Brian Pflum is the trainer from Phoenix, great guy, have known him for years.

Since you are new to automation I would say that G! is a pretty good product to start out with. I love Elan equipment, once a system is deployed and debugged it is just rock solid. Like others have stated, we have had Z and S systems in the field for 10+ years and never had any major issues with any of them, they just work. As for the new Elan stuff (since they took on Home Logics and created G) we really only use their speakers, amps and their communications controller. However, I have helped other installers with several G! systems and I really do like the way it works. The interface is really nice and intuitive for the client.

I have only worked with Crestron and Elan so that is the only comparison I can make. Obviously the price point is different between the two manufacturers so limitations are to be expected. The programming is completely and utterly different between these two types of systems (as expected). Sure with Crestron there is a very steep learning curve in the programming but this affords you the ability to do virtually anything you want in a multitude of different ways. The programming for G! is a bit, rough, last I worked with it you had to do live programming, you had to be logged in to the homebrick to do anything and if you were offsite and couldn't connect you were dead in the water until you got on site. I am not sure if it is the same now with the HC controllers or whatever, it's been about 1.5 years since I have tried to program a new G! system.

Like any network based system, it is only as good as the network it is deployed in. If the networking equipment is junk (access points especially) then you will be in for a world of hurt.