Chuck Smith
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2009
LEDs facts and fiction
When Chuck Smith asked me to put together a column for PlanetChristmas magazine that was a little more on the technical side of things I was nervous at first. Would average readers want something “more technical” or would this level of detail bore them? I agreed to give it a shot, but I wanted to present technical concepts in a way that everyone could understand. I hope I’ve achieved that goal. Let’s start off with a simple statement: LEDs will save your life. Really. They will also help you all but eliminate your electric bills, find the car keys, restore…
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2009
How I became a pro Christmas decorator
When I sat down to write this column for PlanetChristmas magazine, I was trying to put everything that happened to me over the last four years in perspective. I went quickly from decorating my house for fun to making a living being an animation lighting professional. After thinking about my Internet video, the newspapers and press, the notoriety and everything else that happened, I realized I happened to upload the right video, at the right time and got lucky. That was just my start but there are many stories of people taking their hobby to the next level. I will…
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2009
Take your Christmas display to the next level with DMX-512
When each of us purchased our favorite software and hardware systems to create an extreme computerized Christmas light display, we were given the opportunity to show the world, or at least the next door neighbors, our passion for Christmas decorating. We didn’t give a second thought about how the technology worked. We just loaded the software, took a controller out of the box, threw a light string on the floor and jumped in head first with the biggest ear-to-ear smile on our face since discovering presents under the Christmas tree as a kid. When Chuck Smith asked if I would…
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Uncategorized
Is it time to blink those lights?
You’ve taken the big step away from static Christmas displays and decided to blink those lights. For starters your electric bill will be cut in half (and probably much more since the lights will no longer be all on all the time.) People who used to spend a few seconds looking at your display will now not want to leave and you’ll have to start thinking about how to handle traffic. Best of all, you now have the power of tapping into people’s emotions by matching the right music with just the right lighting effects. You’re able to tell a…
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2009
“Yur lites R stupid”
If you are reading this magazine then I think it’s safe to assume that you’re “one of those people” that goes a little bit overboard when it comes to holiday decorating. Either that or you’re sitting in the waiting room of the dentist with the most awesome Christmas light display in town. In any case, welcome to the premiere issue of PlanetChristmas magazine. Between the covers of this magazine you’ll find all sorts of tips, tricks and techniques that will help transform your otherwise “plain vanilla” holiday display into a work of art using little more than a few pieces…
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