It’s also just the best LED controller I’ve found. Most of the effects are designed for addressable led strips, but there’s still a huge amount of options & you can make your own presets.

You can control wled directly using an app, the web interface or ir, without using the cloud or HA…

WLED running on an Athom or Quinled device. no stand alone remote, but easily controlled using wifi using the app or webpage. You can also add an IR receiver to them, just not sure if any come that way.

I believe I’ve actually experienced this exact same fault on the exact same APC model, on the other side of the planet to you. Perhaps not an isolated issue…

I’m not sure where you are and what’s available specifically in your region, but a zwave or ZigBee switch relay behind the original switch panel could be controlled by a wireless zwave / ZigBee button directly

Surely as a college you could do better than starting with a 13 year old cpu…

I can’t imagine it would come close to managing your workload, if it was at all reliable.