Enter the Matrix V3, or MX3 for short.
The second iteration of the matrix saga was cool, but not practical, this aims to be both
Special thanks to Madrix for sponsoring this project with their awesome software 
Essentially, this project was conceived because of practical problems with the previous display, shown through use at functions .etc.
1. It was not very bright at all, don’t ask me how, but I managed to get the power consumption down to 1.13 Watts whilst it was still functional; I hope this shows how poor the brightness was. In professional usage, this creates many unacceptable conditions, the most severe of these is caused when other lights hit the panel and wash it out, they don’t need to be pointed at it, just beam leakage and haze can do it. This washes out the panel and changes the colour balance to the eyes.
The new panels are 200W, a significant improvement, and will output 2700lm each. These are very visible even in daylight and the colour remains good even adjacent to significant arrays of movers in haze.
2. Rigging was problematic. It could be used freestanding on the floor with its stand, but anything else was a non-starter. Want it hanging from a truss? Want it in a different aspect ratio? Want it smaller? Want a different height stand? Not possible.
The new panels have standard mounting hardware on the back. They can be mounted in any orientation, in any arrangement, using standard rigging methods, such as hung trussing, tank-traps, trees, and H-bars.
3. Control was ridiculous for professional usage. I had a folder of various combinations of code. Mixtures of my transmission code, solderlab’s embedded code, my embedded code, various generation scripts, and so on. Various different non-standard protocols make the control needed for professional applications impossible.
Data is streamed over Art-Net, the standard lighting data protocol for these types of panels. sACN can also be used. This allows use of industry standard software such as madrix. This is phenomenally flexible, powerful, and professional. It makes control and advanced programming extremely easy, and can be remote-controlled from a regular lighting desk with DMX.
4. Reliability and rigging time was an issue. As the units were not enclosed, rigging involved much troubleshooting (mostly wires shorting). There was not much (or really any) proper mounting for anything.
The new panels are fully tested and enclosed. They work reliably without randomly poking wires hoping to find a short 
5. Ping-Pong balls and wood are flammable. Whilst the panels do not get hot, other stuff in venues will, making it a big fire hazard.
With a full metal enclosure, this is almost entirely mitigated. However, for ease of hole-drilling, the front board is still MDF, but treated to be more fire retardant than the aluminium case 
Whilst all these issues are no problems for installation (custom mounting) or for a few occasional discos or functions (what it was designed for), it is not practical as a full-blown professional video panel.
Whilst the previous display was great for what it is meant for, professional usage requires a bit “more”, as detailed above
All the design choices were made around professional usage. The size was as large as possible, whilst still being able to be handled by one person, and to fit in a cherry-picker or scissor lift (hence the vertical orientation as “default”).
Custom LED Modules
This was a big, expensive decision, but one that I think ultimately paid off.
- Colour uniformity was far from satisfactory with the “bog standard” pixels, My pixels used much higher quality LEDs. They were rated for a higher power, so the colours were more uniform at te lower power (with the help of some resistors
![:-)]()
) - Brightness was also a biggie, the normal pixels are bright, but more is always better. Here each pixel is 14 lumens instead of the usual 9
- Grip distance – quite simply set for the thickness of MDF
- Wires usually come out of the sides parallel to the back, I wanted them perpendicular so that the wires (which were also thicker and stiffer) would puch against the back, holding them in place as well as the grip
- Reliability, since I was doing a small run, I messed around with some little reliability problems I knew about (mainly signaling)
This generally worked quite well, and I was pleased with the results
I will post more nerdy details later on (spread this out for as long as possible )
A final thank you to Madrix again for being awesome
Please look at the videos on my youtube chanel
http://www.youtube.com/user/DaShroom66/videos
And my Instructable
http://www.instructables.com/id/MX3-Professional-LED-Panel-1/
Please vote for me
Thanks
