Ok.. I'll help where I can.
First of all, I'll tell you that I'm programming with LOR S3 and Superstar and using LOR S3 to control my show. I'm going through an Etherdongle, to control 2 LOR, 2 Lynx Express, 2 SSR w/ DMX, and 2 Active Hubs with 1080 RGB pixels (so far).
LOR S3 Advanced license is able to utilize E1.31, so it would allow you to use the EthD to control up to 4 pixelnet universes. You can still use your USB485 LOR dongle to control your LOR controllers separately, if you desire, so that you can still get your "shimmer" and "twinkle" through hardware, or if you have the Gen 3 controllers, they are controllable by DMX (but you lose the hardware effects). I'm not sure about the Renard protocol, but S3 gives you the network options of "Raw DMX", "ENTTEC DMX USB Pro", "Lynx" and "E1.31". The "Lynx" option would be for the Lynx USB dongle and you are only going to get a single DMX universe out of it. Network setup for my lights were a breeze. I just set my LOR controllers to use my 485 dongle and set everything else to use E1.31.
If you have been using S3, then you are probably familiar with its quirks (slow loads for editing, large file size, etc). The only issue I've run into is running out of virtual memory when transfering large sequences from Superstar to S3. S3 (and most software out there) is hardwired to use 2GB of virtual memory. Going beyond that 2GB will crash the software. Fortunately, there is a patch that allows you to use 4GB of virtual memory, and since installing that patch I have yet to run into any problems.
Superstar is a nice piece of software, and Brian Bruder (the programmer) is actively working to improve it. It has some nice effects, and allows you to program, not only your RGBs, but your incans as well. Brian has come up with a nice feature that allows you to import a visualization of your lights, and have a second "visualization pair" to represent your light fixtures/pixels in a horizontal grid at the same time. For the most part, you can switch back and forth between the two to program your lights to behave the way you want. I'm still learning Superstar, but I'm liking it more and more as I get used to it.... and its fast at its edits, loads and playbacks.
Now for the headache in the LOR family... the visualizer. This needs a complete overhaul in my opinion. You may or may not be aware of visualizer's 1024 fixture limitation, but its a serious PITA. While your incan strings are no problem (the entire string is a single fixture), RGB's are a headache. Each pixel is considered a fixture, so you can see that if you have a lot of RGB pixels you are going to run out of room quick. UNFORTUNATELY to get your representation of your lights into Superstar, you import a visualization that you have created. Brian has done his best to overcome this limitation by using "keywords" in the props to allow you to import representations of CCRs as strings of RGB Pixels. This allows you to set up your visualization using a single CCR fixture to represent an entire RGB string which allows your to slip by the visualizer's 1024 fixture limit. The problem? The visualizer still sees it as a CCR so you can't play the song back in the visualizer and have it accurately represented.
So, to answer your original questions... Yes, S3 will control your lights. Yes, S3 and Superstar will sequence your lights for you. If the Renard understands the DMX protocol, you could drop your dongles to just the LOR USB485 and an EthD or if you have the Gen 3 controllers, just the EthD. You can use xLights to run your show or use S3's scheduler. You have the added ability to use nutcracker to assist in sequencing your RGBs as the newest version of XLights includes a form of nutcracker.
If I can be of further help, feel free to ask.
Jamie
