There are 3 major components to an animated display.

1. Lights – Thank you captain obvious
2. Controller (or as theatre folk would say) Dimming Rack.
3. Software / Programming.

Lights
There isn’t much to this part. You still use any type (LED or incandescent) light strings. wrap your house, trees whatever you like with as much as you like. The important thing to remember is when you set the lights in motion, the more “separate sections” of lights, the better the movement. For example, if I have 3 tall tress in the yard, and I wrap them all with lights, and run extension cords between them all – if they all plug into 1 cord for power, I can only turn all 3 trees on or off.
If I run 1 cord to each tree, I can use the software to decide and change when each tree lights up.

A Huge portion of time is spent just running separate cords from the controller back to each section of lights. You may buy store brand lights and extension cords, or you may want to consider making your own.
If you make your own cords, I recommend SPT-1 for most, SPT-2 for a heavily loaded strand of lights. SPT is more commonly listed as “Lamp Cord” or “Zip” cord. SPT-1 is 18 AWG rated to carry 10Amps (according to Woods wire gauge table) SPT-2 lists at 13 Amps. Hopefully you understand the concept of Amps / Watts and know not to overload a circuit or wire. As a guide when selecting wire, add up the total watts of each string of lights to be connected to a single cord. Take total wattage and divide by 120. This will tell you haw many amps your lights draw. DO NOT EXCEED this number on your wire. keep total amps less or equal to the wire size chart rating to avoid Meltdown / Fire / Electrical Hazard!!!!

Controller
This is where each section of lights is connected to a electrical source or Channel. The most popular and cost effective units around seem to be by Light O Rama. / LOR .These controllers are sold ready to go or in kit form. For those familiar with “Show Lighting” and DMX – these units CAN speak DMX and be addressed and treated as such. The light o o rama software however uses a proprietary protocol. the board will detect if it should speak light o  rama or DMX upon power up.

My original setup was done using a MIDI decoder board from Highly Liquid. The Masa-R Decoder in its simplest form listens for MIDI notes, and uses the notes to trigger a relay. This relay will (in my setup) operate another high power relay that connects to the lights. Why two relays – well because the rating of the Masa-R onboard relay is so small, that it could only handle a very small load, say a single short strand of lights. By adding my own high power relays, I can switch up to 10amps per channel. I’m happy to share additional hook up information on the Highly Liquid board, but beyond the basic concept, I feel this should only be used by those with the knowledge to take the concept and run with it… if you don’t know, or don’t understand low voltage / high voltage and basic electronics – DONT TRY THIS. ITS Dangerous. You can break things, hurt your self and others. I encourage those interested to use the pre-made controller from Light O Rama.

Software
If you purchase the Light o Rama Controller, you will be programming with the LOR Software.  Starting in 2010, I switched to LOR hardware and have programed this years show using Light o rama S2 software. My previous shows were squenced using Multi Track Audio software, and a MIDI keyboard. The software was  Acoustica MixCraft. Due to the hardware i selected, I could use ANY MIDI Recording software. The idea is simple – MIDI Notes trigger relays on the MIDI decoder card, so anything that can Record or Playback midi will work. Mixcraft is easy to use, and gives plenty of room to work with lighting control & music.

With the old setup, To Program my shows, I start by inserting a mp3 or music track into the multi track recording software. I connect a MIDI Keyboard to the computer, and then hit the record button. The software plays the audio, and records MIDI notes from the keyboard. The software just thinks I’m recording songs and tracks, but  the decoder card makes the lights go.

The NEW software “S2″ is deigned for the LOR hardware, basically you get a grid of boxes across a timeline. When you want a light on, you click the box to fill it in and you keep filling it across a time line untill you want it off. Much more time involved than my old method, but also much more precise.