How the light show is made and how it works.
Definitions
Attraction: A single object that lights up in the show (hedge, olive tree trunks, arch)
Channel: One set of lights that are controlled together. All lights in a channel turn on, turn off, and dim together. An attraction may have more than 1 channel. Example: The Arch is covered in green and red lights that can be controlled independently, 2 channels, 1 attraction.
FPP: Falcon Pi Player or just Falcon Player, an operating system that runs on a Raspberry Pi computer to send the finished sequence data out to the various electronics in the yard. Falcon Player Wiki
Megatree: The big conical tree in the middle of the yard (term of the trade).
Mini Light: Traditional Christmas lights using tiny incandescent bulbs. The big traditional bulbs are called C9 bulbs.
Pixel: Individual lights on a string for which one can control the color and brightness. A string of 50 pixels is actually 50 individually controllable channels.
Raspberry Pi: A $35 computer the size of a baseball capable of running only simple operating systems like Linux, but powerful enough to run the show with no trouble
Sequence: A song synchronized to a series of actions (lights switching on, changing color, etc.) so that the lights appear to move with the music
Solid State Relays: Electric circuits with no moving parts that power the lights, allowing control of the brightness of each non-pixel channel in the show
Vixen: Software for programming the sequences that will be run by the FPP.
vixenlights.com
Web Interface: A webpage accessible from a local WiFi network that can manually control the show (play or stop sequences, adjust automatic schedule, adjust music volume, diagnose problems with the display)
