Sturdy, wireless, Microdisplay that can clip to a music stand

Other Hardware Displays
1

Hi All! I'm looking for advice. I've set up a system in ableton live where I live loop a number of musicians and integrate them into a DJ-style set. We communicate using traditional music notation, currently - I call out the letter of the "rehearsal mark" that's on their score, example: "J..2..3...4" and we land on the downbeat of section J. I'd like to set up my Ableton file so that at the exact moment when I trigger the scene that corresponds with the aforementioned rehearsal mark, that new mark letter replaces the previous letter, and flashes four times, and perhaps changes color when the downbeat of that scene happens (although that second part isn't crucial) at the tempo of the set, to cue the musicians to the next rehearsal mark, so that I can play guitar and keys and stuff as well, and focus on listening better to how it's all coming together without having to do so much road-map-navigation.

I'd like to make this as non-invasive for the musicians as possible, so the dream is to make a wireless micro-display, that can clip to each musicians' music stand, and stay out of the way of their scores. The parameters I've come up with so far:

  1. Durability - needs to be able to tour and withstand many shows if possible.
  2. Small size - needs to stay out of the way of their score but still be visible
  3. Needs to be one unit - I don't imagine a breadboard/arduino circuit that aren't in an enclosure lasting very long
  4. Weight - shouldn't weigh enough that the music stand starts to fall due to the weight.

As far as input goes:
I have a few software-side options -

  1. This would be pulling the name from ableton via the m4l / live api and sending that as serial to an arduino / rasp Pi / teensy /similar board, directly from max - and then converting to serial with the arduino, and taking that path. I gather the tempo could be linked to the intensity/opacity of the text and perhaps the RGB values could be linked to change color for a predetermined amount of time, when a parameter is changed. I've attached the API explorer images for ableton for what these parameters could be.
  2. A similar path would be using TouchDesigner's TDAbleton environment to perform similar functions. This might be preferable, since I'm already going to be running some audio-reactive visuals in TD, and I could easily send serial out of TD into the arduino.

My main questions are on the hardware side - does anyone see a workaround that might be more efficient than the music clip display solution, do you see anything I'm missing from my list of requirements for the display's parameters, do you have solutions for specific LCD units, arduino/pi/teensy/etc boards, displays, enclosure / wiring methods that could work?

One thing I forgot to mention - I have to send the rehearsal marks to 10 musicians - so the software solution could be applied to a single screen that all 10 musicians could see - but I'm curious what else is possible :slight_smile: is there an efficient way to communicate with so many displays? etc.

Thanks in advance for your help.