Carson Williams

Carson Williams from Mason, Ohio, USA, is noted for his homemade light shows using Christmas lights fixed around and on top of his house. The lights are programmed to turn on and off in synchronism with music using a computer application and set of modules known as [http://lightorama.com Light-O-Rama] . For each minute of animation synchronized to music, he spent approximately one hour to sequence 88 Light-O-Rama channels to control his 16,000 Christmas lights. His notability suddenly increased when a popular clip was widely circulated on the Internet in late 2005 showing a recording of one of his shows from 2004, accompanied by the track "Wizards in Winter" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. An urban legend even developed that it was not a video of an actual light display, but faked on a computer.

With the permission from both his neighbors he put on various displays each year, completely free. Typical light shows ran between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. each night. Viewers heard the music on an FM broadcast frequency marked in the front yard. This kept the noise level down and eliminated the light/sound lag often experienced at concerts.

However, on December 6 2005, Carson closed the light display indefinitely due to immense traffic congestion in his subdivision; there was a car accident in that area and police were unable to reach the site due to the heavy traffic that had built up. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Christmas Light Display Shut Down | date= | publisher=Fox 19 Cincinnati | url =http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=4211867 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-12-04 | language = ]

Williams's Christmas display proved so popular that it was featured in a Miller Lite beer commercial in December 2005. In fact, the show was so popular that many other individuals have used the same song on their display. [ [http://www.lightorama.com/Videos.html Light O Rama Videos ] ]

He has taken his Internet fame and started a custom animation lighting business. [http://www.consarlights.com ConsarLights.com] is a business to provide custom designed holiday lighting.

In November 2006, Williams decided to revive the display and move the show to Heritage Oak Park in Mason, Ohio. The show has been converted into a "drive-through" style show and admission will be charged.

According to a promotional video, [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsqBo-p2wU0 Carson Williams and Parker 3D Symphony In Lights 2006] at Northfield Stapleton Shopping Center in Denver Colorado with interviews and behind-the-scenes] officials at the Northfield Stapleton Shopping Center found William's house lights video on the internet and asked him to design a new show in Denver, Colorado, on a commercial scale. Created with Parker 3D, the show featured over 250,000 LED lights drawing 150 amperes of electric current. It used several Trans-Siberian Orchestra songs, including "Wizards in Winter," "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" and "Christmas Canon". "Symphony In Lights" was a free show open to the general public that ran through the month of December 2006.

For 2007, Consar Lights programmed new light shows designed by Parker 3D for The Promenade Bolingbrook in Chicago, and the Yorkdale Shopping Center in Toronto.

See also

* Christmas lights

External links

* [http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/xmaslights.asp "Christmas in Lights" house verified as "true" on Snopes Urban Legends article, with updates on park and Denver project]
* [http://www.consarlights.com Carson Williams' custom animation web site]
* [http://www.lightorama.com The official Light-O-Rama site]
* [http://www.pulsejournal.com/e/content/oh/index/entertainment/events/holidays/mason_lights_index.html Videos of the 2005 performance, the 2006 performance, and interviews]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsqBo-p2wU0 Carson Williams and Parker 3D Symphony In Lights 2006 at Northfield Stapleton Shopping Center in Denver Colorado with interviews and behind-the-scenes]
* [http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061109/NEWS01/311090027/-1/all Cincinnati Enquirer 2006 article]
* [http://www.christmaswonders.com Williams' admitted inspiration for his show]
* [http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=ab5246e5-7858-4130-a16f-715edb504cc2 TV interview with Williams]
* [http://www.wgmd.com/SOUNDS/NEWS/HOLIDAYLIGHTS-11-29-05.mp3 Radio interview with Carson Williams]

References