Frequently Asked Questions
How many lights are there?
How much electricity does the display use?
How many lights are there?
The light count changes every year - and almost always grows! 2022's display had approximately 168,000 bulbs. 2023's layout changed a bit, and has about 178,000 bulbs.
About 92% of the display are LED bulbs. About 7% are incandescent bulbs, and about 1% are RGB bulbs.
Do you count EVERY bulb???
How much electricity does the display use?
How many lights are there?
Well, kind of, but not exactly. I have a record of how many lights each element has, and what kind of light it is. It all gets added into a complex spreadsheet each year, and the power load is distributed so that we don't overload any breakers!
How much electricity does the display use?
How much electricity does the display use?
Where do you get your lights & decorations?
At peak moments of the show, the display draws approximately 170 amps of electricity. For comparison - your average house has a peak capacity of 200 amps. But there are rarely times when EVERY light is on, so it's usually under that.
We owe a huge thank you to our neighbor J&W Seafood for allowing us to annually run a couple of cords to their ice house to provide additional needed electricity.
Where do you get your lights & decorations?
Where do you get your lights & decorations?
Where do you get your lights & decorations?
Long story short: EVERYWHERE.
A lot comes from your standard big box stores (WalMart, Home Depot, and Lowes are the main ones, Big Lots often has good characters as well.)
Much comes from specialty holiday display companies, both domestically and abroad. One major commercial vendor is based in Williamsburg, two others are in Mississippi & New York. The farthest I work with is based in Shenzhen, China.
Some things are homemade or repurposed everyday things (crab pots make up the structure of the iceberg; The gingerbread houses are repurposed Little Tykes playhouses.)
And some, especially older wireframes & blowmolds, come from the community as donations of decorations that they no longer use.
How do you sync the lights to the music?
Where do you get your lights & decorations?
How do you sync the lights to the music?
The display is controlled entirely by computer, with a piece of software called Light-O-Rama. The computer communicates with electronic controllers throughout the display, which in turn switches computerized electrical outlets on and off. Turning those switches on and off is what makes the lights "dance" to the music.
The light show has 182 individual plugs controlled by electronic switches!
The synchronization of the lights to the music is a completely custom-programmed process. To sync lights with a new song takes approximately 4-6 hours per minute of music.
How do you get the music on the radio?
Where do you get your lights & decorations?
How do you sync the lights to the music?
I have a small FM radio transmitter located on the display site. It has a range of several hundred feet - You can pick it up clearly from in front of both neighboring parking lots, but it gets staticy once you get beyond BB&T or the doctors office.