We've been looking into replacing our old Leapfrog (which has broken down 3 times in the last 2 years) with an S48
The lack of a simple way to synchronise sound and light is a serious shortcoming with the S24/S48. even the cheapest and nastiest desks have this facility. In a previous existence we used this desk https://www.thomann.co.uk/botex_dc2448_light_operator.htm (believe me the cheapness and nastiness shines through when you want to do something special with it
There are two main uses for this facility
Pantomime. There are frequent song & dance numbers where having the lights 'dance to the same tune' as the performers would enhance the show. Yes the music is usually pre-recorded so timed changes could be programmed but this is very time consuming during setup Our last pantomime had TWELVE song'/dance routines
Live music shows/gigs. Here it's likely you'd want to program a number of chases and then choose which chase to use depending on the songs played.
I'm building a box with an audio input that can provide multiple digital outputs (it was intended to connect to the leapfrog trigger inputs). It would be possible to have a wifi connection on the box
Our setup uses an Ethernet connection to some Artnet to DMX receivers. My view is once the location has networking it's possible to connect anything we need to that network
What I'm unsure about is the structure of any messages I would need to send to act as a trigger