I had my first play with Beyond at the DutchLEM this weekend (Thanks Dimitri).
The setup was HobbyBob's - 3 lasers including the appropriately named pink 'gayzer' (can't remember specs) Beyond and an APC40.
Using Beyond is extremely simple and when an APC40 is used it's even simpler! I was able to sync to the music very easily and only used a few sliders to begin with - I imagine it would take a month or so to get used to what does what and be able to go that function without thinking.
One of the things that had previously put me off Beyond was a perceived lack of creativity. Most people do use canned cues and more often than not, I can tell when a show is made using a Pangolin product because I recognise the cues. VJErnst played a lot of non-standard content over the weekend - Bart creates a lot for Ernst and is a 'Beyond cue magician' - he has created some really clever beam effects which take Pangolin out of the realm of clip art type shows to something more creative - I only watched a little cue creation and it looked quite flexible - but not as flexible as LSX seems to be.
I would like to see some more creativity on the abstract side of things - otherwise beyond gets a big plus in my mind for beam shows, simplicity of use and effective and intelligent control of beams and chases.
Hopefully I'll get another chance to have a play at the UKLEM in April.
Keith