ETC Ion pixel mapping led strip lights

I am a senior undergraduate theatrical lighting design student. I am currently working on my senior capstone lighting design and was just given a grant to have a higher budget for lighting equipment. I would like to use our ETC Ion’s DMX pixel mapping capabilities to control LED strip lights.

I have never done this before and I was wondering if there was certain equipment and LED strip lights that anyone has experience with and could recommend?

Thanks!

Are you looking for the individual pixel type LED strips or pixel mapping of "dumb" LED strip lights?

In the case of the former there are any number of sACN/Art-Net/E1.31 drivers on the market. I like the DMXKings LeDMX4 PRO 12-24V variant but there are many to choose from at various price points. The linked page provides a starting point for finding pixel strings if you start searching for the compatible LED strips. DMX isn't a great choice for the application given the number of addresses involved. The aforementioned unit can handle 16 universes with a single ethernet cable.

In the case of the latter there are even more choices of DMX-to-PWM drivers under various names (DMX Decoder, LED controller, RGB driver, RGBW driver, etc.) but you will find you need a lot of output ports to drive the "dumb" LED strips.

The challenge in any of these LED projects is configuring the data and power to the LED strips to ensure every pixel has adequate power and reliable data.

I think it also depends on if you mean a strip light (like a colorblaze, etc.) or like an LED tape product.

If it is the first one than you just need the strip lights and the console.

This is a good how to on the console end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLl-Ao0hIFwH8eMPeoneIACtwwam0IloLb&v=msVNxlZYBo0