For my money, Savant seems to rely way too much on Apple. I am not a fan of manufacturers who require third party equipment or software to survive. While Savant produces a very nice end result, there are too many factors that are out of their hands, in my opinion.



Thank you,
Damon

Well said!!

We as a company have just not had any luck with the Crestron line of products. From the Prodigy line all the way up to a house of full of Crestron. I am not saying that Crestron isn't good at what they do, because they are and have some great products, personal we just have had bad luck with it. Currently have a Crestron system that has been down for about 4 months and are waiting on product to be sent back to us.Which we have installed once this summer and had to take it all back out and send back to Crestron. With the Prodigy line we worked and worked to get the most simply system up and working in are showroom and never had any luck. It was a Runco Tv, Integra surround receiver, directv HR21, LG Blu Ray, P-TSTAT RF 2-way, PTL 4 In-wall, and a P-IDOCV, now it was brand new right out of the gate and we didn't give it time. But had a few projects that were coming up fast so we went with Savant on a couple and one with C4. We have found a lot of luck with Savant in our area. Savant is pretty darn easy to set up and make work right from the start. From the basic Savant System of Protege, all the way up to a System 12, it was just a better choice for us. We haven't had issues with the apple side of the product. I guess it just depends what you personal choice to deal.

Ryan 20: Out of curiosity, what was wrong with your Crestron systems?



Thank you,
Damon

This is exactly what I was fearing and explaining to the salesman that likes the Savant. I feel the more dedicated the system becomes on say iPads and iPhones the more issues can arise that have nothing to do with the control system but are side effects from say conflicting apps or some other (outside of the programmers control) issue like a firmware update. I have dealt with too many software update issues on my iphones or ipods to want to carry this variable over to the control side. I don't want to have to ask the client, "So what Apps have you installed in the last couple days?" when trying to troubleshoot a problem.

I don't think that using apple hardware puts very many things outside of Savants control. Using the iPad as a touchscreen means all they have to do is maintain an app.

And you dont have to worry about what apps they have installed in the last couple of days. This is one of the beautiful parts of Apple. One app wont kill another. So while the 1% of the population who are geeks and whine about how locked down apple is.. the other 99% of us dont have printer ink monitor applications running in the background causing MS Office not to work properly.

I just had a Control 4 dealer tell me it can now do everything even a high end Crestron system can do. He's never done Crestron so I wonder if this is just the koolaid that C4 dealers are drinking. I must admit it's getting more tempting to do C4 considering the price the attractive graphics in their new interface. I'd like to hear an opinion from someone who's done both Prodigy and Control 4

While the App comment maybe true, I have had Apple updates cause me days of grief in order to fix the issues they caused.

Pick a line, learn it well and stay with it until it doesn't do the job anymore.  Jumping from one thing to another is the worst thing a dealer can do unless his products are failing him or aren't competitive.

What updates would you need to make to an iPad that is being used as a touchpanel? Dont update it. Updating control system touchpanel firmware can create nightmares also.

You can eliminate this concern by making sure that your clients understand that the family room iPad is not the iPad they take with them on vacation. It is the family room touchpanel and in addition to operating the family room it has all of these other features that they can use while in the family room. But.. its not moms dads or the kids ipad that they can sync with itunes and watch movies on in the car. No one should have it setup for email because everyone who uses it would be reading everyone elses email.

A looooong time ago i was suffering from a case of Phast and i used one of the clients computers to run landmark. The automation software required to run on a PC once the project file exceeded the onboard memory. Clients kids decided that it was the perfect computer to play video games on. Every other month.. "half of the system is not working" and i would go out and find that they had a virus, disconnect the network cable from the PC. Had the PC powered off. Landmark was gone because they installed a new operating system. And in one case.. "half the system isnt working" because they purchased a new computer for that room.

I created that problem by not selling the client a dedicated computer to put in the equipment room. The family room ipad is the dedicated touchpanel. As long as you make them understand that there wont be a problem. If they choose to ignore your instructions they get to pay you to come out and fix the problem.

havent done crestron,but i do like,control4,it does do it all , and easier,and quicker,programing time once you nail it,takes minutes-even larger multi-room s tuff-lighting is brainless-this product has come a long way,and I predict will become a household name

I did Control4 in 2006 and it was all headaches, the old hardware failed miserably to the point where I was losing money. I slowed selling it and they dropped me as a dealer. I was able to do one HC300 project and it went very well. I wish I still had Control4 sometimes to sell a small control job, the new stuff looks pretty compelling.

Trust me new stuff is way more stable,I quit a job over c4 it worked so poorly back in the day,much improved

I just read about C4 infinityedge onwall touchpanel to compete with IPAD pricing I guess.. and they even announcing the intercom ability, bit late but still good. good for them..think they here to stay..

I recently picked up Control4 and have several systems up and running without complications. I think the reason the Crestron and AMX guys thumb their noses at it is you can't change the user interface or sometimes the system handles things a little different then you think it should.

Control4 design is to be the control system for the masses, the other 90% of people who want a good remote, audio in their house, with lighting and home control. It's not for the elite 10% who want custom designed touch screen interfaces, dozens of rooms of audio, designer lighting, etc. where tens of thousands of dollars are needed just for programming.

My feelings are the secret to working with Control4 is just that, working with Control4. You can't work against it, you shouldn't try and make it do something it's not designed to do. Live inside the box and you and your clients will be happy.