A main-floor visual driven by the CDJs: light breathing with BPM and waveform
The room
Pillbox is an underground club in Beijing. The brief was a main-floor visual above the dance floor that follows the DJ — without closing the venue. Budget: about RMB 70,000. Timeline: two weeks.
Under ten hours of initial conversation. Layout, positions, power and control chain were settled on paper before anyone went on site. The build was three people for five days — 15 person-days. I handled communication, design, programming and delivery from start to finish.
Design
A transparent spiral duct structure hangs above the dance floor. Inside the duct: 150 m of pixel-mapped LED tape and cable. Tungsten lamps, lasers and rotating beacons are arranged along the structure.
The installation does not run presets. The CDJ waveform and BPM feed the system in real time; LED tape and lasers follow the beat. When the DJ changes track, pitch or intensity, the light changes with them. An iPad control interface was added after handover so the client can change colours wirelessly.
System
MadMapper is the main controller. The signal comes from the DJ booth: Beat Link Trigger reads real-time waveform and beat data from the CDJs, Ableton Link syncs BPM, and the system distributes it to LED tape, lasers, beacons and tungsten lamps.
- 150 m of pixel-mapped LED tape, 2,815 pixels, driven through an Art-Net controller
- 638 nm red laser heads and rotating beacons, switched through DMX512 relays
- Full-colour animation laser: MadMapper Laser module → Pangolin BEYOND → FB4
- Tungsten lamps: E27 T300, dimmed through a DMX512 dimmer
- iPad over OSC into MadMapper, for wireless colour control (added after handover)
- Auxiliary control: microcontroller + sensors
Build
Cabling, rigging and commissioning happened outside opening hours; the room was handed back for daytime use. Three people, five days, 15 person-days. LED tape, lasers, beacons and tungsten lamps were all commissioned in one pass.
- Budget: approx. RMB 70,000
- Timeline: two weeks from design to handover, without closing the venue
- On site: 3 people × 5 days, 15 person-days
- LED tape: 150 m, 60 pixels per metre, 2,815 pixels in total
- Lasers: 638 nm red laser heads + full-colour animation laser
Result
It runs automatically: the program follows the DJ's BPM, so the venue does not need a dedicated lighting operator or routine maintenance.
Two updates since handover, one of which added the iPad control interface. I handle after-sales myself. The lights staying on is the handover.