Chuck Smith

2014
Talking to the pixels
OMG This has geekfest written all over it. The PlanetChristmas Magazine staff was told to build a pixel tree. As the whiteboard filled up with things to figure out, one item was circled in red and my name was written next to it: How do we control the pixels? I was told to become an expert in pixel communication. That’s when Chuck Smith edged into the room, read the to-do list and said “keep the geekiness to an absolute minimum when writing about it. My mother is going to build one of these things.” Easy for him to say as…
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2014
Pixel ribbons
We were sitting around the conference table when Chuck (as in The Mr. Smith) said we’re building pixel trees for the next edition of the magazine. What’s a pixel tree? Think along the lines of a megatree, but every light is controllable. As Mr. Smith likes to say: any light, any color, any time. These are the trees that have moving patterns on them, can scroll pictures or text and truly wow your audience. Light-O-Rama came out with something called the Cosmic Color Ribbon in 2009. The ribbon had 150 RGB based LEDs evenly spread across a five meter (16.4…
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2014
5 Volts vs. 12 Volts and Power Injection
When our esteemed publisher (Chuck Smith) gave us the task of building a pixel tree, I thought it would be easy because I could build a megatree in no time at all. Get 16 sets of 100 bulb mini-light strings, hang them from a pole, plug them in and you’re done. If I wanted that megatree to dance to the music, I’d plug each string into a channel of a light controller and the WOW would happen. Mr. Smith hinted a pixel tree might be a bit more complicated. Every light had to be controllable (I got to hear the…
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2014
Geek my tree
An interesting thing happened this past Christmas. After retiring my show I got bored and needed to find something to do. I decided to decorate my 12’ Christmas tree with 850 RGB pixels and programed it with several patterns. For the fun of it, I posted it to my Facebook page and the response was huge. People started sharing it, and I started getting lots of questions about how I did it. It was then I realized the challenge of explaining RGB and DMX to people who knew nothing about it. It also became apparent that people wanted to venture…
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2014
Revolution Evolution
We all remember the time when we saw the light display that got us hooked. 35 years ago my parents took their eight year old to a nearby suburb where nearly all the houses were decorated with lights. The display that grabbed my attention had its lights being electronically coordinated and controlled. To the best of my memory it was only about eight channels of lighting control, but back in the late 1970s this was virtually unseen and I was amazed at the patterns that could be created. It burnt a memory in my mind that still stays with me…
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2013
The Rumor Mill has found more… rumors.
Santa gave all the elves the afternoon off in early November so I wandered down to the well heated North Pole Galleria to grab a couple of slices of supreme pizza at Sbarro since I’m trying to watch my weight. The place was already decorated for Christmas and right there in center court was Santa sitting on a throne and talking to kids. I had always wondered why he suddenly became so hard to find the last two months of the year. I assumed he was working on delivery logistics for all those presents he had to distribute really early…
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2013
Twas the night before Christmas, a visit from St. Nicholas
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I…
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2013
Rethinking decorations
So you are minding your own business, shopping in a store, any store, when you spot something that kicks your creative juices into high gear. You start visualizing the next addition to your Christmas display. You buy as many of the items as you can possibly lay your hands on and begin to incorporate it into the next display that will make you proud you ever learned how to plug in a string of lights. Your idea is a success and you have gained the adoration of Christmas light display admirers for the next 365 days. The next year you…
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2013
Top 10 ideas
Whether you’re a newbie or an experienced decorator, it’s a lot of work to get geared up to start the display setup process. The purpose of this article is to help make that process go a little bit smoother and improve your processes just a little bit. I have learned from the best and brightest at the PlanetChristmas forums and have used that knowledge base to come up with lots of great ideas that help us design, build, setup and tear down our display the most efficiently way possible. At our Belardo Lights display in San Diego, we like to…
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2013
Rumor mill ruminations
What an interesting summer with the war of the Christmas shows, each on the same weekend of July in Conroe, Texas and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This elf made it to both and in some ways they were similar. Hot. I mean as in outside temperature. Both shows had a pretty good vendor hall and lots of Christmas fanatics but that’s where the similarities ended. The Texas show seemed aimed at the hardcore, techie kind of decorator. Very impressive classes with several geared for the Halloween haunter. I knew I was in trouble when this handsome elf was mistaken for an ugly…
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