Lighting guides.
Practical notes on planning pixel layouts, choosing a protocol, importing a BIM model and estimating light on a surface.
How many DMX universes does a pixel installation need?
One DMX512 universe carries 512 channels. Divide that by the channels each pixel uses, round down, and you have the pixels per universe: 170 for RGB, 128 for RGBW. The rest is packing rules and headroom.
Art-Net vs sACN: which one should carry your universes?
Both protocols carry ordinary DMX512 universes over UDP/IP. The choice comes down to the network and the gear: Art-Net for pixel controllers and nodes that expect it, sACN for managed house networks, multicast and priority-based backup.
Importing the lighting that is already in the BIM model.
An architect's BIM model often already contains the lighting design: every luminaire with its type, manufacturer, article number and position. Exported as IFC, that information can become a 3D lighting twin instead of being redrawn by hand.
From lumens and beam angle to lux.
A datasheet gives lumens and a beam angle; a brief asks for lux. With the inverse-square law and a little geometry you can estimate how bright a surface will be and how large the pool of light is, before you open a full calculation tool.