This looks like a promissing ballast, but not shure if its features are really that big of a deal.
http://www.vb1000.com

The intelligent high intensity discharge (HID) Vari-Ballast™ drives metal halide (MH), high pressure sodium (HPS), pulse start (PS), and mercury vapor (MV) lamps, both regular and pulse start. With a Vari-Ballast™, there is no need to replace the ballast when you change the bulb.

A single intelligent ballast regulates the current flow for every type of HID bulb and the micro-processors deliver superior lamp performance while extending the useful life of bulb and ballast.

Each ballast includes dimming, thermal monitoring, burn hour readout, timing controls, and a smooth end-of-life shutdown process. With an HID master control unit (MCU), thousands of lights can be monitored and controlled from a central desktop, laptop, or hand-held computer.

Interesting. Don't think we'd need it as far as running the other bulb types, but it sure does have some neat features.