Feature Comparison

The following license levels are available: Lite, Standard, Professional, Professional Plus and Platinum. A significant feature difference between Professional Plus and Platinum is the maximum number of audio output channels supported. To use the additional audio output channels available in Platinum you need SoundMan-Server (SM-S) installed and selected as the Audio Driver.

The following table shows a comparison of the functionality available with the SCS license levels, as well as the functionality of the Demo version:


Feature


Demo


Lite


Standard

Professional/
Pro Plus/
Platinum


Note

Sound File Support

WAV, MP3, WMA, AIFF, OGG, FLAC, AAC, M4A

Y

Y

Y

Y

1

Multi-Channel Files

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

ASIO support

Y

 

Y

Y

 

SM-S support

Y

 

 

Y

 

Video File Support

AVI, WMV, ASF, MPEG, MPG, MP4, MOV, M4V, DIVX, MKV, FLV, F4V, 4FP, F4A, F4B, 3GP, 3G2, MTS, M2TS, VOB

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Still Image File Support

PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF (including animated GIFs)

Y

 

Y

Y

 2

Cue Types

Audio File Cues

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Stop/Fade-Out/Release (SFR) Cues

Y

Y

Y

Y

3

Level Change Cues

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Playlist Cues

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Video/Image Cues

Y

 

Y

Y

13

Lighting Cues (Important: See note 4 regarding limitation in SCS Professional)

Y

 

 

Y

4

Notes

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Memos

Y

 

 

Y

 

'Go To' Cues

Y

 

 

Y

 

'Call Cue' Cues

Y

 

 

Y

 

'Set Position' Cues

Y

 

 

Y

 

'Enable/Disable Cues' Cues

Y

 

 

Y

 

Control Send Cues - MIDI/RS232

Y

 

 

Y

 

Control Send Cues - Network (TCP/UDP)

Y

 

 

Plus/Plat

 

Control Send Cues - HTTP Request

Y

 

 

Plus/Plat

 

'Run External Program' Cues

Y

 

 

Y

 

Live Input Cues

 

 

 

Y

5

MTC/LTC (MIDI/Linear Time Code) Cues

Y

 

 

Y (LTC: Plat only)

 

Cue Play Control

Set Level and Pan for each Cue

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Set Fade-In and Fade-Out Times

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Dynamically Adjust Level and Pan

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Set Start-At and End-At Times

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Allow Loops in Audio File Cues

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Adjust Tempo and Pitch in Audio File Cues

Y

 

 

Y

 

Device Outputs (eg speakers)

Max. Audio Output Channels per Production

4

2

4

16/32/512

6

Max. SCS Audio Devices per Cue

2

1

2

8/16/16

7

Max. Secondary Screens for Video/Image Cues

4

 

4

4/8/8

 

Max. Control Send Devices per Production

1

 

 

4/8/64

 

Max. Fixture Types

8

 

 

16/16/32

 

DMX Universes * Channels

1*(1-32)

 

 

1*(1-32) / 2*(1-512) / 2*(1-512)

4

Input Devices

Max. Video Capture Devices

1

 

 

2/4/4

 

Cue Activation Control

Manual Start ('Go' button or right-click)

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Hotkeys

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Auto-Start (following an earlier cue)

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Time-of-Day Start (time-based cues)

Y

 

Y

Y

 

MIDI Control (eg MSC, but excluding MTC)

Y

 

 

Y

 

MTC (MIDI Time Code)

 

 

 

Plus/Plat

 

RS232 Control

Y

 

 

Y

 

DMX Control

Y

 

 

Plus/Plat

8

Network Control (TCP/UDP)

Y

 

 

Plus/Plat

 

Standby Cue Control

Y

 

 

Y

 

Cue-Start Confirmation

Y

 

 

Plus/Plat

 

Cue Limits

Max. No. of Cues

25

40

80

unlimited

9

Max. No. of Cues that may use WAV file Cue Points or Markers

2

0

2

Pro: 2, Plus/Plat: unlimited

10

Other Features

Print Cue List

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Customize Displayed Cue List

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Re-Number Cues

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Bulk Edit Cues

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Select Colors

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Lock Editing and Options

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Collect Production Files

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Import/Export Cues

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Favorite Cue Files

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

Production Timer

Y

 

Y

Y

 

Faders Window and External Control Surface support

Y

 

 

Y

 

Import Devices from another SCS Cue File

Y

 

 

Y

 

VST Plugin support for Audio File Cues

Y

 

 

Plus/Plat

11, 12

Primary/Backup Functional Mode

Y

 

 

Plus/Plat

 

Move to Time (M2T)

 

 

 

Plus/Plat

 

Notes 

1.SCS may not be able to play WMA files with DRM protection (Digital Rights Management). You may get the message 'License Required'.

2.Some restrictions apply regarding animated GIF's. See the documentation on 'Still Images' for details.

3.'Hibernate' options in SFR cues are not available with SCS Lite.

4.Lighting Cues send DMX, and for DMX you need an ENTTEC 'DMX USB PRO', an ENTTEC 'OPEN DMX USB', an FTDI 'USB-RS485 cable', or an Art-Net or sACN network connection. The ENTTEC 'DMX USB PRO Mk2' is also supported by SCS but is no longer available from ENTTEC. The ENTTEC 'DMX USB PRO' is the recommended DMX device. SCS Professional supports DMX channel numbers 1-32, but SCS Professional Plus and higher support 2x512 DMX channel universes.

5.Live Inputs are only available for SM-S (SoundMan-Server) users. However, you can create and edit these cues in a non-SM-S environment by assigning the Dummy Live Input device as a physical device.

6.Audio Output Channels are physical outputs on sound cards / audio interfaces. For example, a 7.1 sound card has 8 output channels and with an SCS Standard license you will be able to use up to 4 of those channels. These could be set up as 4 mono outputs, or 2 stereo outputs, or 1 stereo output and 2 mono outputs, or 1 four-channel output.

7.SCS Audio Devices are logical devices that you define in your Production Properties. They may be given device names like 'Front' for the front speakers, 'USL' for an upstage-left speaker, etc.

8.For DMX Control you need an ENTTEC 'DMX USB PRO'. The DMX USB PRO Mk2 is also supported by SCS but is no longer available from ENTTEC. Note that the cheaper ENTTEC 'Open DMX USB' is not suitable as this only supports DMX Send, not DMX Receive.

9.The Max. No. of Cues includes all cue types. For example, if you have 30 audio file cues and 20 SFR cues this counts as 50 cues, which means you will need either the Standard or a higher level license. Combined cues (eg a sound file cue and stop cue combined) count as a single cue.

10.In many audio file editors, such as GoldWave, you can set 'cue points' or 'markers' which are sample-accurate. In SCS you can use these 'cue points' or 'markers' for setting start, end and loop points in an audio file cue. You need an SCS Professional Plus or higher license to make full use of this feature. If you have an SCS Standard or Professional license then you can use the feature on up to 2 audio file cues. This enables you to try out the feature before upgrading to Professional Plus or Platinum.

11.Only VST Effects Plugins are supported, and only one Plugin per Audio File Cue.

12.Plugins from waves.com are not directly supported even when selecting the respective WaveShell-VST DLL. However, you may be able to split the plugins into separate VST DLL's using a product call shell2vst. Contact support@showcuesystems.com if you need more info.

13.Video Capture is supported in SCS Professional and higher licenses, and in the Demo version.