Pre-determining if an LED fixture will flicker?

[Hannah Getz]

Is there a way, via the specs of a particular fixture, to determine if it will flicker on camera? It's actually a LED dance floor, but I won't have an opportunity to test. There are links on the website for demo videos, but they're all broken.

This is the "fixture" in question http://www.t2k.com/led/index.htm

[Phil Rhodes]

My instinct is that it's pretty likely to flicker.

One trick you can use, if you're able to get near it even without your actual camera, is to stick your cellphone into it, up really close, an inch away, so that the phone just sees a wash of bright light. That will make the phone close down its shutter timing to a very short exposure. You may see dark bands on the display if the LEDs are being pulse-width modulated, which they probably are in an application like that if it can fade them. If it doesn't show dark bands, it's not certain that it won't flicker, but if you do see dark bands it's a pretty strong indication that it might.