Patent ID: 8463454

Claim:
A lighting system comprising: a plurality of ballast control units distributed throughout a defined area, each of the plurality of ballast control units for controlling a light output of a dimmable ballast, wherein the dimmable ballast powers a light source via the light output, said ballast control unit comprising: a wireless interface provisioned to receive messages from a transmitter, wherein the wireless interface retransmits the received messages not destined for the ballast control unit; and a control module provisioned to control the dimmable ballast and the light output according to commands in the received messages destined for the ballast control unit, wherein each of the commands corresponds to one of the dimmable ballast and the light output; a mesh network, the plurality of ballast control units communicating over the mesh network using the wireless interfaces of the plurality of ballast control units; a plurality of light sources, each of the plurality of light source associated with and proximate to one of the plurality of ballast control units; a coordinator configured to: receive event messages; generate messages instructing the plurality of ballast control units to control the plurality of light sources in response to and based on the received event messages; and, transmit the generated messages to the plurality of ballast control units over the mesh network.