macOS Deck.
The current operator application for viewing and controlling the workstation.
Product roadmap
What exists today. What revenue may fund next.
Arcen is actively developed by an independent Norwegian team. The Direct product is available now. Span, floating licensing, and broader platform support are future work funded by paid licences.
The buying boundary
A Pier licence buys the Direct product available today. Roadmap thresholds say when future work starts—not when it will ship.
Available now
Direct Deck to Pier.
macOS Deck connects to one known Linux or Windows Pier over a LAN or customer VPN. Sessions and node-locked Pier licence checks can run fully offline.
Linux or Windows Pier.
The workstation runs the applications, GPU workload, accounts, and project storage.
Direct over your network.
The operator supplies LAN or VPN reachability. Arcen adds no discovery or gateway today.
€199 per Pier, per year.
Node-locked to the workstation HostID and verified without an online licence service.
Revenue-funded roadmap
Revenue decides what we build next.
0 of 100 toward Span funding
Current team
Three people, all with full-time jobs.
Arcen is currently built by Anders, Tom, and Martin alongside their day jobs. We believe in the product, use it in our own work, and can see many ways to improve it. We also have families and need the stability of our full-time jobs, so larger development must be paid for by the product.
The current Direct product has no dependency on an Arcen-operated session or licence service, so customer installations keep working independently of our online infrastructure.
The rule
If Arcen reaches 100 paid Pier licences, we start building customer-operated Span and RLM floating licensing together. If it does not, we keep the current Direct product focused and stop expanding the roadmap.
Why a company
Open source would not remove the platform obligations.
Publishing source code would not remove paid certificates, Apple entitlements, Windows driver signing, release ownership, patent obligations, or customer support. A company gives those responsibilities a clear home and lets us handle them properly.
Before tax, payment fees, support, and development time.
RLM commercial licensing and integration cost.
Via has told us AVC/H.264 use in a cloud-gaming category could carry this annual fee. Classification and terms still need written confirmation.
Our budget estimate for DigiCert certificates, outside driver engineering, testing, and validation. Microsoft requires signed driver submissions and an EV certificate for attestation or WHCP.
Arcen depends on third-party software and patented media technology. Every release must track the licences in use, required notices, commercial fees, reporting, certificates, and renewals. Much of the first revenue may therefore go to codec patents, RLM, Apple entitlements, and Windows driver signing rather than salaries. If H.264 terms make the product uneconomic, we may move to an AV1-only product; that path still requires technical and legal review.
The paid licence count is updated manually.
Build Span + floating licensing
Start the customer-operated Span gateway and offline RLM floating-licence integration as one funded project.
One funding block
€99,500 gross per year: roughly one strong full-time role or one major third-party licence burden—not both.
Licences + first full-time role
Two 500-licence blocks can support major licence and signing costs plus one dedicated product and support role, subject to actual costs.
Commercially sustainable
€398,000 gross per year may provide enough room for major licence and signing costs, customer support, and sustained full-time engineering. This is where we expect Arcen to become a durable product business.
Planned after 100 paid licences
Span and floating licensing move together.
Span is planned customer-installed gateway software. It can run inside an isolated on-site network with no internet connectivity, or at a customer-controlled internet-reachable address.
One customer address for authorized workstations.
Customer identity and security groups will filter which Piers each user may see. Gateway-stream and policy-approved direct-handoff modes are planned.
Offline licence allocation for larger installations.
The planned integration will remain customer-operated and capable of working without an internet route.
Roadmap boundary
Thresholds state when work starts, not delivery dates. Pricing is planning, not an offer. External cost estimates, codec classifications, and licensing terms may change after written advice. Planned features must not be treated as delivered product commitments.