For what it is worth,
our software based controller will connect to ArKaos VJ DMX. Demo to Demo, no hardware required. We include fixture templates for both 'tiny' and 'full' fixture templates in the standard setup.
I put step by step instructions together for a user awhile back, which can be downloaded
here.
It will run on the same machine or network linked machines. If no network connection is present it will automatically ask you if you want to connect locally. There is no need to mess with any IP address settings.
Without one of our interfaces, you can't output DMX or accept SMPTE time code, but you could still experiment with preprogramming a whole show to music.
This little helper app will lock a Windows Media Player Playlist to the software.
One advantage our system has over most other controllers is data update rate. Even when running a full 16 universes (8192 channels) of DMX output, it is about 50% faster than a Hog console (which, in turn, is quite a bit faster than most software based offerings). This doesn't really matter much with many lighting fixtures, but you definately can see a difference when you are using movement generation (what we call effects) to fly an image around a video layer - especially at higher resolutions. Our shape morphing between movement effects is also nice for easily making multiple images seem to fly at random, drop into a syncronized pattern, merge to one, etc.
If you want to get an idea what it will be like to control lights as well you could try a visualizer package. We can be used with many, but the
Capture demo accepts connections from external controllers in Demo mode. Demo mode has a 90 minute session timeout and no save, but we include a show file that is already patched and has a few sample cues for the fairly elaborate 'awards show' sample included with the Capture download. A quick tutorial on getting the programs connected can be found
here (the directions say Capture 3.0, but you can use Capture 2005).
Since we support the CITP protocol for Capture, we plan on supporting an MPEX thumbnail browser, etc. in our next release.
ArKaos VJ DMX also works quite well with
PCDJ DMX, which licenses our DMX engine. However, it has no 'ArKaos' specific menu selection. You have to use generic ArtNet output - which is not available in PCDJ DMX's demo mode.
Hope that helps.
-jjf