ABSTRACT
The landscape of the automated lighting industry has been shaped by innovation and the protection of the intellectual property that resulted from hard work and long hours of research and development. The lights had the ability to pan, tilt, change color, change the size of the beam, and dim remotely. Automated lighting has permeated almost every aspect of stage lighting, including television and film, cruise ships, houses of worship, and retail environments. Mechanized lighting can be traced as far back as 1906 when Edmund Sohlberg of Kansas City, Missouri, was issued a patent for a remote-controlled spotlight. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean in Vienna, Austria, Pani Projection and Lighting were helping to mechanize the lighting in some of the German opera houses. The pan, tilt, and focus functions were mechanically linked and motor driven, not so much for effects during a show but for the changeovers between shows.
