Custom LED Driver PCB

During Der Wald and Lucrezia (Guildhall Opera Double Bill 2025), where I was undertaking the role of Production Electrician, our lighting designer Simon Bennison requested for LED tape to be installed in sections around various set pieces. This was mostly as a fill to light the performers but in places would also provide a lovely accent to the set.

Simon's ideal scenario was to have these lengths broken down into one metre sections each of which could be controlled individually. Although our budget was relatively healthy, it couldn't quite accommodate pixel tape or the necessary number of drivers to pull this off!

In the past I had used WLED (wireless LED tape driving firmware) and knew it was open source and often installed onto various different devices for use in many applications, from home lighting setups to immersive experiences and of course, theatre. I investigated how I could use this to my advantage and discovered with very few additional components I could run WLED on standard LED tape.

With this in mind I designed a custom PCB to mount the components and easily wire in power supplies and the LED tape.

After getting a quote from some PCB manufacturers, for the quantity we desired, it actually became cheaper to use my custom PCB over off-the-shelf alternatives! They also had the added bonus of being extremely small and light, allowing them to be tucked away in places that may not have been possible before