Chris, yes one of the attractions of the units is a single cable. Only single colour, very simple, easy to rig in strange places to get the distributed beams effect we're looking for.
Running 40+ sets of DMX and power isn't really very desirable!
I also did some calculations and found similar to you on the voltage drop.
Currently we don't know what the current draw is on them, which makes things tricky, but the highest power unit is a 500mW 445. Red 120mW, green 80mW. We're going to get a blue sample to do some testing on. Is 500mA a reasonable [over] estimation per head?
Worst case scenario is that we build more controllers and have shorter runs to the heads.
4*12ch controllers with max 30m cable run for example.
30m 20AWG @500mA = 11V
If they're a bit tolerant to slightly over voltage we could dial up the SMPS and hope the close to home ones take a little over voltage.
12.5V @ 10m = 12.4V
12.5V @ 30m = 11.75V
The PWM driver doesn't care about voltage, it can take wide input range.
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VDX, your stuff sounds excellent, but is just waaay beyond the electronics knowledge we currently possess, hence the desire to use as much off the shelf equipment as possible. I also want to get this from concept to operational with as little fuss and time as possible, and paying a few extra ££ to shorten the time involvement is money well spent!