Altoona Lights

We had a brief display outage around 7:30 tonight while adding a new feature for the display. We were out for about 8 minutes, which cut off part of the show. We know at least one vehicle was out at that time, and we apologize for any viewing problems.

When we did the show for tonight, we forgot our latest song that we just completed! doh!  “Holidays are Coming” wasn’t in the list, but it’ll be in the show from this point on. Thanks to all who stopped by tonight!

So in the past week we’ve been testing and finalizing parts of the display. We plan on going live tonight with all 4 completed sequences.  The last few days it has been really rainy and I haven’t been able to get outside to correct a few issues. You may find me wandering around the display tonight fixing a few things!

We were also lucky enough to get a introductory voice over done by K.C. O’Day from Waly 103.9FM.  How exciting is that!?

Friday, December 4th will be our official light up night. Come and stop by between 6:00pm and 9:30pm.

Thursday night I managed to pull together the FM transmitter, and I was able to schedule some tests to run off and on throughout the evening. Every 2 tests, the Wizards in Winter sequence runs, so if anyone stops by, they might catch a little show. 

In other news, I got a new FM transmitter working on the new frequency of 95.1FM, and it apears that we get plenty of distance out of it. Last year, we had a hard time reaching the entire block, we get about 3 blocks in every direction now.

I’m still working on the new sequences as well. I hope to get all 3 songs done by this coming Monday.  We’ll see.

This Saturday (11/14), we’ll be starting to setup the over 20,000 lights used in our animated display this year. We hope to get most of the display functional this weekend and continue to work the next few weeks in hopes to go live on Thanksgiving.

The biggest change you’ll notice is the addition of 5 arches in the front of the display. They will add a entertaining dynamic piece to the display.

Another change this year is the addition of 64 new dimmable channels, giving ultimate flexibility to the entire display.  We’ll also be down-sizing our two 20-foot mega trees in favor of 3 or 4 12-foot mega trees.  We have also decided to add a formal charity box to collect donations for BIMI again this year.

We hope you enjoyed last years display and hope to see you this year as well!

Well, the lights are off for the remainder of the season.  We’ve begun taking down the major parts of the display.  We were able to tear down the two mega trees, stairway arch, light pole, and a few other pieces.  We mainly have just the icicle lights and a few random strands of lights left to remove.  Now comes the fun part of organizing and getting it packed away for the year!

I’ve also started a new project for next years’ display.  You can check out the development process here.

Overnight, an ice storm spread into the region.  This morning the entire display was covered in about a quarter inch of ice.  There is no aparent damage yet, however the additional weight on the mega trees is causing all the strands to sag.  We’re hoping that the rope that raises/lowers the lights will hold and doesn’t snap. This afternoon, temperatures are supposed to get into the 40’s, allowing me to fix some of the sagging. 

We haven’t yet checked the functionality of the display today.  Once some of the ice melts down, I’ll be doing the usual tests.  As of now, every display piece should be working, and we plan to have a full show tonight.

Mary of Hollidaysburg saw our show earlier this weekand was kind enough to send us a Christmas card;

“Merry Christmas. Your lights are awesome, that was a great article!” - Mary

Thanks Mary, you really made my day!

Boredom got the best of me today, so…. I added a new piece to the show tonight. I just finished it up at 5:00 pm.  I wrapped parts of the front railing with more colored lights and am feeding power from the “pole of light”.  Adds a nice little enhancement.  I’m not a big fan of colored lights, but I’m just working with what I have.