Also consider that if you put a small MCU behind the IR receiver it can do the decoding in FW and then drive the output to control the lamp driver. For simplicity in your IR source (the transmitter end) consider using one of many cheaply available universal remote controls. This way you can avoid even having to build that portion.
Here is a link to one such example:
Newegg.com - Universal Remote Controls R2-Mini Universal Infrared Remote Control