Gen2 was intentionally dumb. ATtiny85, 15 NeoPixels, electret mic wired straight into the ADC with no amplifier circuit. It worked because festivals are loud — the venue provides the gain. Aggressive brightness capping got 6 hours out of a single cell LiPo.
The limitation was autonomy. Every wristband made its own beat detection decision independently. Close enough to look coordinated, but not actually synchronized.

Gen3 solves this by making the wristband a proper DMX fixture. The ESP32 connects to a WiFi network running Art-Net or sACN and takes its cues from the lighting console. Every wristband fires exactly when the operator says so, in whatever colour and pattern they program. The crowd becomes an extension of the stage rig.
BLE handles setup. Assigning a DMX universe and start address to a wristband takes about 10 seconds from a phone — no laptop, no physical connector, no pulling units off wrists. Once set it's persistent.
The mic input stayed. If there's no DMX network available the wristband falls back to autonomous mode. Same 90dB+ threshold tuning as gen2. Belt and suspenders.
Next log: PCB layout decisions and why RF decoupling on the ESP32 is less forgiving than the datasheet implies.