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Honest, specific, dated. Where they are better, we say so.
Media servers are not one market. A club VJ, a theatre video designer and a touring rental house buy different things and pay very different money. VIIY is built for the middle row: cue-driven shows on Windows — theatre, corporate events, concerts, LED walls — with a backup machine in every licence.
Every price and feature below was read on the vendor's own site on 4 September 2026. Vendors change prices; if you see a newer number, trust their page, not ours. Product names belong to their owners.
At a glance
| Product | Platform | Price (vendor site, 4 Sep 2026) | Licence covers | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIIY 1.0 | Windows 10/11 | €399 founding (first 20 operators or until 31 December 2026), then €549 · 12 months of updates, renewal €149 | 1 working machine + 1 backup · perpetual | Cue-driven shows: theatre, corporate, concerts, LED walls |
| Resolume Arena 7 | Windows, macOS | €799 per computer (Avenue €299) · 12 months of updates, renewal €219 | 1 computer + 1 emergency backup · perpetual | VJ sets, clubs, festival stages, projection mapping |
| QLab 5 | macOS only | Video licence $599, two feature sets $1,099, full $1,399 · or $8–15 per day | 2 activations per licence · perpetual | Theatre: audio, video and lighting cues from one workspace |
| Pandoras Box Infinity Suite V10 | Windows | Sold through dealers, priced by output count; no public price | HASP dongle per server | Corporate shows, fixed installations, theme parks, museums |
| disguise Designer | Windows (software) + disguise servers | Designer Pro $159/month or $1,500/year · Starter free (no live sessions with servers) | Subscription per seat; output runs on disguise hardware | Touring, broadcast, xR stages, large rental productions |
| Dataton Watchout 7 | Windows | EUR 3,200 per media-server licence · Producer free | 1 media server (up to 8× DCI 4K) per licence | Multi-display shows, museums, large projection |
| Millumin 5 | macOS only (MilluNode player also on Windows, beta) | Lifetime from US$499 · rent from US$39 | Per seat · perpetual or rental | Theatre, dance, video mapping, interactive installations |
Sources: resolume.com/shop, qlab.app/shop, twoloox.de/infinity-suite, disguise.one/en/products/designer/pricing, dataton.com (WATCHOUT 7 FAQ), millumin.com. VAT and local taxes differ by country and are not included in the vendors' numbers; EU prices for VIIY include VAT.
What VIIY brings to the middle row
| Capability | VIIY | Resolume Arena | QLab | Pandoras Box | Watchout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theatre-style cue list (follow, on-end, jump) + timeline | Yes, both | Clip grid, columns | Cue list | Timeline + cues | Timeline + tasks |
| Timecode in (LTC / MTC) | SMPTE (LTC) and MTC in, MTC out; no LTC out | SMPTE in | Yes | LTC in and out | Yes |
| Backup machine included in the base licence | Yes, with network sync and failover | +1 emergency backup, no sync | 2 activations, no sync | Per-server licence | Per-server licence |
| Pixel mapping to fixtures (Art-Net / sACN out, MVR import) | Yes, 64 universes | DMX out to fixtures | Lighting cues, not video-to-DMX | Art-Net / Ki-Net matrix | — |
| SDI in/out | DeckLink; AJA as preview | Blackmagic, AJA, Datapath | Via capture cards | Deltacast | Yes |
| NDI in/out · Spout/Syphon | NDI, Spout | NDI, Spout, Syphon | NDI, Syphon | NDI | NDI |
| Warp, edge blend, camera calibration | Mesh warp, blend, camera calibration | Yes | Yes | Yes, plus VIOSO / Mystique | Yes |
| 3D stage previsualisation | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Multichannel / Dante audio | Stereo only | Stereo, VST | Up to 64 outputs | Dante 32 ch, ASIO | Dante |
| AI in the app | Showbuilder from a brief; writes ISF shaders; MCP server for any agent | MCP server (7.26) | — | — | — |
| Years on the market | Released September 2026 | 20+ | 20+ | 20+ | 25+ |
Competitor cells come from the vendors' feature pages and manuals; a dash means we did not find the feature documented, not that it is impossible. Tell us at support@viiy.tech if a cell is wrong and we will fix it with a date.
Read the detailed pages
Same price bracket, different job. Where Arena wins and where a cue list does.
The Mac question, the video licence, and what QLab does that we do not.
A dongle-and-dealer system against a €399 licence: what you give up.
A platform with servers against software on your own PC.
EUR 3,200 per server against €399 with a backup: which shows need which.