BEYOND 5.0 is here, and with it brings a new Licensing and Registration system.
BEYOND has traditionally required connection of licensed Pangolin hardware FB3 or FB4
controllers connected for BEYOND to open. This is changing slightly and now BEYOND will open
without hardware connected in a “demo” state where laser output and saving of files is disabled.
For BEYOND to leave demo mode, to output and save, you must have an active license.
This could be the old school hardware licenses, or any of our new ways to license BEYOND,
which we will cover in a moment. This also means there is no longer
a demo version of BEYOND, and there is only one version to download and use for all purposes.
The first main step is the registration aspect of this new system.
Registration is a “check in” for hardware, this means to ensure the connected hardware is genuine,
and to see if the hardware has been marked as lost or stolen.
As a note, when you purchase a new piece of hardware from Pangolin,
write down the serial numbers! If stolen, we may be able to recover the hardware in the future.
Registration is done automatically if your PC is connected to the internet,
if you are not connected to the internet, hardware that is yet to be registered will have a 7-day
grace period where they will work, but at the end of the 7-day grace period, registration will be
needed for the hardware to continue operating. If you wish to keep your PC permanently offline,
we have added a way to do so, which we will cover how it is done in a bit.
The second main step in this new system is licensing.
If you have a classic license purchased before the release of 5.0, we have notated
your license in our server. When you connect your hardware and run 5.0 for the first time,
it will attempt to register, if registration is successful, the server will see your licensed
hardware, and return a new license file to the PC with the registration file. No need to
worry about the .bmp files of previous versions. While we have made every best effort to collect
every license file over the past 10 years and put them in the server, we may have missed a few, so
if a piece of hardware’s license isn’t recognized with the server, email support@pangolin.com with
the old .bmp license file and the serial number of your hardware and we will get you going.
We also have added multiple new ways to license BEYOND
Hardware licenses are similar to the old system of licenses, except you will instead get
a code from the Pangolin website after purchase to use in BEYOND to activate the license.
Internet licenses are an account bound license, which do not require connected hardware and can
be moved between computers, this obviously requires a connection to the internet to use.
Lastly we have PCID licenses, this license type is bound to a specific PC, and if that PC is lost,
stolen, broken, or changed to much, like motherboard change, the license will be
destroyed, it is non transferable and volatile. However, it offers lower price and convenience
with no need for internet or hardware. “Changing” the PC means that small changes
like RAM upgrades and added hard drives will not affect this license, but your CPU,
Motherboard, your C: drive, and your Windows copy change, your PC will change
enough for the PCID license to become deactivated. There is also now two types of license timeframes,
perpetual licenses, which mean they are a one time purchase forever license as
Pangolin licenses have traditionally been and now “rental” licenses, by the month or year.
These can be any type of license hardware, Internet or PCID and expire after their time
limit. This rental license is useful if you just need features for a specific show or want to try
new features out. Its also useful if the price of a perpetual license is to much up front.
Now that we know what’s new, and what’s changed let’s take a look at how to interact with
registration and licenses in BEYOND using the new Registration and License Manager window.
Let’s go to this new tab, under registration, click “registration and license manager”
This new window is where you will manage registration, and licenses.
On the first tab you will see status of many parts of your BEYOND system.
The first part is your access to BEYOND , the version, if output is enabled, and if file
saving is enabled. Output is disabled 40 minutes after a license goes missing, and file saving is
disabled 2 weeks after a license goes missing as a grace period for hardware licenses, this
is the same as in previous versions of BEYOND . The next part is listing all hardware licenses
active, this may be licenses that you had before 5.0, and any you may have added recently.
Under internet licenses, you will see any internet license “in use” on this computer.
Under computer, you will see data on this PC, its name, the build of BEYOND
and if the date is correct which is used for verification of licenses and registration.
Under registration, you will see if registration is found on the PC.
Under external license files, you will see all licenses BEYOND finds
that are the classic .bmp files that may still be on the PC.
Lastly under hardware you will see hardware, which lists connected output hardware
and if they are genuine and good to go. Any of these may have things like a yellow
“pause” icon, an orange exclamation point, or a red x for example, all these issues
are generally solved by registration if all licenses are in order and hardware is genuine.
Next is the registration tab, here you can either manually register online if automatic registration
failed or select to register by email. Use register by email if you wish to
keep this PC offline permanently. Enter your name, and email if you
would like and click “register by email”. This will create a file, save this onto
your computer, and transfer to a separate computer which is connected to the internet.
Email this file to activate@pangolin.com and within a few minutes you will receive
a response with an attached registration file. Move this registration file back to your show PC.
Then select open registration file from the dropdown and open the file.
This will complete your registration. The last tab is for managing your licenses.
The first dropdown is for managing internet licenses, here you can login to your account
and see any licenses on that account. You can “start use” of a license which will
activate it on this PC. You can also stop use to release the license to be used elsewhere.
For internet licenses there is a offline grace period you can set,
click “edit” to see these options. Here you can change the name of the license
if you would like and change the refresh period. The refresh period is the timeframe between when
your internet license needs to check in with the internet to be refreshed.
Short timespans are convenient for moving licenses around and navigating between computers.
Longer times are more convenient for traveling shows, but will be locked to this PC when offline,
so if the PC is lost, stolen, or broken, the server will still have that licensed PC bound,
and you won’t be able to access it until the refresh period ends.
There is more about this in our manual on the registration and license manager.
The next dropdown is where you can add new internet licenses.
Be sure to log into the account you want to add licenses to and insert your code to this
line and redeem online. This will add the license to your account which you can see
in the “manage internet license” dropdown. Next is add new hardware license online.
Use this to add hardware licenses while connected to the internet, enter your code,
select the hardware you want to bind the license to in the dropdown, and redeem online.
Next is add new hardware license by email, this is if you want to register a new
hardware license without the internet. Enter your name, email, license code,
and select which hardware you want to bind to. Click redeem by email, this will create a file.
Follow the same process for registering offline from before for redeeming this license.
Next is add new PCID license. For PCID licenses, you will just
enter the code and redeem online, and it will bind that license to this specific PC.
PCID licenses can only be redeemed online.
Last is upgrade license online Here you can upgrade perpetual licenses
of all types. Once you put the code in the box, upgradeable licenses will be listed below,
select the license you would like to upgrade, and click “redeem online.”
Finally, In the bottom left corner of Quickshow you will see a new icon with
3 colored bars, these are part of this new registration system and mean the following:
The top line indicates connection to the internet, specifically Pangolin servers, red means no
connection, yellow means connection problems unlikely but possible if the server is busy and
green means service is connected and available. The middle line indicates registration status,
red means missing registration, yellow means registration found but incorrect in some way,
and green means registration found and correct, Quickshow is fully operational.
The bottom line is unused currently for Quickshow 5.0 and indicates a future server connection,
at release of 5.0 this status indicator being red is normal.
This new system offers a lot of security and convenience,
with many added options for licensing of BEYOND.
We hope this new workflow enables you to have more confidence when working with licenses and BEYOND.
There is a lot of supporting documents related to the new 5.0 registration and licensing system.
Including FAQ, Manuals and Guides. Check them out in the description,
and on our wiki at wiki.pangolin.com. As well, and as always, thank you for
watching this Quick hints video on the new Registration and License system.
If you have any questions or need any help with any of these new features, feel free to contact
support@pangolin.com or if you need help deciding which license type is right for you, contact
sales@pangolin.com. Thank you for watching and we hope you enjoy the new features in BEYOND 5.0!