How to Animate Christmas Light Displays

By Rusty Surette, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Animated light displays have been blowing up across the metro this holiday season, and many might be wondering how those choreographed displays are put together.

Homeowners are synching Christmas lights to music and the shows are attracting sight-seers by the thousands.

For years, Mark Matalik, has put on a dazzling show of dancing lights in his Oklahoma City neighborhood. He started with his own house, and he did it by finding a company online that sells the kit and software to do it. The package comes with very specific instructions, but Matalik said it takes some time.

"It starts from the beginning. It has arrows. Put this here, this here, this here," Matalik said.

From there, he uses a computer program to create a playlist of songs and creates a rough draft of what the real thing will look like.

Matalik said it takes a few months to compose several songs, but once it's done, he takes his works to the board or the "brain" of the system.

"I put them on a little SD card, just like a digital camera," Matalik said.

The board is then connected to a low-power FM transmitter, which is how drivers hear the songs.

The other half of the board is hooked up to outside connectors with customized circuit boards. That is what's used to connect to the lights to the system inside. It's a lot of lights, and a lot of work, but Matalik said it's well worth it.

"I've had a lot of comments. People thanking me and how much joy it brings to everyone else," Matalik said.

A starter kit runs around $1,000.

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