MoonLight at a concert
In early September 2025, MoonLight v0.5.9 was used to drive all the lighting across two stages at a small festival — the ultimate test before the v0.6.0 release.
What was driven
All lights — LED bars, moving heads, and LED rings — were controlled from MoonLight using DMX over Art-Net, sent via XLR cables to Art-Net/DMX controllers. Each stage had its own ESP32 controller and network router.
Live stage
18 LED bars, driven over Art-Net from a single M5Stack AtomS3R running MoonLight. Audio was injected from the house mix using a WLED-MM sound injector.
| Hardware | |
|---|---|
| M5Stack AtomS3R | Controller |
| Pknight Art-Net DMX 512 | DMX converter |
| 18 LED bars | Fixtures |
| GL.iNet GL-AXT1800 router | Network |
| WLED-MM Mic sound injector | Audio |
Dance stage
19 RGBW moving heads and 16 LED rings, driven over Art-Net. The rings used 16 parallel direct outputs running at 500 FPS.
| Hardware | |
|---|---|
| M5Stack AtomS3R | Controller |
| 19× moving heads RGBW | Fixtures |
| GL.iNet AR300M16 router | Network |
| 16× 24 LED rings | Fixtures |
Lessons learned
| Observation | Next step |
|---|---|
| Front lighting on the bar stage needed a fixed white rectangle effect on top of the colour effects | Add layers in v0.7.0 — each layer with its own position and size |
| Effects looked best on large numbers of lights; small fixtures need dedicated patterns | Design patterns optimised for small displays and moving heads |
| Some bands wanted ambient lighting, not dynamic effects | Allow preset loops to switch between modes during a show |
| Shows had to run unsupervised | Preset loops with start/end presets were added as a result |
| The M5Stack AtomS3R is fully capable in Art-Net mode — connect to USB power and go |
No crashes, no downtime, no complaints from the audience. The goal was to test whether MoonLight has the potential for running live shows. It does.
If you want to try a similar setup, come and find us on Discord.