,000 lights probably is not a world record. What makes his lights different is that they are all choreographed to music - in this case, to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizard in Winter" (from The Lost Christmas Eve album).
Mr. Williams reports that he is using 88 Light-O-Rama channels to control each light, plus or minus one-tenth of a second. (A Light-O-Rama is a user-programmable light controller that can turn lights on and off automatically from a PC.) Many people use one to control outdoor lights, but Mr. Williams uses 88 of them! The lights are individually programmed to go on and off in sync with the music. I am used to seeing this at rock concerts, not on home Christmas lights.
The display reportedly cost the Williams family $10,000 and two months' work to share the joy of the holiday season with their neighbors. There is no word yet on the December electric bill.
Speaking of the neighbors, playing the loud "Wizard in Winter" music over and over on loudspeakers would probably drive the folks nearby insane. Instead, Mr. Williams only played the music on a low-powered FM transmitter. A sign in front of the house advised passersby to tune their car radios to a certain frequency to hear the music.
The Williams family was soon in the national limelight with appearances on the Today Show, Inside Edition, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and CBS News. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra - whose music is featured in the light show - invited the family to attend its Cleveland performance, where they received VIP treatment. Carson Williams reportedly is now negotiating with Miller Beer to appear in a commercial.
As you might expect, once the show got national media attention, the line of cars waiting to see it grew into the hundreds. County sheriff's deputies were unable to get through to the scene of a fender-bender accident among the string of cars driving through the neighborhood. The Williams family was concerned that their neighbors could not get to their homes and that emergency vehicles could not get through if necessary. Because of this concern for safety and respect for his neighbors, they closed the show. However, it lives on via video clips on the Internet.
You have to see this to believe it. I found videos of this display available at several places on the web. Some of the sites are overloaded as tens of thousands of people are trying to view these video clips simultaneously. Here are some of the sites; until the excitement wanes, you may need to keep trying until you find one that works:
