What is FPP (Falcon Player)?
FPP (Falcon Player – formerly known as Falcon Pi Player) is software that runs your holiday light show—playing your sequences and sending data to your lights in perfect sync with music. The software is free, open source and runs on an inexpensive Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone single board computer (SBC), so doesn’t require you to dedicate a PC or Mac to the effort. FPP takes fully rendered light shows from xLights and tells the pixel controllers how to play them. The SBC should be plugged into directly into your show network via ethernet (preferably a dedicated gigabit switch). Read more below, or you can jump directly to the Falcon Player FAQ.
Simple Explanation:
FPP is the “player” that takes your finished show and makes it come alive.
What FPP Does
How It Fits Together
FPP Hardware
In short: xLights creates your show… FPP runs it.
Falcon Player FAQ
What is the difference between xLights and FPP?
Think of xLights as the design studio and FPP (Falcon Player) as the media player.
- You use xLights on your main home computer or laptop to program your lighting effects, map your props, and time the lights to music.
- Once your show is designed, you export those show files and upload them into FPP, which runs on a tiny, dedicated microcomputer (like a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone). FPP physically plays the files and sends the signals to your controllers so you don’t have to leave your expensive computer running all winter.
Do I need a desktop or laptop computer running constantly to play my Christmas light show?
No. This is the primary reason FPP is so popular. Instead of leaving a power-hungry desktop or laptop running 24/7 during the holidays, FPP runs on a low-power microcomputer (like a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black) that sips electricity. Once configured, FPP runs your schedules, plays your music, and triggers your controllers completely independently.
What is a “Master/Remote” setup in FPP?
In larger holiday light shows, a single FPP device might not be able to reach every physical controller, or you might want to sync multiple props without running hundreds of feet of ethernet cable. The Master player sends tiny sync packets over your local network to the Remote players, ensuring every light strip is perfectly synchronized to the microsecond without lagging.
The Master FPP player runs your show schedule and audio — think of it as the conductor of an orchestra. This FPP instance will have all of your light show sequences and MP3 audio files loaded on its memory card.
Remote FPP players are placed on separate props around your yard (or even across the street) — they have the all of your light show sequences loaded on their memory card, and the Master just tells them when to play them at exactly the right time. This minimizes traffic over the network. The remotes can be a stand alone Raspberry PI with FPP or a controller using a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone cape (like Kulp controllers).
Can I run FPP over Wi-Fi, or do I need an Ethernet cable?
While FPP can use Wi-Fi to receive show schedules, trigger sequences, or let you access the web interface, we highly recommend using a physical Cat6 Ethernet cable to connect your FPP device to your pixel controllers. Pixel data is incredibly heavy and time-sensitive; Wi-Fi interference can cause noticeable lagging, stuttering, or frozen pixels in your show. Please see our article on optimized network architecture. If you absolutely need to use WiFi (e.g. running across a street), be sure to follow the tips in the WiFi troubleshooting article.
Does Falcon Player only work with Falcon Controllers?
No. Despite the name, Falcon Player is completely open-source and universally compatible. FPP can send output data to almost any modern pixel controller on the market, including Falcon, Kulp, Advatek, SanDevice, Genius, Twinkly and even DIY ESP32-based controllers. If your hardware supports standard protocols like E1.31 (sACN) or DDP, FPP can run it.
Where can I get the FPP software?
You can download the latest version of the software for free from: https://falconchristmas.com
Where can I buy a Raspberry Pi to run it on?
Please see our shopping list for recommendations on buying a Raspberry Pi and supporting hardware.
What does “FPP” stand for?
In the early days, “FPP” stood for “Falcon Pi Player” because it was designed to run on a Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer. The software was later expanded to run on BeagleBone SBCs, and the name was changed to just “Falcon Player” to reflect that it could run on multiple platforms. The acronym “FPP” stuck.