Future of OTSAV

[wablaster]

What do you guys thing is the future of OTSAV?  I love this product... I have been using it since 2000... Love it... It feel just stable, reliable and right...specially with videos...
I work along side other Dj and their software and still love otsav.

But, I have been watching some software gaining distance and catching up on otsav whereas in 2000 we were ages aged of the game with automation and live sound processing... wow!   If this keeps up... our beloved program will just be left behind? Do you think so? I hope not...

[Darryl]

Without any knowledge of the goings on at Ots Labs, anything said here is pure speculation.  They may well surprise us with something truly innovative, but given that the last release took so long (and they had previously said they were investing in work to make future developments quicker), it is hard to be optimistic about them.

However, to balance that, every release of Ots AV (while not always popular with the users) is pretty solid (the mouse move issue in the first and 2nd Esperance releases would have been extremely hard to avoid in my honest opinion and I can forgive them for that one).  I feel that they haven't been very good at managing expectations - if they'd warned users that they needed to remove playing of CDs directly, users that were taking advantage of that feature would have had a chance to decide how to adapt their working practices.

The user interface changes in Esperance were brave - it was a significant change and had many benefits - the problem for many of us was that you had to invest time with the new interface to gain those benefits.  Some users have found it doesn't suit them because some of the user interface elements are just too small on their high resolution monitors - again this sort of user feedback is very hard to predict, so I can forgive them for that.

In summary:  I think OtsAV has a future - but not necessarily for the DJ market. 

Rationale: A while back Ots Labs explained that they had a business model for solution providers that was taking in constant revenue.  I personally paid under $100 for the original product (around 2000/2001 I cannot remember that far back to be honest) and later paid for the Video, CD+G and Scheduling/Logging modules (so around $500 in total).  This is small fry compared to businesses paying monthly subscriptions - constant and predictable revenue can be obtained from other markets - most the DJs I know are pretty tightfisted.  To compete with Serato and co. on the mobile DJ/club functionality would require significant investment with potentially poor return (ROI - return on investment is the key to successful businesses).  Other DJ software companies have partnered with the hardware vendors (hardware wears out - software just keeps going).

[Taralocke]

I too have used OTS since 2000 maybe before? Its been so long I can't remember. One thing I can say is that when you do it right the first time you don't worry too much. They did it right and even when other programs caught up and even surpassed in many areas, for what I needed and for the reasons I needed it. OTS was and still is perfect. The only thing I just wish it could do was sync with a solid controller. Now that it has the Denon MC6000MK2 my dreams are complete and I am loving OTS more than the day I first purchased it. Do I want more? Always. But I wouldn't mind using it the way it currently is until I retire in a few more years.