Digital lighting technologies, i.e., illumination based on semiconductor light sources, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), offer a viable alternative to traditional fluorescent, HID, and incandescent lamps. Functional advantages and benefits of LEDs include high energy conversion and optical efficiency, durability, lower operating costs, and many others. Recent advances in LED technology have provided efficient and robust full-spectrum lighting sources that enable a variety of lighting effects in many applications. Some of the fixtures embodying these sources feature a lighting module, including one or more LEDs capable of producing different colors, e.g., red, green, and blue, as well as a processor for independently controlling the output of the LEDs in order to generate a variety of colors and color-changing lighting effects.
Some conventional luminaires cast light emitted by an installed lighting unit in various directions. For example, ceiling-mounted luminaires may cast light from an installed light bulb onto the ceiling, sometimes in addition to light cast downwards through a diffusing surface. In some cases, the luminaires include one or more optical elements, such as “gobos” (Goes Before OpticS) or collimators, that are configured to shape light emitted by an installed lighting unit into various projected patterns and shapes. Lighting units such as light bulbs, on the other hand, typically emit alight in nearly all directions and/or in a single direction that is not adjustable. Thus, there is a need in the art to provide a lighting unit that is configurable to emit light in multiple distinct directions.