A very basic Light-O-Rama set up.

1. The Light-O-Rama ShowTime Software allows you to design your own light shows The software is then used to run your shows and play any associated music.
2. Speakers to play the music accompanying your show are attached to the PC's sound card.
3. Small converters manufactured by Light-O-Rama convert your PC's serial port or USB port to RS485. Unlike serial or USB, RS485 can go thousands of feet and allows many controllers to be daisy-chained.
4. Commands from the PC to the lighting controllers are sent over a cable, phone cable for short runs or standard CAT-5 LAN cables for long runs and/or many controllers.
5. AC power is supplied to the lighting controller to power the its electronics and the attached line voltage light strings.
6. Light-O-Rama manufactures lighting controllers that can perform a number of effects, including on/off, intensities, smooth fading up/down, twinkling, shimmering.
7. Commands from the PC are performed by the controller. Power to each of the attached lighting circuits (in this case eight) is controlled independently. Think of having eight dimmer switches that the computer can change very quickly and independently.