The Altstar system consists mainly of Altman s Altstar Starbeams. The Starbeams are unlike Vari Lites because Vari Lites are a full moving unit. It is much faster than the Vari Lites since only the mirrors move and not the whole unit. The boar provides direct access to eighteen cues at one time. All programmed cues of the show can are have online access.
Cues are of unlimited length and can be stopped or started by remote devices.
Phish uses this feature of the Altstar system. At the end of a long jam when there is a big lighting finale, Trey, the lead singer, stops the cue by hitting a foot pedal on stage. Over 1,000 shows can be stored on the board with up to 10,000 cues per show. The cues are programmed in a windowed programming environment. The capabilities for the cues are virtually unlimited.