That's the rub isn't?
I'd never heard of the band before but now I'll probably buy a couple of their albums, well unless they decide to sue the 'messenger', which would seem a rather petty thing to do.
Bob.

Well, TSO's last tour was one of the top 20 biggest money-maker tours last year. (Check http://www.trans-siberian.com for more info.) So, even if the artist wanted to grant someone the rights to use the song, I bet there's some big record company that really owns the rights, and we know how much the record companies want to be our friends...

Apparently, it was very real. Quoting from the Oxford Press, because I don't know how long the story will be online:

Car crash, heavy traffic turn out Christmas light show

The Oxford Press | 12/7/05 | Richard Wilson

DEERFIELD TWP. — Sheriff's deputies asked the owner who lit up his house with 25,000 Christmas lights synched to music to turn off the display after a traffic accident Tuesday night.

Deerfield Twp. resident Carson Williams agreed to shut down his holiday decorations indefinitely.

Williams told a Cincinnati television station that sheriff's deputies could not reach the traffic accident because of the traffic lined up in his neighborhood.

The display caught attention across the nation on network TV and on the Internet because the lights on the Williams house and filling their yard are synchronized by computer with music broadcast to car radios. There are three songs in the 12-minute display: Frosty the Snowman by the Jackson 5; God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood and Wizards of Winter by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Williams turned his display on the week of Thanksgiving and motorists have lined up between 6 and 10 p.m. ever since.

For the time being, the only place to view the Williams' display will be online.

"He told us if we start having traffic problems that he would shut the display down for a while," Warren County sheriff's Lt. Ed Petrey said Wednesday morning.

Two cars collided in a minor accident at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on Simpson Creek Drive, which leads to Winding Creek Court, where the Williams live near Mason in southern Warren County. No one was injured.

Williams is an electrical engineer who said his family spent about $10,000 on the display. He had promised his neighbors they would shut it down if there were problems.

"If I get a single complaint I'll shut it down," Carson had said Monday night.

He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.


Here's a link to the Oxford Press story.

He should run it a few times and video it from different angles, then edit it and put it online with some banner ads.

1.) No car crashes
2.) No neighbors complaining
3.) Post edited video and story (maybe a "behind the scenes" video, too)
4.) Attain sponsors from lighting and automation companies
5.) Profit

Yes, it's the American way, but I'd do it in a heartbeat if I was him.

Seems like I also heard that he was an electrician. If nothing else, he will get more business from this and have more fun doing it.

Here's how it was done and the hardware/software he used.
Light-O-Rama

Doc

Light o Rama must have had a great year, they sold out of all their stock.

There was a great ad in the British broadsheets some years ago (Grazie should remember - 1984-ish). In it some guy had lit up an entire hillside. You could just make out his house down there at the bottom. All right, so you over-did it on the lights this year. But you've got the right spirit.
Then the logo for one of the blended whisky-brands.

If you are in Italy, you should go and see the Christmas tree in Gubbio. It is probably the biggest in the world.

Tor

FWIW, there are other hardware solutions; albeit not as cheap. Pro-Am stage gear could do it easily and probably safer.

I can post links or you can google dmx-512 and you will get lots of sources for controllers.

I drove past a very nice house this morning, where it was snowing continuously on a Santa Claus and a snowman in the front yard.

Where was this?

In the nicest part of Beverly Hills, Calif... (daytime high abt 70F/21C currently)

They had the bubbas in a big bubble, and some kind of machine hidden inside that generated a very decent-looking continuous snowfall.

Only in ...

:O)

Can get them at Costco, and I think they're pretty cheap--maybe $50. They're like one of those "snow globes" that you shake up, only they're about 6 feet in diameter.

Actually I read a few things about his display.

He sold advertising time to a local rock radio station, and set up a display for them on his front lawn.

Trans Siberian Orchestra contacted him and invited him to meet and see one of their shows in CLE. or CIN.

There are no complaints about noise from neighbors, because he broadcasts the music over the radio for people in their cars to listen to, and their is a light show for 5 or 6 different Trans Siberian Orchestra songs.

But yes the display is real, and easy to do he said, whith the exception of putting up all of the lights.

Mannheim Steamroller

"one of the most successful recording artists in the history of American music. Mannheim Steamroller has sold more than 27 million albums, more than Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, R.E.M. or Eminem, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. "

The guy behing Mannheim Steamroller is also one the guys behind the song "Convoy."