coding4fun - xmas musical lights

I have been seeing these things for a number of years, and finally made the decision to act on it, well my students will be actin on it as a challenge. they will find a set piece of music and have to program the lights to move to that piece of music.

I have found the phidget interface cards at ozziesim.com.au and have managed to put them out of stock, the board I am planning on using is the Phidget Interface kit 0/0/4   ::  AUS$95.00, this has 4 channels that I can use, I have brought two of them to provide 8 channels which should be enough for a basic light display.

We will need to create a mock up of the full display that I plan to use in the hall in the classroom, so the students can test out there displays. I think it should be fun as a final challenge which should push some of them before we really get into programing, I am yet undecided whether to do this with year 12 or 13 yet?

Here is the inspiration of what has lead me to do this:

CDAWG2 created a computerized lighting display using the Coding4Fun holiday lightarticle by Brian Peek.  They used 8 channels and about 4,500 lights and only cost about $150.  Nice job guys!
Wizards in Winter 2008 by Transiberian Orchestra - video powered by Metacafe