Odyssey - closing!

[Dave Macaulay]

This is very sad news.
I certainly hope for the best for all the staff, you've been amazing and super helpful since I first started doing digital installations!
Here's the email I received...

**************************************************

It is with the heaviest of hearts we have made the sad and difficult decision to close our doors and say goodbye. After 28 years of serving the theatre industry with innovative solutions we are unable to keep going due to the unfortunate circumstances of Covid-19. On October 31, 2020 we will be closing our doors, until then please contact us for your cinema needs and solutions.

There are tentative plans to continue to sell Odyssey boards and assemblies, and provide phone and email support. But these services will be on a limited basis, as long as this industry remains dormant. We will post details for future contact, as we approach the October 31 deadline.

Thank you to all of our loyal customers for the years of support. It’s been a great ride!

Wishing you all the best,

Ken, Brad, Rebecca, John, and Mark.
It is with the heaviest of hearts we have made the sad and difficult decision to close our doors and say goodbye. After 28 years of serving the theatre industry with innovative solutions we are unable to keep going due to the unfortunate circumstances of Covid-19. On October 31, 2020 we will be closing our doors, until then please contact us for your cinema needs and solutions.

There are tentative plans to continue to sell Odyssey boards and assemblies, and provide phone and email support. But these services will be on a limited basis, as long as this industry remains dormant. We will post details for future contact, as we approach the October 31 deadline.

Thank you to all of our loyal customers for the years of support. It’s been a great ride!

Wishing you all the best,

Ken, Brad, Rebecca, John, and Mark.

[Greg Routenburg]

Well that sucks.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's sad to read this. I wish them all the best in those times of hardship. Stay strong, and keep safe. Keep in mind the world will always be looking for talented people.

[Jim Cassedy]

Odyssey filed a niche but necessary need in our industry. Best wishes for all the employees who will be displaced by this. Perhaps some can find jobs as Amazon drivers, or making face masks, hand wipes, liquid sanitizer or coffins, which seem to be some of the few occupations really thriving at the moment.

[Steve Guttag]

I suspect that some form of Odyssey will emerge. The way manufacturers of products make things, Odyssey made the bits and pieces that got you from the round pegs and put them into the square holes.

We've always made our own cables so rarely have used the breakout boards but have done so on occasion, including the transformer isolation boards. Their stuff always worked as advertised and was built to high quality.

[Marcel Birgelen]

What's somehow odd is that they've remained stuck in their respective cinema niche. There are so many niches that require specialty cables and breakout boards and they had the means to manufacture those.

[Bruce Cloutier]

I see that this notice pops up on their website https://www.odysseyproducts.com.

It has to be a very difficult decision. In working with an industry for almost 30 years you become attached emotionally and closing is like abandoning your family. I couldn't even consider it and for us its only been half as long. I am hoping that this is maybe because, in the face of reduced business levels, retirement is just calling. It pains me to think that COVID-19 may have had a much more serious impact on them. I will be sharing this news with my team here and also wish all of the Odyssey team the best moving forward.

[Leo Enticknap]

Likewise, very sorry to hear this. Odyssey offered convenient, high quality, plug-and-play solutions for interfacing cinema equipment with incompatible pinouts, and we'll all miss them.

Perhaps some can find jobs as Amazon drivers, or making face masks, hand wipes, liquid sanitizer or coffins, which seem to be some of the few occupations really thriving at the moment.

I can see it happening: the Amazon Basics coffin, made from recycled MDF with bubble wrap for the lining, and which requires a 5mm Allen wrench to assemble; or the deluxe version, made from sustainable forest wood, arrives ready assembled, and which conforms to California smog standards when cremated. And if you choose the no rush shipping option, either version comes with a free digital download for music to play at the funeral. Ikea likely has one too, but it's a lot more expensive.

[Sam Chavez]

We are all going to miss you if our industry ever resumes. They were a wonderful shop and so easy to reach and be understood. First rate customer service since the beginning. I did a couple of projects with Odyssey under their brand and mine. I also competed on an auto fader jogging device to deal with different playback levels between trailers and content. They were way faster from idea to hardware than BACP so I went off in another direction. I hope something emerges as the industry will need a Skunkworks outfit to help get from here to there. If it was 20 years ago I'd take it on myself.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I can see it happening: the Amazon Basics coffin, made from recycled MDF with bubble wrap for the lining, and which requires a 5mm Allen wrench to assemble; or the deluxe version, made from sustainable forest wood, arrives ready assembled, and which conforms to California smog standards when cremated. And if you choose the no rush shipping option, either version comes with a free digital download for music to play at the funeral. Ikea likely has one too, but it's a lot more expensive.

I can see the appeal for such a Köffin from Ikea, especially if it's somewhat modular and easy to assemble.

[Scott Norwood]

I haven't dealt with the personally, but it is always sad to hear of reputable companies going out of business. Sadly, there may be more of this to come if the cinema industry countinues to founder.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Very sad news indeed, a great company with products that worked well and were very reasonably priced for such a niche market.

Even though the company is closing, and after they stop production on the limited basis, perhaps they can continue on by selling the PCB manufacturing files (I can't recall at the moment what the file type is called) so that end users can take advantage of the online PCB manufacturers that offer small batch quantities (as little as 10 units). That would allow Odyssey to make some income with little to no overhead.

Of course, that all presumes the cinema industry somehow survives in the first place.

If I had the right computer equipment, and Odyssey's blessing, I would continue the (limited) production of their breakout boards as a "retirement" hobby.

[Leo Enticknap]

Not only that, but there are loads of small items and accessories we use that could easily be made on a consumer 3-D printer, given the design (STL) files. Someone asked me for help finding 9.5mm film cores a while back, and at that point it occurred to me that with access to a 3-D scanner, it would be possible to scan a 16mm core and then edit the resulting design to reduce the height. He eventually found a company that did it. There are spacers, fasteners, mounting hardware, adapters, and all sorts of stuff that I'm sure there would be a market for STL files for, for production by the end user in the workplace.

[Frank Cox]

If the manufacturer has gone out of business and there's no prospect of any other outfit taking up the market, wouldn't it make sense to make those files publicly available for anyone who has the equipment and the desire to make those parts? Perhaps that sort of thing could be posted here on film-tech along with the manuals and such.

[Carsten Kurz]

As far as I understand their message, they will try to continue supply.

'There are tentative plans to continue to sell Odyssey boards and assemblies, and provide phone and email support. But these services will be on a limited basis, as long as this industry remains dormant.'

I don't think they will give their manufacturing IP to the public, but will try to operate from a much lighter base. Maybe also Sam will take a role.