SuperStar license

[tfritz28]

Hello, 

Still a newbie here and looking for some license info for SuperStar. I currently only have a 16 channel AC box with regular LED string lights (nothing RGB...yet anyway). So I'm sure I just need the lowest license for SuperStar. But it seems to me that I saw somewhere (can't find it now) that I would also need a Pro license to use SuperStar...is that correct? I also saw an older post on here that if you purchase SuperStar that it includes a free upgrade to the next license...is that still happening. I don't mind paying the $30 for SuperStar if I'll get my license upgraded as well to Pro (currently at Advance license so I could use the video output). But I think I'll hold off if I have to spend an additional $50 to get to a Pro license...especially since as I mentioned I only have 16 channels and won't be upgrading to more until next year at the earliest.

The only reason I'm looking at SuperStar is for the Auto Sequence function. Is there another solution to making sequencing a bit easier?

[BrianBruderer]

If you are using S5 then it is best to have the Pro license in order to use superstar.

If you are using S4 then your Advanced license is fine.

The thing about a free upgrade to a new license, 3 or 4 years ago the price for each superstar license level was reduced, and because of that, if you already had a superstar license then you got a free upgrade to the next license level. That was a one time event.

Are you using S4 or S5 ?

[k6ccc]

Honest opinion here (and Brian knows how much I promote SuperStar), with only 16 channels, SuperStar won’t buy you much - except to start learning SuperStar.  Although you certainly CAN sequence your AC strings and lights in SuperStar.  For years, I have sequences my entire show in SuperStar - including my year round landscape lighting.  That includes single channel white lights, dumb RGB, and smart RGB.  For 2018, the only things not sequences in SuperStar were my singing faces which JR sequences and sent to me as .lms files, and my P5 and P10 matrix panels on which I am doing the text only using Motion Effects - only because of channel count.  My SuperStar license is 12,000 channels, and the two panels are just over 18K and 36K channels.  Not counting the matrix panels, I sequenced about 11,500 channels in SuperStar this year.

 

 

[tfritz28]

1 hour ago, BrianBruderer said:

If you are using S5 then it is best to have the Pro license in order to use superstar.

If you are using S4 then your Advanced license is fine.

The thing about a free upgrade to a new license, 3 or 4 years ago the price for each superstar license level was reduced, and because of that, if you already had a superstar license then you got a free upgrade to the next license level. That was a one time event.

Are you using S4 or S5 ?

I'm using S5. And I understand about the upgrade thing being a one time thing. That's what I figured but just thought I'd check. Thanks.

[tfritz28]

47 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Honest opinion here (and Brian knows how much I promote SuperStar), with only 16 channels, SuperStar won’t buy you much - except to start learning SuperStar.  Although you certainly CAN sequence your AC strings and lights in SuperStar.  For years, I have sequences my entire show in SuperStar - including my year round landscape lighting.  That includes single channel white lights, dumb RGB, and smart RGB.  For 2018, the only things not sequences in SuperStar were my singing faces which JR sequences and sent to me as .lms files, and my P5 and P10 matrix panels on which I am doing the text only using Motion Effects - only because of channel count.  My SuperStar license is 12,000 channels, and the two panels are just over 18K and 36K channels.  Not counting the matrix panels, I sequenced about 11,500 channels in SuperStar this year.

 

 

I was kind of thinking the same. I think I'll wait until it makes more sense to upgrade (again). Who knows what will be available by then. And that'll probably require another upgrade again then anyway. Thanks.

Edited December 4, 2018 by tfritz28

[BrianBruderer]

There is a tutorial on using Auto Sequence on traditional lights. Auto Sequence works better than Instant Sequence, though manual sequencing of course is better still.

The tutorial on Auto Sequence shows using it with S5, but the same principles apply to using Auto Sequence in S4. Go to the lightorama main page, click on Support, then click on "Tutorials and PDFs", look in the group titled:

Sequencer (ShowTime Designer Pixels S5)

Then look for:

 ShowTime Designer Pixels (aka: S5)
and using SuperStar Auto Sequence with Traditional Lights

[tfritz28]

4 minutes ago, BrianBruderer said:

There is a tutorial on using Auto Sequence on traditional lights.

I watched that and that's the whole reason I was even considering SuperStar. Thanks again.

[tfritz28]

2 hours ago, BrianBruderer said:

If you are using S5 then it is best to have the Pro license in order to use superstar.

If you are using S4 then your Advanced license is fine.

So, just wondering why Advanced license is fine for S4, but not S5? Again, I'm a newbie so don't really have much experience with either. Just can't figure out why a different license would be needed for different versions.