Kurt Shintaku's Blog

The things that you can do on Windows XP…

In case you didn’t know, the famous "Christmas Lights" video by Carson Williams that’s been floating around the Internet was instrumented and sequenced on a Windows PC.   The execution and playback was also orchestrated by a Windows PC using nothing more than a 16-way light controller octopus, a serially connected analog controller for the PC, and some commercially-available software.  The response to his video was such a big deal that he was interviewed by the Today Show, various radio shows, and more recently, the video was captured and played back as a Miller Light commercial.

HOW TO:
The Windows software he used, along with the commercially available controllers are all available in a kit here: http://www.lightorama.com/
(There are other controller equipment vendors out there like http://www.d-light.us and http://www.animatedlighting.com but this is the one he used.)

And for you geeks out there, instructions on how to replicate exactly what Carson Williams did are available at the link below.  Carson’s posted not only the instructions on how to do it but also the exact sequencing file he’s used with Lightorama, so quite literally, your "replication" will be timed to the music in the exact same way as the video.  (Assuming you use the same song he did – Transiberian Orchestra’s Wizards in Winter: 
http://www.wonderlandchristmas.com/wizardsofwinter.php

Personally, I think would have made a great "Start Something" commercial for Windows.  
(If you haven’t seen the "Christmas Lights" video, here it is: http://media.putfile.com/WizardsofWinter-SM)