It's About Time!
Welcome to your June 2008 edition of the
PlanetChristmas
newsletter! It is published regularly and covers relative topics for
the Christmas decorating enthusiast.
Here's what you can read about in this June 2008
newsletter:
My non-Christmas friends
take great pride in sending
me links to videos of
Christmas decorations
dancing to the music.
What they all
have in common is great
sound. No doubt the
music source was plugged
directly into the video
camera.
I look at Christmas displays the same as producing a show. You're
telling a story and in you're in full control of the surroundings. You should
stimulate the brain, dazzle the eyes and please the ear.
Ever thought about what people actually hear when looking at your
Christmas display?
Let's focus on the sound of your display. Why? You're going
to have fewer vehicles but more foot traffic this year because of the high
cost of fuel. Make sure everyone has a great experience in every
way, including what they hear.
The most common way to play the music is aim your stereo speakers out the
windows. It makes a lot of sense and gets the job done while keeping
your expensive speakers inside where it's dry. The bad news is you
have to crank up the volume pretty high for the people standing on the
street to hear anything. That's certainly not good for the people
living in your house or the neighbors that live around you. There's
also the geek issue of the sound deteriorating as you move further from the
source because the higher frequencies don't travel well.
If you've ever been to a big outdoor concert, take a careful look at the
stage. Typically, about a forth of it is dedicated to gigantic
speakers. They can't get the speakers close to those furthest away so
they make up for it by turning up the speaker volume and vibrating a lot of
air. Stand close to the speakers and you can actually feel the music,
especially the bass sounds. It's not a pleasant feeling and
it certainly isn't good for your ears. Outdoor concerts typically
don't have to worry about their next door neighbors complaining about the
volume, but you do.
There are a couple of easy ways to solve this problem. The most
obvious is to get the speakers as close to the display viewers as possible.
Instead of a couple of big speakers, I use a bunch of small ones spaced 20
feet apart across the front of my display. Viewers are typically
within ten feet of the audio source. You can keep the volume down so
you or the neighbors aren't bothered plus the listener can easily hear all
the notes in the music. The trick is to use marine grade speakers
designed to get wet. My favorite is called the Pyramid 401WP (find a
good price at
http://bsless.stores.yahoo.net/4071wp.html). These things are less
than $50/pair, waterproof and can handle 200 watts a piece. I place
them directly on the ground and squirt them with a garden hose when they're
dirty. One year I had 32 of these (16 stereo pair) spread across the
front of my display. What a sweet sound! It wasn't loud but it
was full bodied and I got raves about the audio.
The other way to get the audio close to the listener is to use a small FM
radio
transmitter and have people in their cars tune to a specific frequency you
display on a sign in the yard. You only need to transmit an audio
signal from your house to the road, which is usually about 100 feet.
Some people use a little wireless transmitter available to play your iPod
through the car speakers when traveling. This works but the range is
designed to be just a few feet. Some have been known to hack these
things and increase the range significantly.
The next step up in FM transmitters is something called the "Whole House
Transmitter" (available in the
Planet of Lights store at
http://www.planetoflights.com/product-p/fm-transmitter-wwgold.htm).
This little box is about the size of a deck of playing cards, costs about $100 and is pretty impressive for the price. It comes with
about every audio connector you can think of to get it plugged into your
stereo and has a range of about 150 feet. The transmit antenna is
nothing but a short piece of wire dangling from the unit so it's easy to
move around if the radio reception isn't what you want. I use one of
these transmitters during the "off season" to get my
PlanetChristmas Internet radio music from the computer out to a radio in the yard
where I'm working.
An alternative radio method is to go a bit more modular. My
favorite transmitter is the Ramsey Electronics FM100B
(http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=FM100B)
but it is a do-it-yourself kit (meaning soldering is involved) and is
getting hard to find. This device is great because it has lots of
dials and lights so you know what's going on. The Ramsey FM25B
(http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=FM25B)
is also a good device and people in the PlanetChristmas community will build
these things for you for a small fee. My experience with the cheaper Ramsey
transmitters (like the FM10) is they tend to drift off frequency.
There are other FM transmitters out there. Go to the
PlanetChristmas forums and search for "Transmitter Group Buy". A word
to the wise though, keep your signal close range and aimed just at your
viewers. Increasing the signal strength through any method will lead
to a knock at your door from a government agency wanting to close you down.
Bottom line: don't forget the sound. It's part of your display
creating the lifelong memories for others.
Galaxia Rolling out a VERY Interesting
Product.
Galaxia
has released a few more details on their new lighting technology. PlanetChristmas
even managed to get three pictures of what's coming. Here's some fresh
information they just provided.
The Galaxia control box will support sixteen channels that power up to
three LED strands each.
What is Galaxia's key innovation? Every LED on the strand
can be individually controlled, allowing you to customize your display more
than ever. Think scrolling text, figurines in action sequences, or
even a picture of your dog. Their software will identify the location
of every LED so programming is a breeze.
The Galaxia controller will work with other manufacturer’s boxes so you
can easily integrate it in your 2008 Christmas display.
A few details for the technically oriented:
Control Box Specifications
·
16 channel 50 amp controller
·
Control up to 4752 individual LEDs
·
Easily integrates with other manufacturer’s controllers
·
CAT 5 & 6 connectivity
·
Secure Digital card interface
LED
Strands Specifications:
·
99 LEDs per strand
·
Individual control capabilities
·
Concave wide-angle lens
·
Link up to three per channel
No word on pricing details yet, but keep an eye out for them at miniPLUS
events this year as well as their website at
galaxialighting.com for more details and a demonstration video!
