Midi for LIGHT SHOW – controlling sync lighting for songs?? HELP!

Okay, So this should be as fun one because I know a few people are doing this and I can’t find any useful information on this.

I already have everything running perfectly regarding my backing tracks and program changes for axe fx units, now we are wanting a light show. Found a few people that I love their work but they say “set must be ran with backtracks on a computer in a DAW.”

I get it, I know how light shows being programmed work but the point of the LP-16 was to eliminate all the computer non sense that goes wrong on the road.

Onto the MIDI.

To my understanding, the midi will retain all the CC and sysex info so I imagine once the programming is done, the midi channel will be set and then exported with the other program changes I already do.

AFTER THIS?

So do I need to daisy chain the midi into a dmx controller? Decabox? or do I 5 pin to 3 pin connector straight into the first light?

Or do I need a lighting controller where I have to program and save my own scenes and program the midi to trigger all of the different scenes that I MYSELF create? This would suck considering I just want to hire soomeone who already does this for a living.

This is where I get stuck. Can someone that’s doing this successfully chime in on what exactly I need to get and any specifics i need to be aware of?