I've successfully been able to control WS2811 pixels via SACN(E1.31) using both the Ethernet

I’ve successfully been able to control WS2811 pixels via SACN(E1.31) using both the Ethernet and wifi shields but was wondering if there is a cheaper wireless communication shield or chip I could use? Maybe an ESP8266?

I bought a couple ESP8266s and I saw that they can control pixels directly but can it be used as a cheap wifi shield and interface with an Arduino?

OK. I was able to get the ESP8266 to read the E1.31 UDP packet and then pass it through the serial port to a Mega2560. It is coming in on Serial1. I can then process the packet and read the data out over the USB serial port. Once I add in the FastLED code to output to the pixels using values from the packet received from the serial port, I only get one packet and then it stops. If I comment out FastLED.show(); it starts working again. Does FastLed require the serial port in someway?