Christmas 2015 at the Hormanns

2015 was our fifteenth year for an animated Christmas display. This year there were a number of changes. The biggest was the addition of the 18ft×8ft pixel grid on the house; this grid has 4,876 individually controlled RGB pixels. In addition, we doubled the width of the more dense pixel grid below the clock. Finally, the yard is now covered with 44 Corostars that are individually controlled by RGB modules to be any color.

Behind the scenes, the programming was greatly updated to support the additional pixels and allow the different elements (stars, bushes, and grid) to remain synchronized. This year we are leveraging 6 LOR (Light-o-Rama) boards to control the bushes and the snowmen, 2 Alpha Pix controllers for the large Grid and to convert E1.31 to DMX, multiple DMX-based controllers for the stars in the yard and RGB floods shining up on the house, and a PixLite 4 board to control the Grid below the clock as well as provide DMX signal for the clock itself.

For the last 10 years or so, a number of neighbors have braved the cold to watch the clock hit midnight and welcome Christmas. This year, we had over 35 neighbors come and watch the clock hit zero. Hopefully you’ll join us next year!