SolsticeLights

 Every year when I'm setting up the lights I end up thinking to myself "I bet most people don't have to run as many ethernet cables when they put up their lights." Here's what it looks like up on the porch: The big beige box on the planter is the main box that controls everything. Below it is a waterproof box for a powerstrip, there's a lot of extension cords involved too The two outdoor speakers are under the planter too Along the railing are 5 grey boxes, each one has a power supply and a little controller to send signals to 1/5th of the LED lights This is what it looks like in one of those boxes: LEDs are very efficient, but to make sure they're all evenly bright they need a connection to power every 100 lights or so. Most of this box is filled with a power supply and fuses and lots of special extension cords to distribute 5v DC power to all the strings of LEDs. IN the bottom right of the picture is a little board that gets connected by ethernet cable a...

 I've got videos of the lightshow showing the songs from each year. In 2023 they were the same as last year, so I didn't add new videos. But here's the songs from 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOsFvjIe7QA&list=PLUW_i71g8rlbMLd_RWj6ngo9FSfdKmxmi

I happened to be outside, on my way to pick up a pizza, when the reporter writing this piece was walking by. She was watching a big crowd play some of the songs, and when they left, she asked me about the lights.  https://reviews.newhavenindependent.org/reviews/illuminations_light_up_somervilles_personality