The present invention provides systems and apparatuses for dynamically controlling the operational modes of a single luminaire or a group of networked luminaires configured to deliver an illumination pattern having a decorative colored glow surrounding a central region of substantially uniform brightness. A control module for the luminaire is configured to drive three dimmable fluorescent ballasts, as well as a LED module. A variety of operational modes including different schemes for color mixing and color cycle control can be selected by a user and implemented by a microcontroller. A group of luminaires is connected in a standard communication protocol-based master-slave configuration, where the slave units respond to commands received from the master unit, and the last slave unit automatically engages terminating and biasing resistors for proper operation of the network.