Imaginer Lights is the hobby of Jason Martin. He started building the show in 2019 to fight the darkness of Pacific Northwest winters while mixing technology with artistry.
Technology
The show is built on programmable lights called pixels, which allow the colors of each individual light to be controlled. The lights are connected to controller boxes that provide 12v power and the data signal to each light string. There are five controllers in our show, two large Kulp K16A-B controllers outside for most of the lights, and three Raspberry Pis with Falcon PiCaps inside controlling the window displays and projector. The controllers run open-source software called FPP that synchronizes between the controllers and sends the sequence data to the lights. The window animations are displayed from a Optoma GT1080HDR short throw projector mounted to the ceiling in the room, combined with a rear projection screen covering the window.
The show songs are mapped to the lights in sequences programmed by open-source software called xLights. Each sequence is created by hand in a process somewhat similar to advanced video editing, where a timeline is presented with the song audio and individual light effects are mapped onto the display by the software.