30 June 2026
OtsAV (formerly OtsJuke DJ / OtsDJ) was initially developed in the 1990s as a native Win32 application, standard for software of the era given the strong dominance of Windows and available technology options at the time.
Foundational architectural decisions have a tendency to stick and so it has been with OtsAV over the years. However, despite Windows' clear dominance which continues even today, Ots Labs has always had a large swathe of customers enquiring about macOS support, and to a lesser degree, Linux.
Naturally we would have loved to have supported other platforms all along if it were feasible, but as most software engineering professionals will know, platform independence done well is not a trivial thing — and our total market is relatively niche compared to many truly mainstream things one may wish to compare against, making the justification harder.
In early 2022 Ots Labs began work on a new internal framework in order to facilitate what is essentially a full re-write of OtsAV and associated utilities, freed from the shackles of Windows-specific APIs and re-targeted to support all of macOS, Linux, Windows, and even (where appropriate by app) mobile platforms (iOS/iPadOS/Android) and web (WebAssembly).
As a complete architectural re-implementation this is obviously a mammoth undertaking and will not be ready before 2027 at the earliest, however, our progress has been solid and we're now ready to announce it to the world. Also, some other new things we are bringing out soon (eg. the previously-announced DJcloud) are based on this new framework.
In short, everything!
OtsAV 3 is re-written from the ground up without the assumptions of Windows being baked in. While it continues to run entirely great on Windows, it also runs on macOS (as a native Apple Silicon application) and will ultimately run on Linux desktop distributions as well.
OtsAV 3 runs as a native app on each platform with our own purpose-built light-weight platform independence layer (framework) allowing us to maintain a largely unified code base while deploying to all of these platforms. Unlike many multi-platform apps today that choose to take the "easy way out" by building essentially a web app and bundling internally with a web browser (these apps are highly inefficient as well as consuming gigabytes of your precious system memory), our approach maintains the long-held Ots Labs philosophies and ethos of lean and mean, bloat-free, highly performant code.
Even if you will continue to run on Windows (as many obviously will), OtsAV 3 offers an entirely new experience with a fresh new resolution-independent UI providing pin-sharp detail no matter your screen size or technology, as well as (by popular demand) bringing back some of the most loved things from the former 1.85 version such as direct category buttons for the media library. It's also a 64-bit native app, entirely re-written and re-implemented as summarized above, bringing huge performance gains on modern systems.
OtsAV 2.0 is arriving in the second half of this year and will be a free upgrade for the above license type as well as for every current OtsAV 1.94 license, and also for those who purchased a Legacy Upgrade Token last year for their legacy 1.85 (or 1.90) license as part of our OtsAV 1.85 End-of-Life offer.
Ots Labs will continue to support the OtsAV 2.0 (currently 1.94) line for the foreseeable future so that customers may continue as they have with a predictable workflow, however, all new innovations will go into OtsAV 3 and given a sufficient overlap period we anticipate it to eventually completely replace the former for virtually everyone.
OtsAV 3 is a fully new product (entire re-write and re-implementation of the legacy code base) in active development since 2022. Current and former OtsAV licenses will not work with OtsAV 3. However, in order to make the transition as seamless as possible and given the enormity of change, we have designed an extremely generous limited-time offer commencing today until July 15th:
● one-off low cost of $69.95 to purchase a token that will upgrade a current license to OtsAV 3.0 when it ships — the edition most equivalent to your current 1.94/2.0 license.
● unlike regular upgrades, you do NOT need to surrender your old (current) license even when OtsAV 3 ships and you start using it. This is to allow a long and gradual transition period (if needed) where you may choose to run both the old and new products (even on different platforms, eg. Windows -> Mac) to facilitate a full and safe replacement without ever impeding your ability to work.
● purchase as many of these in order to match the number of current licenses that you have, eg. if you have 3 x OtsAV DJ Pro 1.94 licenses, 2 x OtsAV Enterprise 1.94 licenses and 1 x OtsAV TV Broadcaster 1.94 license (6 licenses in total), then you would purchase 6 x OtsAV 3 'NextGen' tokens and each of your current licenses would be upgradeable to OtsAV 3 (each to the equivalent product), without you having to surrender or forgo your current licenses.
The cost of these tokens at just $69.95 each is obviously a small fraction of the cost of purchasing new licenses directly for OtsAV 3 'NextGen' once it becomes available — plus you get to retain your existing licenses — therefore we strongly urge all customers to take advantage of this generous offer now while it's available. You will no longer be able to purchase these tokens after July 15th except as part of a bundle when buying a whole new OtsAV license at full cost.
Tokens are delivered immediately, but are not used until you are ready to start using OtsAV 3 after it is released. You do not need to provide specific PDIs of the products you are intending to upgrade from until such time as you are actually ready to proceed with an upgrade.
As explained above, as a special case for this major transition you will NOT need to surrender your old (base) license — but rather may run BOTH in parallel as needed (even on different machines/OSes) for the purposes of a seamless transition and uninterrupted workflow. Purchasing these tokens is the only way to obtain this flexibility and also to avoid paying the full cost of new individual licenses for OtsAV 3.
Each token may be used to upgrade a single instance of a 1.94/2.0 license. If you have several individual licenses, or any of the older multi-quantity style licenses that may be for more than a single instance, you will require a token for each license/instance that you wish to (eventually) upgrade.
After July 15th, 2026, it will no longer be possible to purchase these tokens except as a bundle when buying a brand new OtsAV license at full cost.
These tokens may be used to upgrade OtsAV 1.94 or OtsAV 1.85 [with free upgrades to 2.0] to OtsAV 3.0.x upon release
US$69.95 — Add to Cart @ OtsZone (adjust quantity in cart to cover the full number of your base licenses/instances)
Tip: You can see a summary of your licenses by logging into your OtsZone profile and going to My Licenses. Pay attention also to the Qty and Status fields.
Note: If you hold more than one OtsZone profile and/or are helping someone else maintain their OtsAV software, you can purchase these tokens without concern for which profile actually contains the base licenses. All purchased tokens remain unbound to any specific profile or license until such time as they are used.
Please contact Ots Labs Licensing if you have further questions.