Addressable RGB LED Dance Pole

Projects General Guidance
1

Project:
I would like to create a dance pole that has 7 feet of addressable RGB LED strips for various lighting effects. I would be using 1-1/4” steel pipe which has a diameter of 1.66”. This would permit 13 LED strips to be placed around the circumference running lengthwise. In the feasibility stages, but have some preliminary ideas/figures:

Using 13 LED strips @ 7 feet each length (2.13 meters).
Total of 27.7 meters of LED strips
60 LEDs/meter @ 20watt/meter = 46 amps.
This will run off a 12v battery fed by a 250 amp alternator, so power supply should not be an issue.

Some of the lighting effects I would like to achieve based on music input are:
Spectrum analyzer (12 channel)
Single VU meter
Light organ (color fades and pulse)
Cannon (fires to the beat)

Now for some questions:
If I adhere these to a steel pole around the circumference using double sided tape could I use clear PVC shrink tube to protect them without causing any damage to the strips? Any potential heat issues? I might optionally coat the shrink tube with a clear epoxy coating for increased wear resistance.

How best to control the LED’s using an Arduino?
Has anyone done something similar to this?

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60 LEDs/meter @ 20watt/meter = 46 amps.

That seems like a lot of power, but it could be right with most of the heat going into current-limiting resistors...

Any potential heat issues?

It might get too hot. 12V at 46 amps is about 500W and that's a lot of heat, but spread-out over a 7-foot pole, I'd guess it won't be too hot to touch. With lighting effects, you're probably going to average about half that, since all of the lights will rarely be all-on at once.

I use clear PVC shrink tube to protect them without causing any damage to the strips?...

...I might optionally coat the shrink tube with a clear epoxy coating for increased wear resistance.

Clear shrink tubing should work (as long as it doesn't get too hot) but if this is going to be used as a stripper pole with dancers swinging on it, maybe encase the whole thing in [u]polycarbonite pipe[/u].

Some of the lighting effects I would like to achieve based on music input are:
Spectrum analyzer (12 channel)
Single VU meter
Light organ (color fades and pulse)
Cannon (fires to the beat)

That's all feasible, but I'd start on a smaller scale on the hardware side. Maybe just a few LEDs and then one LED strip, etc.

On the software side, take it one effect at a time (the VU meter should the easiest to start with).

If you can cut-down your spectrum analyzer to 7 channels, the [u]MSGEQ7[/u] will greatly simplify your code by handling the frequency-filtering in hardware.

How best to control the LED's using an Arduino?

You'll have to check into how the LEDs in the LED strip are addressed. Maybe the [u]SPI Library[/u]? That's something you can work on separately too... You can work on the software for controlling LEDs without any audio. Once you know you can make the LEDs do what you want you can start making use of the audio data.