Dr. Stevenson, I presume.
Have you seen the Vienna Ensemble 3 video?
http://vsl.co.at/en/211/1343/1348/1594/1245.vsl
I'm still learning this too. With VE 2, I figured out the whole Jack / stand-alone / MIDI routing thing. But I am losing tolerance for those work-arounds, no matter the RAM benefits. The chief kludge for me is the inability to double-click something in Logic and see what I'm hearing immediately. I'm not going to hunt down one cell within one of sixteen instruments among 6 stand-alone VE instances.
So perhaps VE 3 PRO is here to save us both. Like you, I want a single computer. After several years winnowing down a workstation, I can't bring myself to start adding computers again. We should give 64-bit VE Pro a shot before we give up the single computer theory.
1. Yes. It's mentioned in the video. Launch Vienna Ensemble SERVICE on the same computer hosting your DAW.
2. I can't speak for LAN and audio outputs (but the video covers this too). Internally, it's just wonderful. You simply load a software instrument (channel strip) with VE 3. It finds the VE Service on the same computer, referenced as "localhost," and opens its own window, unique to that channel strip.
I'm still distracted by the fact that when one VE is open, I think they're all open, and we are left to sort through the redundant mess. Some user error is making it worse, I suspect. But from the plug-in, if you click the rectangle (show window), the appropriate window will be topped.
Also, there's a note in VE 3 PRO mentioning the redundant screens. Perhaps this is the same issue I'm facing, to be fixed. Also, it mentions a clearer marking of each instance. Right now, the user sees an unhelpful list of identical version titles and numbers.
3. And this seems best of all. Internally, there is are no extra MIDI hook-ups. VE 3 is read directly from Logic, per the channel strip. Just make sure the VE 3's instrument settings (port and channel, assignable per instrument) agree with the MIDI that the channel strip is receiving
4. Alas, I know nothing of tempo. I'm not aware of any VSL product that listens to a BPM tempo.