During the 5.8 release of BEYOND, we introduced the free BEYOND Lite Tier and announced the end of development for QuickShow. This is a guide for users around this change.

For the BEYOND 5.8 release, we introduced a new free tier of BEYOND called “Lite”. This tier bridges the gap between the capabilities of QuickShow and BEYOND Essentials, giving QuickShow users a free and valuable upgrade path out of QuickShow.

No purchase is necessary for BEYOND Lite. It is automatically included in the software when a new license account is created.

Users who transition from QuickShow to BEYOND Lite gain numerous benefits. Some of those benefits stem from Lite being built on the BEYOND platform rather than QuickShow, while others are highly requested features that we wanted to make available to the QuickShow user base.

QuickShow users who now use BEYOND Lite gain several live-control benefits, including an expanded cue set, workspace enhancements, and more effects.

BEYOND Lite also provides more Quick FX cue spaces, action fading on Quick FX, and more live controls.

One of the most requested improvements over the past several years is expanded MIDI control. The classic APC Mini works as it did in QuickShow, while users also gain access to the APC40 mapping, BEYOND Performer Console, and the ability to map their own controllers. These expanded MIDI options provide much greater flexibility when operating with BEYOND Lite.

QuickShow users can now experience the full advanced timeline mode of BEYOND Lite, greatly expanding the scale and functionality of their timelines. They can experiment with effect tracks and bus tracks, then add content to their Cue Lift and Effect List to connect everything in their timelines.

Plus, users gain access to the BEYOND Playlist mode, where they can load in all their new timelines into one place and play them on demand.

Now users no longer need hardware connected to use the software. They can simply load up BEYOND, activate their account-based Lite license, and create, program, and save their work wherever they are.

And of course, BEYOND is in dark mode!

We recommend reviewing the new comparison chart at pangolin.com/compare for a complete list of changes and the features available to BEYOND Lite users.

As part of merging QuickShow and BEYOND, we have taken several steps to improve the quality of each tier and protect our users’ investment in BEYOND. We have also seen improvements in network setup quality and computer performance, allowing us to adjust some of the limiting values we have historically had in place.

All paid tiers of BEYOND now support higher projector limits. These limits are standardized in multiples of eight laser outputs, plus one additional license or dummy output.

Essentials increases from 10 to 17 outputs, Advanced increases from 25 to 33, and Ultimate increases from 41 to 65.

All tiers of BEYOND now have a multiple of eight zones for the number of projectors, excluding the additional license or dummy output. For example, Lite has 64 zones across its eight projector outputs, plus one additional hardware output.

With the new hardware limits, this means that Essentials gets 128 zones, Advanced gets 256, and Ultimate gets 1,024.

To support these higher zone limits, we have also increased the number of visualization streams to match each tiers zone count. However, it may take some time for visualization software to support quantities greater than 256.

For each tier, we have doubled the quantity of groups that users can do. Essentials now supports two groups of two lasers, Advanced supports four groups of four lasers, and Ultimate supports eight groups of eight lasers. This allows Ultimate users to be fully saturated with distributed lasers.

Please note that this scale of distribution will require extremely high-performance networks and powerful PCs to achieve smooth performance.

Each paid tier also gains additional timeline tracks: Lite gets 50, Essentials gets 100, Advanced gets 200, and Ultimate gets 300.

To complement these increases, we have also expanded the number of multimedia tracks. Lite gets one media track, Essentials gets two media tracks, Advanced gets four media tracks, and Ultimate gets six media tracks.

At the time of this release, Advanced and Ultimate users gain access to the new Pangolin Media Tracer tool which you can learn more about linked here: [Include Link]

Ultimate users also get access to our new HTTP server communication platform, allowing easier external coding of BEYOND’s internal commands. Learn more here: [Include Link]

We recommend reviewing the new comparison chart at pangolin.com/compare to see all changes to each new tier of BEYOND.

One major change is that the FREE Lite license now allows users to save their work. Anyone can download BEYOND, create content, and save their work without even owning a laser.

Users who just need to begin building out a show file but don’t currently have a license can activate their FREE Lite license and get to programming.

This change brings BEYOND more closely in line with industry standards, makes the software more accessible, and lowers the barrier to entry for people who want to learn, practice, or simply get some work done.

The two-week grace period for saving after a higher-tier license has been detected through a hardware connection remains unchanged. Saving with a Lite license is limited to Lite-tier functionality; however, this includes many of the core files users would be wanting to save, including zones, workspaces, timelines, midi maps and more.

To activate your Free BEYOND Lite license, follow these steps:

1. Download the full BEYOND 5.8 installer from the Download Center here: [Include Link]
2. Install BEYOND
3. Open BEYOND for the first time
4. Open the Registration window, and then the license tab
5. Click “Manage and Account-Based Licesnse”
6. Click Log In and create account. (This BEYOND License account is separate from your website and cloud accounts, so you will likely need to create a new account if this is your first use of BEYOND.)
7. Verify your account with the code sent to your email address
8. After verification, you will be asked whether you would like to add a free Lite License to this account. If you are not offered a license immediately, go to the registration tab and register online now, and it will deliver a license.
9. As with any paid account-based license, select the license and click “start use” to activate this license onto this PC.

If you are new to the BEYOND licensing system, we recommend reading [this] page on the system in general to better understand how it works.

BEYOND Lite acts as an account-managed license. It is just added to your account at no cost, with no purchase required.

With the release of BEYOND Lite, we are officially ending development of QuickShow. QuickShow has been an incredible tool for our users for over a decade, but it is now time to say goodbye to maintaining and developing for the QuickShow platform and instead focus our efforts on BEYOND and future products and applications.

QuickShow will continue to receive bug fixes for six months following the release of BEYOND 5.8. Official support will continue for one year following the release. Support resources will continue to be available for as long as possible, and hardware registration which activate QuickShow should continue to work as long as the BEYOND license servers are maintained.

If there are QuickShow specific license server issues after the end of support, we will request all QuickShow users upgrade to the free BEYOND Lite tier.

Although QuickShow development is coming to an end, we hope its users will enjoy their free upgrade to BEYOND Lite and the whole new world of features and functionality it provides!