I'm thinking of buying 5 x pocketwizard Plus II's but....

They don't 'appear' to have a 'fire all' function.

Which means it can also fire flashes around you that uses the same trigger, then?
Imo, one of the purpose of channel is also for the convenience of multiple flashes that won't flash when you fire one of them.
I've read in strobist.com about someone who apparently in the same channel with a manual mode flash set in full power and fire it continuously. cmiiw though

It's the Pocket Wizard Multi Max that will do what you want but that's a large jump in price.

Have you looked into the Elinchrom Skyports? They have independent channel and group settings. You can have all your lights on the same channel but in 4 different groups and use the transmitter to fire 1 group at a time to dial in your exposure then switch it to ALL to take the picture.

Peace
Mark

OldA1 wrote in post #9699794
Have you looked into the Elinchrom Skyports? They have independent channel and group settings. You can have all your lights on the same channel but in 4 different groups and use the transmitter to fire 1 group at a time to dial in your exposure then switch it to ALL to take the picture.

Peace
Mark

Ive been using these and they seem to work quite well

OldA1 wrote in post #9699794
Have you looked into the Elinchrom Skyports? They have independent channel and group settings. You can have all your lights on the same channel but in 4 different groups and use the transmitter to fire 1 group at a time to dial in your exposure then switch it to ALL to take the picture.

Peace
Mark

I have to agree. I have 5 skyports and its great to be able to cut background lights off or kill a fill or whatever. Also good if you have two setups going and need to switch seamlessly back and forth.