Yesterday the 240 volt cables needed for the rope light train and stars were installed in the roof once again and today the five LED red/white roof triangles put up.

If all goes to plan, the rope light train and stars will go up tomorrow followed by all the roof lights being connected to the show computer on Wednesday or Thursday.

The three windows now have lights around them as do the three verandah poles.

Regarding the streaming webcam, I've calculated that I should be able to turn it on on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights of December for three hours (such as 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm) without running out of bandwidth like last year.

The first of the display was put out today. The data cables (ethernet patch cable) for computer control have not yet been put in as planned.. they were supposed to go in last weekend but will finally be installed tomorrow.

The next job after that will be laying out power cables to various points in the roof, and putting up lights on the roof.

Time is ticking! There are now under 3 weeks left until I need to begin setting up the lights, cables, computer, etc.

In terms of those 'leaping features', I do not think they will be in this year's display. I haven't settled enough on how many arches I need and how big they should be, so I'd rather put it off and get it right.

I am nearly done with sequencing the lights to this year's soundtrack. The opening night track is all done, as well as three regular songs. The fourth song is about a third complete.

The new green LED lights arrived sooner than expected just last week. I was not expecting to get the lights until mid September, however they have now been labelled and put away for a few months. I did take a few photographs of them though!

Initial tests of running the 'Light-O-Rama' branded controllers with DMX seem to work reasonably well, though I did experience some technical difficulties with 'access' errors a couple of times. What I concluded was that the software must be trying to control the lights more than once (think of it like two or more people trying to drive the same car).

Regarding the webcam, I'm expecting that it should be functioning again around early to mid October. By then the 'show' computer that drives the lights and music will be in place in a new spot that should hopefully make managing the webcam possible as well as running the show.

2009 marks the tenth year of decorating, and this year's display is well into the planning stages with two songs completely sequenced and a third one to follow shortly. All up, there will be four songs in total (not including intermission, opening or closing tracks).

I am pleased to say that the talented Carrie Lyn Infusion single titled Suite Christmas Rush will again be in the playlist this year. The song can be purchased for personal use on the CDBaby website for just US$1.

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