Anyone have experience trying to change manual exposure during a shoot that also requires a lot of zooming and panning?

I've tried to use Spotlight AE on my A1U to on runway type shoots to avoid washout when subjects get close to the video light at end of the runway. It does a good job of preventing white blowouts but inevitably there is some bright reflection from the video light in the scene which results in a rapid change in which the camera underexposes the scene.

I figure the only way to overcome this is to somehow find a way to manually change the exposure as the subjects move in and out of bright lights. Auto exposure doesn't respond quickly enough to the changing lighting conditions.

Does anyone know of a LANC control that can control the exposure?

Thanks in advance

Just push the exposure button, it locks it.

Just push the exposure button, it locks it.

I tried that, but my timing is always a bit off since the Spotlight AE changes the exposure very quickly.

It might be that I simply have to practice the timing before the shoot to learn when to push the exposure button. Presumably pushing the button toggles between the Spotlight AE and the manual lock.

The Spotlight AE function seems to change the gain as its primary way of changing the exposure.