Welcome to ACL. First of all, you are on a good path with LOR S3 advanced. Whatever you do don't spend a lot of money on any one thing at first. There are a lot of tools for LOR available for free. Read, Read, ask questions, stop by the chat room and ask more questions, and read some more. I use LOR at the present time and am very happy with it. When you start buying equipment and software, start small and see if you like what the lights/controllers do. But most of all Have Fun!!
Hope this helps
John
I use LOR's CCRs (smart strips). You can use cheaper verions of smart strips by using DMX mode in LOR-S3. This is not as easy as a CCR but it will save you money.
As already suggested, the basics of mixing LOR and DMX with suggested hardware etc. can be found in the AusChristmasLighting 101 manual. This is a great resource for many things concerning lighting.