A lighting system including various improvements is disclosed. Fixtures can accept lamps of differing variants and types in the same lamp socket without damage and with automatic connection to the appropriate power. Telescoping fixture housings and an optical system in which compound optical arrays produce multiple parallel beams and focal points reduce fixture size. A multi-stage color-mixing system efficiently produces both saturated colors and tints from a simple mechanism comparable in complexity and cost to prior art systems. Such fixtures can be packaged to ship contained entirely within prior art rigid truss, deploying to “use” position with little or no effort. A unified system supplies power and control to such fixtures, both “conventional” and “automated” as well as chain motors using the same power and data multi-cable cable. And both trusses and shipping cases are fabricated from simple structural shapes.