Needing some advice controlling LED pixels

[shermster1]

I am designing a large commercial holiday lighting display. The main attraction is an 85' tree wired with 1000's of Smart C9 leds. The C9s utilize WS-2811 chips controlling 2-5050 RGB leds per bulb. The lighting strings are 12VDC. The tree's lighting plot also includes 16 strings of RGB 50mm milky white balls hung vertically. They have the same control protocols as the C9s. The surrounding buildings are all adorned with various led strings all smart WS-2811. There are also 100 LED conventional and moving light fixtures. CONTROL ?? WHAT DO I USE ??

1) Should I use a sequencing software like LIGHT-O-RAMA, ViXEN, X-LIGHTS, or LIGHT SHOW PRO.

2) Another thought was MADRIX, AMDJ LED MASTER, ,or Light JAMS

3) Finally do I consider a large conventional lighting control console. HOG, ETC EOS,ION

I'm also looking for some help distributing signal around this vast outdoor area. I have 100 - 16' lamp posts that are wrapped in smart LEDS. I need to transmit wireless DMX to each Lamp post. I could do it with Citi theatrical show baby. I have small $15.00 circuit cards that utilize DMX to generate SPI for smart pixels. Each board is addressable. Coupling a Showbaby and this SPI card would do the trick all be it expensive. QUESTION: Is there a device that can receive DMX from a hard line & transmit the data via WIFI to a WIFI receiver that generates SPI for smart leds. I know there are lots of RGB analog or SPI controllers that work with an APP for your phone or tablet. They are everywhere. Basically, I'm looking to replace the smartphone control with a DMX hardline from a console.
ANY THOUGHTS ? Please advise if you can. I certainlly appreciate your help. Mike

 

[porkchop]

Hopefully Jim (theatrewireless) or someone else from RC4 will pop in soon to help with your wireless questions. I've had great success with their gear and it sounds like their DMXmrx Miniature Data Receiver is the kind of this you might want. I believe they rent equipment so hopefully you can find a solution that is somewhat economical.

As far as control goes you need to figure out how much control you need. If you want to pixel map the entire tree and throw high quality video at it like the tree is a weird shaped video wall you're going to need some serious processing power. If you just want to be able to easily create and edit effects that can run in layers on top of each other you might consider a lower end Martin console (I have my own personal hated of them, but their effects engine seems like it would be well suited to this kind of thing).

Another idea since you have some time and seem to have a lot of control over the gear. Is it possible to find WS2811 drivers that can store sequences? I'm not sure if such a thing exists outside of something similar to an Arduino in a project box, but if a different LED driver could save you from having to get your hands on a giant pile of DMX receivers it could really free up some budget and control processing power. Probably wouldn't work for the whole rig, but it might work for the lamp posts. If you wanted to get real fancy you could do wireless relay contacts to switch between stored sequences on the lamp post drivers.

 

[RC4Wireless]

We make -- I designed -- exactly what you need! And it's a PLASA London 2015 Innovation Award Winner. (Ok, sorry, a bit self-indulgent there...)

Product website, online store, is here:
http://www.theatrewireless.com/shop/rc4magic-s3/dmxpix/

Demo videos and other info here:
http://rc4.info/?s=DMXpix&ht-kb-search=1

All of us here at RC4 are here to help, don't hesitate to ask questions.
http://www.theatrewireless.com/contact/

Jim
RC4

 

[RC4Wireless]

Hopefully Jim (theatrewireless) or someone else from RC4 will pop in soon to help with your wireless questions. I've had great success with their gear and it sounds like their DMXmrx Miniature Data Receiver is the kind of this you might want. I believe they rent equipment so hopefully you can find a solution that is somewhat economical.

As far as control goes you need to figure out how much control you need. If you want to pixel map the entire tree and throw high quality video at it like the tree is a weird shaped video wall you're going to need some serious processing power. If you just want to be able to easily create and edit effects that can run in layers on top of each other you might consider a lower end Martin console (I have my own personal hated of them, but their effects engine seems like it would be well suited to this kind of thing).

Another idea since you have some time and seem to have a lot of control over the gear. Is it possible to find WS2811 drivers that can store sequences? I'm not sure if such a thing exists outside of something similar to an Arduino in a project box, but if a different LED driver could save you from having to get your hands on a giant pile of DMX receivers it could really free up some budget and control processing power. Probably wouldn't work for the whole rig, but it might work for the lamp posts. If you wanted to get real fancy you could do wireless relay contacts to switch between stored sequences on the lamp post drivers.

Thanks, Brett!

The advantage of our DMXpix is it contains everything needed, plus our Custom Pixel Profile system to reduce the number of DMX channels needed, in the same size package as a DMXmrx (crazy tiny, really). For 96.97% of applications, I think we've got it covered -- we directly control just about any kind of pixel string. Times 2. Up to 500 pixels per output, for a total of 1000 pixels from a device that fits in the palm of your hand. And it provides a straight-up DMX data output, too!

But there are a TON of advantages to using an Arduino for unusual, complex, or very specific custom concepts. For that reason, our DMXpix also provides an I2C interface. So an Arduino, or any other microcontroller-based device, can pull live wireless DMX data with far less overhead than is required with a typical DMX port.

Jim
RC4

 

[Mac Hosehead]

It would certainly be worthwhile to check out some of the diy christmas sites:
http://doityourselfchristmas.com/
https://diychristmas.org/vb1/index.php
http://falconchristmas.com/forum/index.php

There are more but most would tell you that if this is for the current holiday season then you are way behind.

Falcon makes pixel controllers that are in high regard with the diy christmas community:
https://www.pixelcontroller.com/store/index.php

There are diy E1.31 wireless pixel controllers:
http://forkineye.com/espixelstick/

Of course, there are products that are more professional in nature. How good is your budget? And how good are your networking skills?

 

[RickR]

King of the Crop is Pharos, in the US it's ETC Mosaic (same hardware, ETC software) From a mini-touchscreen to a 20+ universe rack mount.

My last project with that was a ballroom with 18U of RGBW cove lights. We almost went with an Ion for programming flexibility, but the Mosaic has tie-ins to the architectural controller and nearly any kind of I/O you might want.

 

[Lyle Williams]

The $10 2.4G wireless DMX boards from ebay work pretty well, and might be a financial match for your $15 DMX to SPI boards. They can either transmit or receive.

 

[porkchop]

The $10 2.4G wireless DMX boards from ebay work pretty well, and might be a financial match for your $15 DMX to SPI boards. They can either transmit or receive.

Have you tried using several of them close together? For $10 you're not going to get a lot of engineering so I would have some questions about reliability depending on the use case.

 

[Lyle Williams]

I have not used more than three transmitters in close proximity (I have never wanted to use more, I have a total of ten units.) One transmitter per universe. The number of receivers should be unlimited.

Modulation is GMSK, same as GSM mobile phones. The little boards contain a chip that was designed for 2G mobile phones.

Seven different channels are permitted. (Ie, max seven transmitters universes)

If you have the budget, better gear is better gear. If you don't have the budget and are comfortable with the electronics integrating your $15 boards into enclosures, then adding another board seems like an easy fix.

Electronics integration can be a distraction from the show objectives.