Product Lifecycle
What and why
Disguise prides itself on being at the cutting edge of technology advancements. As a result, we are constantly striving to develop new features, improvements and workflows in Designer to ensure that productions and experiences across the global media and entertainment industries choose to be powered by Disguise.
A key part of our value proposition is the development of our hardware platform, which relies upon a wide array of components that we carefully select and test before adding to our products. We work closely with the manufacturers and suppliers of these components to make sure that we have enough supply to last during the entire product life cycle.
The life cycle of our hardware products can vary for a number of reasons, such as key components receiving a major update to their functionality, or reaching end of life.
We have therefore implemented a product life cycle for our hardware products which we have introduced in a number of phases, from initial development to the end of life.
To show what this Product Lifecycle looks like from Development to End of Life, we have included the Product Lifecycle Timeline illustration below.
Product Lifecycle Timeline
Product Lifecycle - Phase Overview
Each phase of the product life cycle has a number of different support types:
- Hardware - hardware product, including the Operating System (OS) where applicable.
- Software - Designer software version(s).
- Workflow - workflow(s) within Designer.
Each product life cycle phase also has numerous support types with several different levels:
- Beta - support is offered to beta users only.
- Full - an overview on support and warranties is outlined in our general terms and conditions can be viewed here.
- Best efforts - we will continue to offer support where possible, but is dependent on a number of factors which we will outline within each of the phases.
- None - no more support can be provided.
From time to time we may need to move a hardware product to a later phase within the life cycle. We intend to provide a sufficient level of communication to our users in the event that this takes place.
Development
The development phase of a hardware product life cycle is when we run a closed beta, consisting of real world testing on productions and experiences. The purpose of this phase is to ensure that the hardware product meets both our users’ and our own requirements, and is an extremely important aspect of the product development cycle.
During the development of a hardware product, we only support beta users.
| Support Type | Support Level |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Beta |
| Software | Beta |
| Workflow | Best Efforts |
Introduction
The introduction phase of a hardware product life cycle is the first year following a public launch. During this phase, the product is launched under normal support, including a launch OS where applicable.
An initial Designer software version is released, which introduces software support for the hardware product.
We release initial video playback performance metrics and include this information within the specification sheets.
All Disguise hardware products are sold with a 2-year standard warranty. This can be optionally extended by up to 5 years. No warranty period on a hardware product can be extended for longer than 5 years from the point of manufacture.
| Support Type | Support Level |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Full |
| Software | Full |
| Workflow | Full |
Current Production
During this phase, the Designer software version is regularly tested against the hardware product and updated, including the OS where applicable.
| Support Type | Support Level |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Full |
| Software | Full |
| Workflow | Full |
End of Production notice
We release an End of Production (EOP) notice to our users to inform them that the referenced hardware product will soon no longer be produced, typically around 6 months before we expect to conclude production.
We will no longer provide additional warranty options to be purchased on a product that is reaching the end of production.
| Support Type | Support Level |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Full |
| Software | Full |
| Workflow | Full |
End of Production
We will send an email to all users to communicate that the hardware product(s) has now reached the end of production, and that we no longer produce any more units.
The notice will inform our users that we will continue to provide repairs for the hardware product for up to 5 years from the date of notice. During this phase, for any hardware product that is out of warranty, any repairs (and/or relevant parts) will be subject to availability based on a first-come, first-served basis. Hardware support level is therefore best efforts.
We will no longer update the Current OS of the hardware product where applicable unless a critical bug has been identified within any of the drivers and/or SDKs included within the OS.
The notice will also inform our users that software support will be ending 1 year from the date of the notice. Updated software versions of Designer will be regularly tested and will continue to run on the hardware product.
| Support Type | Support Level |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Best efforts |
| Software | Full |
| Workflow | Full |
End of Support
We will send an email to all users to communicate the final supported Designer software version that can be used with that hardware product.
We will move to a long-term release model for the Designer software version where we only fix show-critical issues that do not require large changes for 1 year. Software support therefore moves to best efforts.
We will provide final video playback performance metrics specific to the specific Designer software version and will add this to the specification sheet documentation.
During this period, for any hardware product that is out of warranty, any repairs (and/or relevant parts) will still be subject to availability on a first-come, first-served basis. Hardware support level is therefore still best efforts.
| Support Type | Support Level |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Best efforts |
| Software | Best efforts |
| Workflow | Full |
End of Life
We will send an email to all users to communicate that we will no longer fix bugs in the long-term Designer software version release for that product.
We continue to offer workflow support on a best-efforts basis, but may need to refuse support in some cases if the workflows have changed significantly compared to the latest Designer software version(s).
| Support Type | Support Level |
|---|---|
| Hardware | None |
| Software | None |
| Workflow | Best efforts |