At least some embodiment of the present invention are directed to mean for operating an illumination assembly associated with a group of imaging devices. An example method includes causing each of a plurality of imaging devices to capture image data during a group acquisition operation, each of the plurality of imaging devices has (i) a respective delay until a start of an exposure duration, (ii) the respective exposure duration, and (iii) a total operation duration. The method also includes causing an illumination assembly to transition from a first state to a second state based on a shortest delay of the imaging devices and further causing the illumination assembly to transition from the second state to a third state based on a longest total operation duration of the imaging devices.