Anyone else seeing an issue with their new model of lumping everything on a $299 light up keyboard?
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Could see this coming. Always had a feeling that they were pissing money away and aimlessly at that. The FXPansion acquisition and Lumi along with the Blocks stuff didn’t hang together well for me. And if those are genuine quotes, they kind of feel a little blasé to me.
So what does this mean for existing Role hardware users? Will Equator get shut down despite rave reviews? etc.
Was thinking of getting Equator too. Going to sit on that one for a while now for sure.
I bought Equator 2 just this summer…it’s fantastic. BUT it needs to phone home ever so often via Roli Connect, so that could kill it if Roli/Luminary doesn’t remove that “feature”…it’s a shame to see a company with such innovative products bite the dust, not least because their entrepreneurs acted as if Roli was on its way to becoming a unicorn when they would have been much better advised to take it a little slower with a more solid in approach.
I’m glad BFD got rescued for now at least, albeit inMusic also isn’t a guarantor for amazing development going forward.
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I think mpe is just growing after Ableton update and in future maybe we will have many mpe suported hardware synths so maybe Roli just preparing for something new. I hope…
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Will they then sell off the Seaboard /Rise technology then ? They should be able to get some reasonable amount of money for that, if they have no plans to use it further themselves.
I think there is a market for that keyboard, ROLI has already done a lot of the development work, and it would be possible to improve it further, if taken on by the right company. I’m thinking of improvements in particuler in durability and repairabilty.
Competitors to it are the Haken Continuum, and the Sensel Morph, and not much else that I can think of. The ROLI Seaboard Rise, at it’s price point did fill a niche.
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from the article linked above:
It seems, though, that Luminary isn’t completely abandoning the company’s other hardware, and Insider reports that Luminary will also “reintroduce the Seaboard” at some point.
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So from that page it says:
Luminary will not only focus on expanding LUMI to reach the growing community of home learners, but also plans to bring back the popular and award-winning Seaboard in 2022 (currently out of stock).
-AND-
Luminary will continue to manufacture ROLI’s professional and hobbyist instruments, with a relaunch of the iconic Seaboard, slated for 2022.
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I wonder what creditors and the insolvency agent will have to say to that move, looks like they’re abandoning Roli and its debts and are moving all operations over to Luminary…usually, you’d have to sell off the IP to the highest bidder to satisfy the insolvency agents, looks like they’ve sold it to themselves here, I wonder at what price…
Is the Founder/CEO also going to continue at Luminary?
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…all the old trix in big biz…
for now…i’m aaaallll happy…since hausland sold me one of his seaboard blox… 
don’t see more need for seaboarding for now…
thanx again…
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My first thought.
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This is the key point. They have stated their intention to freely walk away from Roli-based debts, but they are a dead company walking. They just haven’t been forced to liquidate yet because those proceedings take time.
The only way things can change for them is if they can prove that Lumi is immensely successful and get another bailout investment before they are forced to liquidate.
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it’s a direct quote from the linked article!
When you’re losing money, sometimes trying to improve your scenario by losing more money and faster is not the ideal solution 
This dialog reminds me of Blade Runner, where the Seaboard or Block is Roy Batty (who will die before living a “full” life).
I never seriously considered a seaboard because they always struck me as priced too high for what they are. (I still think they’re cool as hell)
To learn from this thread that they’re irreparable, more or less have a limited-life, and that they’re backed by a mediocre warranty makes the pricing seem all the more absurd.
Out of curiosity - any linnstrument owners out there? I wonder how those stand the test of time, and if they can reasonably be repaired…?
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Peter Kirn did a piece on Roli / their current status for CDM today:
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So replace Pharrell and Grimes with Hoxton, spend more money pursuing another hoped for market, and negotiate through the court process, while spending more for the lawyers. Hoxton’s goal is to bring the business far enough along to be able to sell that business and/or whatever loose assets it can find and make a profit.
Despite having lived this as an employee, and seen this up close another time, i don’t say i understand the value or use of this exercise.
As for answering the question, "Is ROLI almost dead?", we’re not much closer to an answer.
YES.
NO.
Let us hope every employee comes out of this better than they went in. And the same for all the customers along the way too.
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indeed… I don’t think anyone really knows… its pretty much speculation.
I could see this as being a way to buy some time… but for what?
Im not sure Lumi is the way forward… its had its own issues already.
perhaps time to sell off some IP… Juce went already, what about FXpansion?
or break up some of the ip assets… lumi/blocks/seaboad/equator
we’ll only really find out over the coming months.
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Can we just do this period?
Pharrell was a great beatmaker (once) and Grimes is net negative.
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There’s still a pulse !
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