Talk:Times Square Ball

Image
This looks like an appropriate free-use image that could be uploaded to commons and used here. (cc-by-2.0) —Disavian (talk/contribs) 05:13, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

The descending of the Ball was suspended.
Was the ball suspended in the air, or was the practice suspended? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.141.177.107 (talk) 18:30, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

More details about the 2007/2008 ball
I'm going to add this information here and hope somebody else migrates it to the main page, because while I have data, I'm not sure how or where to add it. IOW I don't think I'd be a good editor.

Focus Lighting was only one company involved in the 2007/2008 Times Square Ball. LED Effects, Inc., now called Lighting Science Group, in Rancho Cordova, Ca. designed, manufactured, and programmed the circuit boards for the ball. There are 168 triangles. Each has 48 Philips Luxeon K2 LEDs (three each red, green, blue, and white, times four pixels), plus three "wing" boards that make up the white lines between the triangles. Each of those has three white Philips Rebel LEDs. That's 8064 K2s and 1512 Rebels for a total of 9576 LEDs.

There are two triangle shapes, one equilateral, one isosceles. I don't remember how many of each there are, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Electrically they are identical.

Each triangle is driven by a single Cypress CY8C29466 processor, which accepts DMX512 data, interprets it and uses it to drive the LEDs. I know a lot about that part because I wrote the firmware. :) The ball was controlled from a single computer console (in our tests we used a Windows laptop).

Each color of each pixel can display 256 different levels. With red, green, and blue colors that gives you a palette of 2^24 or 16,777,216 colors. The white LEDs add more color combinations, though some would be duplicates, so it's difficult to calculate the actual number (and the exponential curve complicates things even more) so most people are satisfied to quote "more than 16 million" and leave it at that. :)

I might be able to get copyright-free photos and I KNOW I can get a photo of an early prototype triangle, because I have it here and I have a camera. :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jnork (talk • contribs) 03:52, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

More Details on the 2008/09 Ball:--well, we did not see any at all! Whst happened? We were so srely disappointed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.205.47.116 (talk) 05:10, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

TV audience
The claimed TV audience figure of one billion people is implausibly high. We are asked to believe that an event that is watched by only one person in three in its own country is watched by one person in six around the whole planet? Midnight in New York is between 5am and 7am in Europe, so the audience there and in Africa is surely small. I can't imagine the Chinese or the Indians being especially interested. So where are all these people?

The event receives zero public exposure in the UK, for example. The BBC News website seems to mention it once every few years.

Can anyone find a credible source (i.e., not the self-aggrandizement of the organizers) for the viewing figures of this event? Dricherby (talk) 19:01, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

I've just added a call for a citation for that figure as I agree that it's implausible. It's not until the arrival of the film "New Year's Eve" in the UK that I'd ever heard of this event. Paulatthehug (talk) 13:43, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I just got rid of the billion claims entirely, and decided to go more by TV ratings/public attendance (1 million is more feasible) ViperSnake151   Talk  04:46, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

It looks likes someone put this implausible 1 billion number is back, citing http://1234newyear.com/ for a reference !? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.127.253.44 (talk) 18:25, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Drop control system.
Until 1996 the ball drop was controlled by a crew of men hanging onto a rope. That's the year it was upgraded to an LED lighting system and a computer controlled power winch so that it'd hit the bottom right at midnight. Master rigger Tony Calvano has said in interviews that it rarely hit the bottom on time, they'd just turn on the lights at midnight. Bizzybody (talk) 01:56, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

YouTube
Can we use YouTube as a citation for this article? They are the only proof of the countdown clock. Fairly OddParents Freak (Fairlyoddparents1234)  C 21:56, 10 February 2013 (UTC)
 * YouTube is shaky as a source. Plus, see WP:FANCRUFT (although I must note that I still think that odometer thing they did for 2010 was the coolest thing ever) ViperSnake151   Talk  01:42, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050426133815/http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/123199/cy2_124-4983.shtml to http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/123199/cy2_124-4983.shtml

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Countdown Clocks
Several times in the past, someone has typed in countdown clocks, without the links, which were from the screen at the very top of One Times Square. I have the links for each theme, and I’m not sure if I can put them in. Sultanofswag89 (talk) 18:36, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

I went to time.gov for the official U. S. time, and the last two years, the ball drop was about 20 seconds late! I forgot to check this year, but how can the ball drop be so far off from time.gov? Has the timing been off every year? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.9.112.135 (talk) 08:04, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Are you in Times Square watching it live, or on TV? I have noticed a 15-second delay on "live" events on cable TV; this may be some combination of a "seven-second delay" to allow for censoring things not allowed on broadcast TV and the general lag in getting the signal to the TVs. -- That Don Guy (talk) 22:07, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

I watch it at home, switching between channels. I didn't note down the exact times this year, but this year the little clock in the corner for CNN was about 15 seconds off, and for ABC it was about 20 seconds off. I can pause the broadcast on my TV screen, which shows the exact time, and it was about 30 seconds off. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1702:1DE0:8FB0:280C:5934:78F7:6E33 (talk) 01:04, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Should we remove the image?
I think the image is from a movie. Should we change it? Billy rocky fernansa (talk) 15:48, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
 * which image? What movie do you think it is from? — Wug·a·po·des​ 00:29, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Didn't DROP in 2022/23
Author might want to add a line about the fact that it didn't actually drop in 2022/23. It sat on the roof, flashed for a few minutes before midnight, and then turned off right away. 2601:282:8201:6A20:3196:55C:B2BC:ED25 (talk) 15:59, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Add Peter Arnell
Hello. I am requesting the following edit be implemented as described below:
 * In the last sentence of the third paragraph of the section titled "The fifth ball (2008-present)", please add "designed by Fontainebleau Brand Executive Peter Arnell, " directly after the words "lighting patterns". The sentence should then read as below, including the added sources:
 * For 2024, the lighting patterns, designed by Fontainebleau brand executive Peter Arnell, featured bow tie motifs as part of a sponsorship by Fontainebleau Resorts and Fontainebleau Las Vegas, (alluding to the resort's logo and the bow tie shape of Times Square itself).

I am pinging who has helped with the Fontainebleau Las Vegas page in the past. Thanks. Cade Stiles (talk) 16:52, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm not familiar with the article, but I suppose I could take a closer look at your request next week, if no one else responds by then. AJFU  (talk) 14:46, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
 * There doesn't seem to be any opposition, so I've gone ahead and added him in. The first source you provided already supports the addition, so I removed the second one. AJFU  (talk) 14:33, 11 January 2024 (UTC)