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Orqa Wrote:The future and the past...

Dear pilots,

We have come a long way from our Kickstarter campaign. So many things have changed since we first set out on this journey -- both in our Hobby and in the world out there.

We were lucky enough to have been able to adapt, and not only survive, but grow at a very rapid pace: our head-count has more than doubled since the time we had our Kickstarter, and almost six-fold from the time we started our work in FPV. Our capabilities have grown immensely along the way.

I am still in awe at how much experience our team has acquired in the last 12 months, and I can't help but look with slightly horrified humour at the innocent ignorance that led us to jump with both feet into this adventure back then. Boy, am I happy we didn't know back then just how arduous the whole journey will be.
   
And it was a bumpy ride, as you could have guessed. There's been many people in the community rightfully doubting whether we'll survive, or we will be just another one of those brands that appear out of nowhere with a bunch of promises and a few splashy renders to back them, only to quickly fade away back to nothingness. I think it has become clear by now that Orqa is here to stay. But getting to that stage was not easy, and the whole of our team has been consumed with the day-to-day grind of a fast-growing tech company.

Which is why we've been silent lately, especially compared to a period leading up to and during our Kickstarter campaign. We have not disappeared, it's just that the pace has simply been so intense, that we could not keep the level of communication that we've previously set for ourselves.

But we kept listening to the community very closely, as many of you will know, especially those amazing individuals whose complaints and feature suggestions found their way in one of the many software updates for Orqa products that we keep releasing to this day.

And in listening to the community, we felt that it's high time to break the period of silence and explain a few things.

First and foremost, we want to clearly state that Orqa is a technology company. We are not an “FPV company", we're a technology company that loves FPV.

Part of the community already knows that we are working on various projects, applications, and solutions that will be used outside of the tiny market niche that is FPV, and outside of consumer space in general. Some things will see its applications in the Hobby, but some of them will not.

Some of you will remember that this has been our mission all along: in order to do things we did, we had to look for opportunities outside of the FPV. And by looking outside of FPV, we were able to do new things in and for FPV.

FPV is a tiny market, but we strongly believed it would grow. And it did grow: today, it's much larger than when we started in it. Some large brands entered the market, the competition got much tougher, but competition is great for the Hobby. It's evolving, and that's amazing.  
 
Now, here comes the question, but why are you doing it? Why are you still in this small niche then?
 
First of all, FPV is what made Orqa. You guys made Orqa. Without the FPV and the amazing community that backed us, and is still backing us, we would not be here. Believe it, or don't, but there's this deep sense of loyalty and gratitude that plays a role in how and where we are taking Orqa as a business. Sure, there's a healthy amount of pragmatism there, because, let's be honest: brands thrive on a loyal fan base; we just believe that loyalty to your fans is the best way to earn their loyalty in return.

Second, there's still a great deal of cool, under-the-radar tech that we take for granted in the FPV. It's been our foundational premise that evolving that tech and applying it to other verticals holds tremendous potential. We still strongly believe that.

Thirdly, and let's be honest here guys, there's still a decent chunk of change to be made in this market. Sure, FPV alone is not going to make us into a unicorn (in tech start-up speak, that's a shorthand for a company worth $1Bn), but as an Eastern-Croatian company selling globally, you can make a pretty nice living even in a niche. Eastern Croatia is not Silicon Valley, and trust me when I say there are many drawbacks to this, but one of the advantages is you don't need to burn hundreds of thousands Euros or Dollars per month in order to build a great working environment for a bunch of very smart and hard-working girls and guys that are able to build pretty cool stuff, and market it globally. 

Finally, we just love FPV. We love to fly. We want to improve how we experience FPV today, and we want to share this. Simple as that. 
 
What can you expect from Orqa in the following year?
 
First of all, you can expect what we've promised from the beginning, and that's innovation.

We will expand our range of products, and we'll try to cover everyone, from beginners, to racers, long rangers, professionals.

We'll do our best to meet your expectations, and we'll keep listening to the community, same like we've been doing now and we'll try to have fun along the way, because if you did not get to know us by now, we like to have fun, and that's how we work.

And of course, we'll keep our customer service on the highest level possible, same as we did for the past year. We truly care about our customers, and we try to show it in every way we possibly can. We want to give you the level of customer experience that none of our competitors will be able to match. Period.
 
