Great and interesting thread. We went with dmx-controlling for our synthetic icehockey mini-stadium.
Going full digital means you have individual controll of all the lights, creating cool effects, syncing with sound and even message boards. The downside is you need computer controll all the time.
For the outside floods, what is your view on roaming badgers and deers? We have a similar thing, but it's abit annoying some Times the floods start due to cat or badger activity.