Ant+ is a standard. All ant+ receivers should work with all ant+ transmitters.
In the BKool software, heart rate and cadence will work without the trainer, if you have the appropriate sensors on yourself and the bike (as I found out today when I forgot to turn on the power supply to the trainer
).
If you want power, distance and speed in BKool, you need a trainer as well. It's the trainer that sends the signal to the ant+. The trainer also receives the info from the software to set the resistance on the roller to simulate the ride that you're doing.
Without a trainer, the software wouldn't get a signal to say that you were moving and so it wouldn't play the video or move your icon on the map of the ride. I'd say the software on it's own isn't going to give you any more than you'll get from a non-computer linked turbo.