The practice of using virtual networks to keep critical lighting control data completely isolated from corporate, guest, or administrative network traffic. While physical hardware separation is the ideal standard, VLAN isolation serves as an acceptable alternative when configured according to manufacturer guidelines. To prevent control issues, a dedicated lighting VLAN must be configured with no internet access, no traffic shaping, no bandwidth throttling, and absolutely no restrictions on multicast traffic. Using proactive network management software like QubiSet allows technicians to easily verify that lighting nodes and consoles are properly communicating within their designated VLANs without risking network wide configuration errors.