• Q: What is this all about?
  • A: Simple, I am selling sponsorship of 8,500 channels for a Christmas display with 1,001,000 LED lights. Each set (or channel) of LEDs will be controlled by a Light-O-Rama controller, making this one of the larger computer controlled light shows. Heck, this might even be visible from space :) To make it more manageable I am breaking up the sale of channels into three phases . When one phase sells out, we will have enough to make a display, and then add on to it as the other phases sell out.
• Q: What kind of elements are you making for this display?
  • A: I will be making mini-trees, mega-trees, and leaping arches each with 5 colors: blue, green, red, gold, and white. Each mini-tree will have 5 channels, one for each color. Each mega-tree will have 80 channels, 16 channels of each color (although I am considering doubling up a few trees to have 32 channels of each color). Each leaping arch will have 35 channels, 7 channels across in each color.
• Q: What is a channel?
  • A: A channel is one set of computer controlled lights. In this case approximately 100 to 250 LED lights of one color, and one segment of an element.
• Q: Why are you doing this?
  • A: I was inspired by the million dollar home page, but I wanted to do something unique and original. Since I already had experience and a passion for doing Christmas lights, and after searching around, I found that nothing like this had been done before. Also I needed a way to raise money to buy a house. Being a self-employed entrepreneur with a family, it is near impossible to get a loan these days from a bank. I'm not looking to get rich from this, just enough to pay down some debt and get a good down payment, if more comes from this, then so much the better. Oh and I need lots of flowers to keep my wife happy.
• Q: Why 1,001,000 LEDs? Why not just a million?
  • A: Two reasons, first when I did the math on how I was going to break out the LEDs, that number kept coming up as easy to achieve, and second because it just seemed cool and different.
• Q: How much are you selling the sponsorships for?
  • A: I have planned 8,500 channels to sell, which gives an average price of $0.89 per LED. Each channel sponsorship is $100.00 which is for either 100 or 250 LEDs.
• Q: What does sponsoring a channel get me?
  • A: It grants you exclusive advertising space on this site. Both on the home page and in the buy channels page. This includes a message, URL, and an image (up to 200x200). If this generates enough interest, I will look into placing copies of your images on site with the display. If all the channels sell out, then all images, URLs, and messages will be permanently archived in with the year of the display.
• Q: Can I have a bigger image for my channels?
  • A: Yes, once you have 5 or more channels, up to a maximum of 10, they can be grouped together. That means that you can have 1 image for all the grouped channels that is between 500x500 and 750x750 depending on the number of channels grouped together.
• Q: But why go to all this trouble to buy a house?
  • A: Maybe I'm crazy, but after getting kicked out of the house we were renting, and being turned down by the banks, I wanted to do some thing grand. So why not make a huge Christmas display for my town and share it with the world.
• Q: If this happens? When and where will it be?
  • A: If all goes well, Christmas 2009 is my projected goal. Where, is more subjective, I want to do it somewhere in Mesa, AZ since that is my hometown, but I might have to look at other places.
• Q: What songs are you planning on using?
  • A: Currently I do not have any songs planned for this yet. I will begin the process of deciding this some time early next year if there is enough sponsorships to support doing a display.
• Q: What kind of timeline do you have for the project?
  • A: My goal is to raise as much of the money by the end of 2008, to take advantage of the pre-season sales, and to put as much together for Christmas 2009. However, since it is unlikely that I will sell out by then, I have divided it into 3 phases which will be benchmarks for the display. Given the size and complexity of this project, I am open to any volunteers that would like to assist. However, until this gets off the ground, the best way to help is to sponsor a channel. When I'm ready, I will make an announcement.
• Q: Where does the money go?
  • A: I plan to use it to buy the LED lights from Creative Displays and the controllers from Light-O-Rama. Also there are a number of incidental items that will need to be purchased, frames for the mini-trees and mega-trees, PVC, etc. Depending on what can be worked out, I will probably also have to pay for the electricity and space to put this in. (I estimate that all the LEDs would use 400 amps if all on)
• Q: What kind of LEDs will you be using?
  • A: I am planning on mostly 100-count strands of M5 LEDs, with some 50-count. I think that they put out enough light to be very visible without being overwelming, especially in a dislay this large.
• Q: Why don't have have X, Y, or Z type Christmas display element?
  • A: Because I anticipate having to do this in a large field of some kind with no guarantee of a structure to hang lights from or shine on. So I chose primarily free-standing elements that were reasonably easy to build. I am willing to consider repurposing channels if it stays within the same lighting requirements, and it is compelling enough to do. Items I've already considered and rejected include, LED spots (where would I shine them, on the ground?); any kind of deer, candy cane, or such (most don't come with LEDs and they can be tacky if overused); the "Marty Fan" (while very cool, building a bunch of those would be very difficult).
• Q: What happens if you don't sell enough sponsorships? Are you just going to take the money and run?
  • A: No, I will use whatever money I get to make a Christmas display, even if it is smaller that I wanted. If I can get enough sponsors to do at least the first phase, then there will at least been a pretty good sized display. My first priority is getting a display done of some kind, if there is any money left over, then that will be used to buy a house.
• Q: Who are you?
  • A: My name is David Alvis and I'm from Mesa, AZ. I have been operating a small computer business since 2001. I am married with two small girls. I'm also a Christmas light enthusiast and part of the Planet Christmas community.

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