Haven't heard any comment about them yet but it should be a simple fix. I would be willing to bet most anything that DMX512 protocol is what they are using to control the lights. Same thing concert lighting rigs use. It's a fairly simple concept. There are 512 controllable "channels" through 3pin or 5pin cabling. Light fixtures are typically daisy chained together and each is addressed individually within the fixture itself. The system can be controlled by a standalone console or by computer software. My gut says we are using software, and either the computer running the system froze, or the software itself did, and we had to wait on a reboot. We need a simple backup console for the lights that is set to "Full on" for all the lights. If that were to happen again, all you do is unlpug the DMX cable from the PC interface, plug it into the board set to "Full on" and bam, lights are fully on.
EDIT: Better yet, have both systems hooked up through a switch so that if the PC freezes again, flip the switch and you are now controlling it with the board.