Which wifi board to use for self-contained WLED project?

So I'm thinking ahead for next years office decoration contest.. and looking for suggestions on which board to use in order to accomplish the following functionality.

#1 self contained Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity in order to control the lighting
#2 someone that has its own interface that doesn't require creating my own GUI

We have in our group about 6 cubicles, i was thinking to mount addressable LED strips around each cubicle and then control each set from my phone. Its frown upon to connect any insecure devices to the network, which is fine, so looking for something that can be controlled from the phone OR maybe i can just create a few different sequences that can be selected by a button or keypad or something.. so that for each cubicle we make the selection and the lights are doing their patterns.

The other thing would be if its possible to setup the outer LED strips where there is the most traffic to "follow" you as you walk by.. basically if they are on, they are doing their routine, then if you walk in front of them, they look like they are following you as you walk by and then once you are far enough it returns to the sequence it was playing.

so the purpose of this post is to ask about the right board to use or consider based on the functionality i would like to try and accomplish.

I'm thinking that Bluetooth would be the route to go if possible to control from phone, if not then having small buttons or some form of trigger would be best so that there is no question or doubt on what the code is doing.

Did you post this question in the forum "Arduino WiFi Rev2" category deliberately ?

It would be better in the "Project Guidance" category. Would you like it moved there ?

yes if it should be there, please move it, i did mean to post in this because i was looking for a wifi board solution.. but im really just looking for guidance on the correct path to take with it.

Topic moved as requested

As to a suitable board, I would suggest using the ESP32. It has native Bluetooth and the SerialBluetooth library lets you send and receive just as you would to and from the Serial interface

Regardless which SBC(single board computer) you pick, you need to consider the power supply requirements of the led strips. The APA102 style led strips, for example, can use 3.6A per meter and you will have to supply that from somewhere other than your SBC.

Very true, so right now the idea is to have about 16ft / 5m per board if i have to separate them by cube, which may end up having to be that way because we cant have wiring/cabling running from cube to cube. since its only 6 cubes in our area/group, i think i have plenty of power supplies to power each set without concern.

I found this article which seems to accomplish what im trying to do..

Following Lights

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