On October 29, 2015 at 18:02, rad doc said...
Am I crazy to switch from Crestron to Control4?
Background, our Pro2 processor has failed. Wont power up and I believe one of the COM ports is out.
Your least expensive option is to just get the pro2 repaired and go on living your life :).
Also, our touch panels are old LC1000s and really need replaced.
Those panels are dated and i imagine hard to look at now that everyone carries a high res screen around in their pocket (phones).
How many of these do you have? Where are they located? Have you thought about leaving these where they are and just adding iPad minis to the rooms? This gives your system a face lift for a fraction of the cost of new panels and you now have a second way to control things...which is nice if one breaks.
My concern is the repair of the processor and updating panels plus programming would likely be more than starting over with Control4.
This all depends on how many touchpanels you have and how much of your existing system you can keep. How about post a complete list of zones/rooms with the equipment in each. Be as detailed as possible.
As an example lets say you have 3 LC-1000's. It would be cheaper to add 3 new crestron panels and get the PRO2 repaired. But if you had 14 LC-1000's then obviously you are at the point where it might make sense to start over with something else.
We also have Crestron panelized lighting in the theater and the original installer did not include a keypad to turn on the lights which is annoying.
I don't know what this means exactly but i think what you are saying is that you have crestron lighting module/s that handle the lighting loads in the theater. The installer didn't include an in-wall lighting keypad and you are forced to control the theater lights with a LC-1000? or another type of touchpanel?
You could always add a crestron keypad and have the on-wall location that you want.
So for 10-12k, I could switch to Control4 panelized lighting, add a keypad, new touch panels, remotes, control the theater, pool and existing audio zones.
I would need to see the existing equipment list for your system and the quote if you have it for the new gear. There should be no reason to replace the crestron lighting system. I assume Control4 can control it somehow. You can control most pool equipment with RS-232. This is something you could add to your existing system. Are you saying your theater isn't controlled by crestron now?
I would also get iPhone app which I do not have in existing Crestron program.
You can add an iPhone app to your existing program for a lot less than swapping out the whole system. Again i would need to see what you have, what your planning to upgrade/add and what your wish list is. Sometimes guys come on here and leave out details like the fact that they are also switching from component to HDMI distribution or they dont include details like "the control 4 quote is for 2 touch panels and 5 ipads instead of 7 new in-wall panels".
Further, there is the potential to integrate our home RadioRa2 lighting and possibly Vista alarm panel (doable in Crestron but again more programing charges). Add also native Pandora, Sonos and Airplay. A lot for your money!
There will be programming charges with Control4 also.
I do much prefer Crestron as a company and Control4's future seems a little shaky. Open to suggestions and love to hear opinions!
I wouldn't worry about that. A typical system has a 5-7 year life span. Control4 will be here at least that long as long as we keep the bad math party out of the white house.
