The Lake Area Light Show is computer-controlled, but human-programed.  We tell every strand of lights when to come on and when to turn off.

 

Every "channel" (independently controlled segment of lights) is plugged into a computer circuit board from Light-O-Rama (Seen to the right).

 

Each board can run up to 16 different channels, and we use four boards, so as of 2008, we can run up to 64 different channels.

 

These boards are all connected to a computer.  On that computer, we use Light-O-Rama software to create our light show.  Our show is a compilation of many sequences (songs).

 

Programming each sequence is where the complexity lies.  Below is a screen shot of the software we use to program each song.  Along the top of the screen, the time scale of the song is shown, while each channel is represented by one row in the 'spread sheet.'

 

Each 'cell' represents only 0.02 seconds of show time. This tiny time scale allows us to achieve extreme accuracy when programing the lights to match the music. However, it also increases the time it takes to program each song. In complex songs, it could take several hours to program one minute of show.