And now the big question: "Is Orqa HD coming?"
 
A question we've been hearing a lot lately.

We have already confirmed that we are working on a solution of our own. But low-latency HD video is far from trivial. And it's not just difficult, it's a type of a difficult thing that's currently being solved with pretty expensive engineering. Actually, it's being solved with some of the most expensive types of engineering, that's typically out of reach of small companies like us. We're talking about the big league stuff.

And for this reason, it does not surprise me that the break-through in low-latency HD did come from one such big-league player, able to dedicate resources required to push the technology envelope. As an FPV pilot myself, I'm thrilled that someone with vast enough resources took notice of my hobby, and decided to evolve the technology required to improve my experience. That's awesome.

What's not so awesome is that large companies typically like to keep things within their walled gardens. They don't really like vibrant ecosystems. And FPV became what it is exactly *because* it is a vibrant ecosystem. If FPV was started by a bunch of companies each building their closed walled gardens, there would be no FPV that we know and love today.

To be honest, I'd love it if we could simply take the existing HD video tech and build awesome products that will work with it. But because the existing HD system currently out there is being marketed in that closed-tech, walled garden kind of way, we now have no choice but build a better one. Sigh.  

And that's exactly what we're doing: we're building a better HD video system. But our system is not going to be closed only for the Orqa ecosystem, and that's a promise. Sure, as a business, we want you to be Orqa all the way, but because you *choose* to, not because you *have* to. I think that's a small, but tremendously important difference for the future of FPV.

So yeah, Orqa HD is in the works, and we have set our goal high: we want it to be the best out there.

Will we succeed in that? I have no doubt.

When is it coming out? I'm still not certain enough to tell you anything just yet, but soon enough.

What I *am* certain about, however, is that we need your support to do it. You guys helped us get to where we are today, and we need you to move forward still. And you know what? I'm sure you will. Thanks for that.
 
Stay safe, fly safe.

The future looks bright with Orqa.

-Srđan Kovačević, CEO

Yes, I got that too.  I love the "soon enough"!  According to my bank account, at least for me, I am certain he is correct...

Well I hope that "soon enough" is during spring 2021 or I might just go with DJI V2 if that is what comes next.. Interesting times!

I wonder who their financial baxkera are to fund this.
Selling a few hundred goggles on Kickstater and may be a thousand or two more since KS plus some antenna patches/ wireless module can't be profitable enough to employ the number of staff they have plus R&D into their own HD digital FPV.

FS needed 2 Years based on a existing design

How long will it take Orqa? And how much delay will have a Kickstarter for Orqa HD when their goggles were 6 months late

It seems like Orqa have their fingers in other pies that are outside of the FPV world, so maybe some of those other ventures bring in enough money to subsidise the FPV side of their business. They aren't giving away any secrets about what else they're involved in so it's difficult to know.

AFAIK there aren't many chip providers in the HD transmission world who provide off-the-shelf solutions that can achieve what is needed for our hobby, and FatShark already partnered with one of those (Divimath) so there probably aren't many pickings left. DJI design and manufacture their own custom silicon chips but I can't see Orqa doing the same because that takes vast amount of money and resources to do along with a very specialised skillset.

My best guess is that Orqa might have something out in a year at best, maybe two. And that's on the assumption that they partner with another HD transmission chip manufacturer similar to Divimath. If they are trying to develop their own silicon then it will be much longer than that, and will be way more expensive.

Unless Orqa do actually go down the route of manufacturing their own custom silicon, then I don't think they will ever be able to compete with DJI who are evolving their HD technology at a frighteningly fast pace due to the sheer amount of expertise, experience and capital they have. No small company will ever be able to keep up with that. So I don't think any solution by Orqa will ever be the best out there, but it might be better than Shark Byte.

(06-Nov-2020, 02:53 PM)jasperfpv Wrote: I wonder who their financial baxkera are to fund this.

This.

I don't buy into the "this takes a lot of money to do" bit when it comes to HD. The "big company" already made the "is this financially viable" argument for you which is handily the toughest argument to make when it comes to raising capital. If any of these companies had even an iota of financial acumen, all it takes is a finger pointed at "big company" (are we not saying their name anymore?? LOLL) to say, you want those returns??? Give us money and we will replicate it from the ground floor. It's really not complicated.

