General License Questions
Creator is one of LightAct’s licenses. It’s completely free of charge yet it still allows you to use all LightAct’s features and also save your work. On top of that, it has an unlimited number of outputs and inputs. The only limitation, however, is that all the outputs are watermarked.
The licenses can be delivered on a dongle or via a CodeMeter update file. Read more about it in our user documentation.
The usage period starts counting down only when you activate your licence from within LightAct. This means you can purchase your licence well in advance and activate it only when you actually start using it. After it is activated, the usage period starts counting down even if you are not using the licence anymore. Once the usage period expires, LightAct reverts to Creator license automatically.
Yes, there is. You can use it for ever without a watermark.
For up to 6 months after the purchase you can upgrade the software free-of-charge. Upgrades after that, can be purchased as well.
LightAct servers come with Ultimate license.
Yes, you can always do that. Please contact us and we’ll take it from there.
No, you cannot do that.Â
Yes, you can.
You can upgrade the software free-of-charge for up to 6 months after the purchase. Upgrades after that can be purchased as well.
No. LightAct can only use one license at a time.
Dongles & Computer-bound licenses
Not necessarily. For example, you can have your license bound to your computer. This way, you can usually receive your license a bit faster and you don’t need to purchase the dongle.
Yes, you can. You can load LightAct licence on any CodeMeter dongle as long as its serial number is larger than 3-344…. For more info head to our user documentation.
If you have your license on a dongle, then you simply connect the dongle to your new computer and apply the license in LightAct.
If you are using a computer-bound license, then the process is a bit more involved and as it is manual, we need to charge you a small fee for it.
A floating license is when you decide to install your license on a dongle. This allows you to move license freely between computers. Essentially it ‘floats’ from one computer to the next.
Yes, you can. You can freely switch between them as much as you like from within LightAct software.
Features
How many outputs your license has, determines the maximum number of pixels that you can output through your video outputs or various outputs in the Devices window.Â
All our software licenses support Blackmagic capture cards.
From LightAct v4.12 we also support DirectShow integration, so if your capture card works with DirectShow, it should also work with LightAct.
Performance guarantee means that we can guarantee a specific performance level (either video playback, real-time or anything else) only on Ultimate license tier, meaning on LightAct servers.
If you build your own server or get one of the Certified Hardware servers, we cannot guarantee any specific level of performance, so you should do your own tests.
What we refer to as Backup functionality means the ability to have a server in a cluster that’s ready to replace any one of the other servers in a cluster.
Automatic backup functionality means that you assign which of the servers a specific Backup server should replace. If one of those servers fails, the Backup server can replace it automatically.
For Editor machines, you can use Creator license, which means you can get them free of charge.Â
The number of Editor machines on a network is not limited.
Object Tracking unlocks Antilatency, OptiTrack, PSN, Blacktrax and Stage precision integrations.
PSN and some other tracking integrations are supported in every license tier.
Camera tracking unlocks Mo-Sys, Stype and NCam integrations.
FreeD and some other camera tracking integrations are supported in every license tier.
Additional software
Buddy is a small process running in the background that takes care of EDID management and output configuration on the driver level.
It greatly speeds up the workflow on complex shows.
LightAct WebUI is a customizable browser based interface that allows you or the end user to control LightAct from a browser.
An essential tool, the LightAct Manager is a compact standalone app that provides network-wide monitoring and management for all LightAct servers. While it delivers vital reliability features like crash recovery and automatic system restarts—critical for fixed installations and demanding projects—Manager also gives you full control and insight into your systems, letting you monitor and control LightAct 4 instances and check the hardware health of every machine.
The dedicated operating system for LightAct servers, LightOS is engineered to deliver reliable and optimal performance, critical for running complex shows and live events.