Lots of rumors swirling around out there. I
usually ignore them, but some just need to be shared.
The price of quality LED light strings is actually
going up for 2008. The Summer Olympics in China, falling dollar issues
and shipping costs are the "official" blame. I'm sensing there's a lot
more to this story. The good news is the lights are getting brighter
and act more like incandescents.
Got any juicy bits of gossip you want to share with the
PlanetChristmas
community? Send a tip to
csmith@PlanetChristmas.com
Behind
the scenes planning continues for our bi-annual gathering, an event we call
PlanetChristmas
Lights Up Symposium or PLUS.
The Steering Committee is in place and there's plenty of talk about 2009.
We're emphasizing community building, education and vendor relations.
I call it the stool. All three legs are important. Drop one and
you don't have a place to sit.
Who's on the PLUS2009 Steering Committee?
-
Chris Berglund
-
Kathy Byrd
-
Marilyn Caron
-
Darren Hawkins
-
Lisa Hawkins
-
John PPF Lomnicki
-
Carrie Sansing
-
Drew Stemen
-
Marty Slack
-
Chuck Smith
You'll notice a mix of old timers and newbies on the Steering Committee.
We're challenged to keep PLUS the premier event, stay innovative and make it
fun. Our mission statement is: PLUS2009: Spreading the joy of
Christmas by helping each other to create great displays and making those
lifelong memories for all who see them.
Where is PLUS going to be in 2009? The challenge has been
to find a host city that's easy to get to and has things to do for the family
members not as crazy for Christmas decorating as you might be. With the
price of gasoline going through the roof, I've changed the search criteria to
where a city must be serviced by a low fare airline (Southwest), at least two
interstates most intersect in the city and it has to be next to a major river
for those that want to travel by water. The only other criteria is the
event cannot be in Tennessee.
Mark your PLUS2009 calendars now tentatively for the last weekend in July,
2009. The goal is to open PLUS2009 registration on September 1, 2008.
Want an easy way to keep up with PLUS
information? Go to the new website at
www.gotoPLUS.com. It's the
first place official PLUS information is shared with others.
Our
forums were upgraded again a couple of weeks ago. There are so many new
features available to facilitate communication that even I'm overwhelmed.
The good news is it's pretty easy to get around once you master the
fundamentals. Be sure to bookmark
http://forums.planetchristmas.com
Don't forget we also have a
community calendar where your local event can be
published by date. Comes in pretty darn handy if you're looking for
something to do this weekend.
Never forget
PlanetChristmas
believes strongly in protecting your privacy so personal information about your
account is never sold or shared with anyone.
With our new
PlanetChristmas
forums, there's now a section where you can go down to
the state level and post information about what's going on. Use this
to let your community know about events and also remember to place
important
dates on our public calendar. Want a shortcut to the
PlanetChristmas
forums?
http://forums.planetchristmas.com
Traffic patterns to watch your display are going to be
different for 2008 because of the price of fuel. Anticipate more
people walking to your display or watching everything with the vehicle
engine turned off. Imagine yourself in their shoes now, start thinking
of the best lines of sight for the viewers and build your display with this
in mind.
I've talked to a lot of people over the last few months
and it's amazing how many struggle with knowing where to buy stuff for their
Christmas displays. I always route them to
PlanetChristmas
vendors but they still get frustrated. As I looked at the
problem, I'll have to admit building a fancy display can be overwhelming to
the novice. I've been working with many of the
PlanetChristmas
vendors about how to address the issue. Looks like the
solution is to create what I call the
PlanetChristmas
best-of-breed storefront which becomes a one-stop-shop for
the newbie. The vendors are offering small discounts to the
PlanetChristmas
storefront. The savings will be passed along to the
buyer and any profits will be plowed into the
PlanetChristmas. Sounds
like a win-win-win deal for everyone.
Walmart certainly has nothing to worry about when it
comes to the PlanetChristmas
storefront. Come visit it at the
PlanetOfLights
http://www.PlanetOfLights.com. If you have suggestions of products
that need to be offered,
please email me.
The official 2008
PlanetChristmas
caps and shirts have arrived. See all the details at
PlanetOfLights.com.
Money collected from these sales goes toward
PlanetChristmas
and PLUS.
The
PlanetChristmas
community has experienced tremendous growth. Our three
fundamental rules of family friendly, positive and Christmas centric guide what
we say and do. The real key to our community is a willingness to
exchange information so others can have better displays. Come join us!
http://forums.planetchristmas.com
The
PlanetChristmas radio station is still
on-line and available to anyone with a fast Internet connection to tap into.
Find the details at
http://www.planetchristmas.com/PCRadio.htm
I'm working with a company called Constant
Contact to handle the
PlanetChristmas
email distribution. There's a new way to register for the newsletter
that complies with all government rules and regulations. If you want
to remove your name from the list, go to
http://www.planetchristmas.com/Newsletters.htm and enter your email
address. You'll be given an option to "opt-out" of future mailings.
Likewise you'll also be able to remove your address from any future
emailings by simply clicking a link at the bottom of the
PlanetChristmas
emails you receive in the future.
For the record,
PlanetChristmas
values your privacy and does not share your email address with
anyone.
Have a suggestion for a main topic or
want to write an article for a future
PlanetChristmas
newsletter? Send me an email: csmith@planetchristmas.com
If you know someone that really should subscribe to your newsletter, send them
to
http://www.planetchristmas.com/Newsletters.htm
It's time to start thinking about your 2008 display!
Next time: look forward to more Christmas decorating tips.
Chuck Smith of
PlanetChristmas
