Finds your AV equipment
Ody looks for AV devices (displays, projectors, DSPs, control processors, cameras and codecs) so they can be added to your asset register. Every find is yours to approve. Nothing is added without you.
AVDesk Ody
One small box. Your AV assets, managed.
Ody is the AVDesk box that lives at each of your sites. It controls and manages the AV equipment there: the displays, projectors, DSPs and processors on your asset register. It connects straight to the AVDesk cloud, so your team runs and supports every site from one login. It talks to AV equipment and nothing else.
- One per siteevery room's AV behind it
- Plug in, sign inenrols itself to your site
- AV onlymanages AV gear, nothing else
- Outbound onlyno inbound firewall ports
What Ody does
How Ody manages your AV at each site
AVDesk AV Management Software runs in the cloud. Ody is the part on your site that controls and manages the AV assets you have registered, including gear that has no cloud login of its own.
Keeps your AV healthy
Is it on, is it responding, is the control port answering? Ody checks every AV device you have approved and reports to AVDesk, so faults raise alerts and tickets before the room notices.
Carries your commands
Power, mute, switch input, recall a preset or reboot a frozen device from the AVDesk cloud. Ody delivers the command on the LAN over the protocol the device already speaks.
Connects out, never in
Ody dials the AVDesk cloud over an encrypted, outbound-only connection and polls for work. No inbound ports, no VPN, no gear exposed to the internet.
Nothing on your gear
No agents, no firmware changes, no accounts on the devices. Ody talks to AV equipment the way its own control system does: from the network side.
Your AV, nothing else
Ody manages AV equipment. It does not inspect network traffic, read files or touch computers and user devices. What it sends to AVDesk is AV device status and your own commands, and nothing about your business data. See the asset register for what it keeps current.
The hardware
Small enough for a rack shelf. Built for the comms room.
Ody is a compact, fan-cooled metal box that sits on a shelf or beside the switch. It runs headless: there is nothing to look at and nothing to babysit.
- Wired EthernetConnects to the AV network or VLAN your equipment lives on. That is all it needs to reach your AV assets.
- USB-C poweredWith a status light, so the technician can see it is up before they leave the room.
- A heartbeat every minuteIf the box, the network or the power drops, the site shows offline in AVDesk and your team is told.
- Updates itselfStraight from the AVDesk cloud, so a site never runs stale software and nobody has to visit to patch it.
Getting it on-site
Plug in, sign in, go live
1
Your integrator plugs it in
An accredited AVDesk integrator sets Ody on a shelf in the comms room and patches it into the site network. No rack rebuild, nothing installed on your equipment.
2
Sign it in to your site
On first boot Ody asks for your AVDesk login and which site it belongs to, then enrols itself. Every site you create in AVDesk is already waiting for its box.
3
Ody finds your AV equipment
Within minutes the AV devices it finds appear in your validation queue. Approve them, link them to assets, and monitoring, alerts and remote control are live for that site.
Ody on site, AVDesk in the cloud
Ody on the LAN, SSO for the cloud. AVDesk manages AV devices in exactly two ways. Ody manages the AV equipment on the site network, including kit with no cloud account at all. For vendors that do offer a cloud, AVDesk federates in through your identity provider, so cloud-managed and on-prem gear land in the same single pane. Read more on the AV monitoring & control page.
One box, every site, one login. Each site gets its own Ody and all of them report to the same AVDesk account. Your team sees the whole estate (sites, rooms, devices, assets and tickets) from wherever they are, whether that is head office or the car park. See how it fits into the full platform.
Open any Ody in AVDesk and every AV device behind it is listed with its room, type and live status.
Questions
Good to know
What is Ody?
Ody is the small box AVDesk installs at each of your sites. It plugs into the site network, controls and manages the AV equipment there, and connects straight to the AVDesk cloud, which is where your team runs and supports every site. Because Ody sits on the local network, it can manage AV gear that has no cloud login of its own.
How many Ody boxes do I need?
One per site. Every site you create in AVDesk is born with a place for its Ody; when the box is plugged in and signed in it links itself to that site and starts managing the AV equipment there. Rooms, floors and buildings on the same network all sit behind the one Ody.
Do I need to open firewall ports for Ody?
No. Ody connects outbound to the AVDesk cloud over an encrypted connection and polls for work. There are no inbound ports to open and none of your AV equipment is exposed to the internet.
What can Ody see on my network?
Only the AV equipment it manages. Ody talks to displays, projectors, DSPs, control processors, cameras and the switches they hang off, over the control protocols that equipment already speaks. It does not inspect network traffic, read files, or touch computers, phones or user devices. What it sends to AVDesk is the status of your AV devices and the results of your own control commands — nothing about your business data.
What happens if Ody goes offline?
AVDesk watches the box itself with a regular heartbeat. If Ody stops reporting, the site shows as offline in the Sites and Monitoring views and your team is alerted, so a network or power fault at the site is caught the same way a faulty projector would be.
Does Ody replace my Q-SYS, Crestron or AMX control system?
No. Your control system keeps running the rooms exactly as it does today. Ody sits beside it, talking to devices over the control protocols the equipment already speaks, and gives your support team one place to see, control and fix every site from anywhere.
Keep exploring
More of AVDesk
Put an Ody on your site
Book a walkthrough and we'll show you your sites, devices and assets running in one place, and what Ody finds on day one.