A method and a system for assembling and controlling a lighting array including a plurality of lighting units by providing a representation of the lighting array having a unit entry for and corresponding to each lighting unit in the lighting array wherein each unit entry includes a physical location address field and a lighting unit identification field. The representation of the lighting array is mapped onto the array address space by entering a physical address in the array address space into the location address field of each unit entry and serializing the lighting unit by writing a unique unit identifier of a corresponding lighting unit into the lighting unit identification field of each unit entry.