Remotely controlled and monitored followspot

1. A device for controlling a remotely located luminaire that is movable in pan and tilt directions, comprising:

a controller for a remotely located movable luminaire, said controller having a first hinging part which enables moving in a horizontal direction, and has a first movement encoding device that creates an horizontal movement signal indicative of the horizontal movement, and said controller having a second hinging part that is separate from said first hinging part and is movable in a vertical direction, and has a second movement encoding device that creates a vertical movement signal indicative of the vertical movement, first and second spaced apart handles, which are held by a user to enable moving the controller in the first and second movement directions, said first and second handles both attached to said controller, and

a display screen, also attached to said controller, and displaying a real time image of a field of view of the remotely located movable luminaire as controlled by movement of said controller.

2. The device as in claim 1 , wherein the first and second handles each extend in orthogonal directions to one another.

3. The device as in claim 1 , wherein the controller is a yoke-shaped body that is movable in up and down directions to tilt and side to side directions to pan.

4. The device as in claim 1 , further comprising electrical connections to said device, and a video connection to said device providing real-time movement information over the video connection.

5. The device as in claim 1 ,

further comprising a hinge, and wherein the display screen is hinged relative to said controller to enable viewing the display screen at multiple positions of movement of said controller.

6. The device as in claim 1 , further comprising controls for the remotely located luminaire, located on said controller.

7. The device as in claim 6 , wherein said controls include controls which control parameters of a camera adjacent to the luminaire which provides the real-time image, said controls being located on said controller.

8. The device as in claim 6 , wherein the controls for the remotely located luminaire includes a brightness control for the luminaire, and increasing the brightness control on the luminaire causes a change of the brightness of the image on the display.

9. The device as in claim 6 , wherein the controls select which of a plurality of different remotely controlled luminaires will be controlled by the controller.

10. The device as in claim 6 , wherein the controls select plural different located controlled luminaires to be controlled by the controller.

11. The device as in claim 7 , wherein the controls include an exposure control for the camera.

12. The device as in claim 7 , wherein the controls include a zoom control for the camera, which control an amount of zoom of the control for the camera which causes an image displayed on the display to correspondingly zoom.

13. The device as in claim 10 , wherein the controls cause all of the plural lights to point parallel.

14. The device as in claim 10 , wherein the controls cause all of the plural lights to point at a common pointing location.

15. A method for controlling a remotely located luminaire that is movable in pan and tilt directions, comprising:

hinging an elongated controller along two different orthogonal axes,

including a first axis for panning the controller,

and a second axis for tilting the controller,

enabling movement of the controller in pan and tilt directions, by using first and second spaced apart handles, which are held by a user to enable moving the controller in the pan and tilt directions, said first and second handles both attached to said controller;

encoding the movement of the controller into electrical signals;

sending the electrical signals as control signals to a remote luminaire of a type that is moved in pan and tilt directions by electrical signals;

receiving a field of view image from a camera near the remote luminaire; and

displaying the field of view image on a display screen that is attached to said controller,

the display screen displaying a real time image of a field of view of the remote luminaire as controlled by movement of said controller.

16. The method as in claim 15 , further comprising using the electrical signals to control the remote luminaire to move in pan and tilt directions in the same way that the elongated controller is moved in the pan and tilt directions.

17. The method as in claim 15 , wherein the first and second handles each extend in orthogonal directions to one another.

18. The method as in claim 15 ,

further comprising hinging the display screen relative to said controller to enable viewing the display screen at multiple positions of movement of said controller.

19. The method as in claim 15 , further comprising using controls that are located on said controller to control parameters of the remote luminaire.

20. The method as in claim 15 , further comprising using controls that are located on said controller to control parameters of a camera adjacent to the luminaire which provides the real-time image.

21. The method as in claim 15 , further comprising using controls on the controller to select which of a plurality of different remotely controlled luminaires will be controlled by the controller.

22. The method as in claim 15 , further comprising using controls on the controller a plurality of different remotely controlled luminaires will be controlled by the controller using the same controls and movements of the controller.

23. The method as in claim 19 , wherein said using controls comprises changing a brightness of the luminaire using the control on the controller, and wherein increasing the brightness control on the luminaire causes a change of the brightness of the image on the display.

24. The method as in claim 22 , wherein the controls cause all of the plural lights to point parallel.

25. The method as in claim 22 , wherein the controls cause all of the plural lights to point at a common pointing location.