Thats funny

No I am not basing this decision on the thread? No I am not serious? And yes I am joking.

However we are getting into very high end markets and is about the time to seriously start looking at what automation we want to move foward with. C4 was never an option. I am between Creston, AMX and Vantage. I know these systems take time to learn and program and am making my decision in the next month. I plan on installing one in our spec home and then programming it for a couple months before I even think about selling it to a customer. Its going to be a fun year learning a new language!

The other one is Lifeware!




hahaha almost had ya didnt I

Scratch Vantage and add Savant!

No on screen GUI (prolly knew that one)
Does not work with other Crestron (knew that too)
No streaming media
1 Wand style remote
1 Thermostat
a couple of light swithces
Ipod dock
Well priced (for customers)
Lower margin for dealers
Wizard type programming

Not much else. Not too exciting really. I can only assume there is much more to come with the amount of work and time went into it. I expect great things from the line eventually. Maybe this whole Prodigy thing actually lends creedence to C4's business model? I will reserve judgement until I have actually used the stuff as I suggest others do as well. I was not too excited about C4 until they added the stuff they have in the last year and they have been around for 4-5 years now. These products take time to mature sometimes.
Right now I am looking at Crestron more for their core competencies and so I do not see much of the conflict with C4. I think both companies have a place in the integration world. I base my decisions on facts and the ability of the product to fit into my mix in my market not emotion.

That is all...let the gang fight resume :-)

You're all a buncha suckas....

-2R

LET FROXSYSTEM ENTERTAIN YOU--FOR A MERE $10,000

It's a stylish black box that fits inconspicuously alongside other high-end home video and audio gear. Yet inside lurks the most powerful bundle of technology that any home has ever seen. It can maintain a jukebox library of hundreds of audio CDs, simulate the acoustics of an intimate jazz club, and give today's standard television signal quality on a par with what high-definition TV promises--even on a 10-foot screen. It can tell you the value of your portfolio, based on current prices. And perhaps most impressive, it can do all this and considerably more under the guidance of a simple, two-button remote control.

What is it? The FroxSystem, designed by Frox Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif., to be the gadget to beat all home entertainment gadgets. Aimed at the upper-crust of audio and video enthusiasts, many of whom are building so-called home theaters, it combines a computer workstation, lots of custom microchips, and a raft of Frox-designed software. The base price: a mere $10,000, not counting options such as digitally driven speakers or 100-disk CD jukeboxes that can drive the price as high as $30,000.

Are there enough well-heeled couch potatoes out there to make a market for this pioneering blend of computer, audio, and video technology? Five European individuals have bet a total of $22 million that says yes. But the odds have

lengthened considerably since the Frox concept was first put forth in 1988 by Hartmut Esslinger, the German-born head of frogdesign Inc., Silicon Valley's best-known industrial design shop. He enlisted Andreas V. Bechtolsheim, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems Inc., and Andy Hertzfeld, a software whiz from Apple Computer Inc., to design a mass-market entertainment system to sell for about $500. But as research and development costs ballooned, that price proved unreachable, and Esslinger's team bowed out.

A former Xerox Corp. executive, Austin Vanchieri, took over as president and CEO in 1990 and pushed ahead with the big-ticket FroxSystem. Using a Sun workstation--a computer usually reserved for engineers--the Frox system promises not only to improve the quality of the sound and pictures it handles but to make it simple to run a baffling array of components. The FroxWand, for instance, lets you move a simulated hand around the screen to adjust computer-generated knobs and buttons that pop up when you need them. The Frox computer can control other machines, such as CD players and VCRs, by simulating the infrared signals of their remote controls.

SPORTS AND STOCKS. Clearly, the FroxSystem is intended to dazzle consumers who simply must have the latest and greatest. For example, because all audio and video signals entering the Frox box get converted to digital code, they can be manipulated in ways that are virtually impossible in conventional analog gear. The computer also can maintain all sorts of information files -- about its owner's CD collection, for instance, or the coming week's TV schedule. Frox says it will broadcast continuous streams of data to customers, piggy-backing on the nationwide signal of Ted Turner's TBS superstation. Options, for which customers will pay $34.95 or more each month, include a 20-minute delayed stock ticker, TV listings, sports statistics, and movie reviews. Still more information and software updates may be delivered on prerecorded videocassettes.

"It's great for the gadget freak who wants to fiddle with knobs," concedes Ivan Zuckerman, president of Niles Audio Corp., another maker of high-end audio and video gear. And there are more gadget freaks out there than one might imagine. The Custom Electronic Design & Installation Assn., a trade group, estimates that U. S. consumers spend $600 million a year installing such exotic gear. Frox has so far signed up some 120 installers.

Even if Frox isn't a complete success, observers agree that it's giving the market an intriguing glimpse of home electronics' all-digital future. Says Lawrence E. Ullman, editor of the magazine Audio/Video Interiors: "It's a harbinger of things to come."

November 20, 1989

(FORTUNE Magazine) – IF YOU THINK TV sets and computers dominate our lives already, wait till you see Andy Hertzfeld's new toy. The impish computer hacker, pictured here with his latest creation, is best known as a key software designer for Apple's innovative Macintosh personal computer. Now he works for a Silicon Valley startup company called Frox. He is one of a group of engineers who have built a prototype of what he calls ''an information center for your house that also happens to be the world's greatest TV and stereo.'' Frox's home entertainment system is clever enough to read the TV listings and pick out and record programs Hertzfeld might want to watch later -- and it can edit out the commercials to boot. It also catalogues and plays his CDs on command and shows on the TV screen the cover art and liner notes for each disc. The TV is the focal point of the system, but what makes it all work is a built-in computer as powerful as an engineering workstation. Soon the machine will simultaneously monitor electronic databases for news or other information of particular interest, answer the telephone, watch for incoming electronic mail, and control additional home appliances even as it runs the TV or stereo. In essence, the Frox machine is an ambitious effort to give the boob tube some real smarts.

ROTFLMFAO I don't care who you are, that right there is funny!

You do realize it's the other way around on the European market, right?

We European people require stylish touch panels, and hence most Crestron panels look like crap (same goes for AMX, except for their newer modero panels)

Sadly enough I've heard the 'but it looks hideous' statement way too often when showing them touch panels..

Sweet, I can control my cassette player AND my VCR from only one FroxWand?? Sign me up!!

2nd Rick,

Can you give Daniel back his bandwidth? :) F'in Frox. Funny for us old farts, but most of the noobs are scratcing their head.

I edited it down...

As for the noobs, they can keep scratching. That's why I posted it.
Everything old is new again, and once again there is a panacea "coming soon" for ailing integrators.

I am all for expanding your markets and looking to the future...

If anyone can make this move forward, it's Crestron.

Crestron Prodigy vs Control4 vs Elan (w/ HomeLogic & LiteTouch)
To be continued...

That sounds about right!

I think this was when we were still recommending Beta Tape :-)

I still have my Betamovie camcorder. Might even use at Cedia Expo this year.