(06-Nov-2020, 06:01 PM)the.ronin Wrote: This.

I don't buy into the "this takes a lot of money to do" bit when it comes to HD.  The "big company" already made the "is this financially viable" argument for you which is handily the toughest argument to make when it comes to raising capital.  If any of these companies had even an iota of financial acumen, all it takes is a finger pointed at "big company" (are we not saying their name anymore??  LOLL) to say, you want those returns???  Give us money and we will replicate it from the ground floor.  It's really not complicated.

I guess it comes down to how hard you can spend money on R+D without seeing a return on investment. DJI aren't worried about how to keep the lights on. Digital FPV is definitely viable, but you need that engineering skill (how many people have said it wasn't possible? I know I was one) and the capacity to burn money on it in the short term.

Hmmm ... I don't think I'm explaining myself right.

Let's say you have an idea to transport people using a metal box on 4 wheels. It is MUCH easier to convince potential investors that your idea will not only work but people will buy it if you can point to an actual car on the road already doing what is promised. That is the hardest part of raising money. For HD FPV, that hardest part is done. That is called first-to-market-winners-curse (it's not I just made that up but it sounds good right? lol).

With that said there is a trade-off, although you have hard evidence the idea will work *and* sell, you have competition and a market that has already bought into the competitor that you either live with or convert.

But this notion that "we don't have money" holds less and less water for a technology that has already been implemented and proven as far as raising money is concerned.

Nah, that makes sense.

I guess it's down to how difficult the problem is. DJI have the means to do it in-house, but Fatshark had to go external. Connex were the market leaders in the past but who knows where they are now. The DJI system really is a technical marvel.

Its a lot harder to secure investor capital in this post covid economy. Plus, DJI has a bigger advertising budget and the size of the fpv market does not encourage a large investment into HD RnD, as there isn't a large chance of making your money back. This economy is really tough for buisnesses now. Even DJI isn't immune to this economy. It is hard to guess what other factors is influencing Orqa's decision in this matter, but im sure they have crunched the numbers and decided that the risk is not worth it, or at least other investors have decided it isn't worth it.

fpv on the flag would be great publicity for the game industry, it comes from the real world xD
how is oculus rentability?

probably we can meet us in a virtual room save about covid but without that unpersonal-masking?

i beleive they could innovate a lot things, where will they gooo?

(11-Nov-2020, 10:00 PM)Aganger Wrote: Its a lot harder to secure investor capital in this post covid economy. Plus, DJI has a bigger advertising budget and the size of the fpv market does not encourage a large investment into HD RnD, as there isn't a large chance of making your money back. This economy is really tough for buisnesses now. Even DJI isn't immune to this economy. It is hard to guess what other factors is influencing Orqa's decision in this matter, but im sure they have crunched the numbers and decided that the risk is not worth it, or at least other investors have decided it isn't worth it.

So, does your name on here, Aganger have anything to do with a job you used to do or do now, i.e. an "A" Ganger?

(12-Nov-2020, 01:10 AM)Krohsis Wrote: So, does your name on here, Aganger have anything to do with a job you used to do or do now, i.e. an "A" Ganger?

What is it you are asking, Krohsis?  What is '"A" ganger' and what does it have to do with anything related to this topic/post?
(Also, didn't mean to "Like" your post - was just trying to reply.  Didn't really like it all that much...)

(12-Nov-2020, 02:29 AM)sloscotty Wrote: What is it you are asking, Krohsis?  What is '"A" ganger' and what does it have to do with anything related to this topic/post?
(Also, didn't mean to "Like" your post - was just trying to reply.  Didn't really like it all that much...)

Scotty, not sure why you got your ruffles up but it was a legit question.  

An "A" Ganger is a Navy slang term for a group of men on US submarines that are non-nuclear mechanics.  Machinist Mates is the correct term for their job position. They work on all the mechanical systems for most part that are not part of the nuclear power plant system.  The name chosen was unique enough to ask the question of the new guy.

As for why I asked it here, well it was convenient.  If this forum had a strict policy of staying on topic in a thread I could understand your coarse inquiry.  But the way most topics run around here it is very free-form, which I think is good.  I would say you shouldn't care that much, since you give positive feedback for bad behavior on the forum...