Ask HN: What did you use to control your holiday light show

After driving around Christmas night looking at all the light displays and binge watching The Great Christmas Light Fight http://abc.go.com/shows/the-great-christmas-light-fight I've decided to try to put a small display together for next year.

I'm good on the construction and assembly of frames to mount the lights on. My question is what to use to control the lights. I'm sure that some of you have holiday displays running. Can you post what controller(s) you are using? How are you synchronizing lights across the display? Are you using multiple controllers (why yes, I do have a Beowulf Cluster of light controllers).

I figure if I start now I'll have a chance in being done for next year. Thanks for your help!