Did anyone see Control 4 at CEDIA? What did you think? Too good to be true?

I took one of the classes they held as well as sat through thier presentation at the booth. I have to say I like it! It's not for everyone, but can offer a pretty cool solution for installers looking to get more involved in retrofit home automation. The equipment is fairly inexpensive and has a great interface so it should be very marketable and still be in a completely different category as AMX /Crestron. Is it an Elan competitor? I'm not sure. We are Elan and AMX delars and I'm taking my boss to the Control4 booth tomorrow to get more detailed information. I will be writing a more detailed review when I return home and posting it on my blog.

To quote the Rep I met at the office Starbucks ( wh o repped Frox,and Phast ) "let's wait until they produce a working product?" In theory it sounds great. ZigBee protocol for wireless communication for both control and audio between processor and touch panel for retrofit applications and CAT5 for preconstruction. Easy programming app but neither GUI nor source code can be modified by the programmer at this time nor do they know what software appications they will make available when they do permit the programmer to modify the graphics or source code.. If you are an Elan, Niles, Sonance or Russound dealer this may be your ticket to more sophicated system control but these are the same guys who brought you Phast. Maybe they learned from that experience and this time they will get it right. On the other hand nothing is shipping but will within the month....... They are supposed to be adequately funded this time. On the other hand half the questions I asked could not be answered by some of their employees in the booth. If its this new who has done the beta and gamma testing of either the soft or hardware? It did look good but one of my buddies reported that when he sat through the presentation the system crashed and had to be rebooted.

This is round III in the IP control wars. First there was Premise Systems and thier challange to the usual suspects and propritary technologies with TCP/IP control. Netstreams and Zon then fired round II at last year's expo with audio systems that delivered audio ( and this year Netstreams included video ) over Ethernet protocols. Control 4 has raised the bar by including whole house automation targeted to the early majority client. They guesstimate the retail price of installed systems to be between 4-10k. They have retro fit solution but they only have a RF remote, 3 button kp and one small touch panel. Their breakout boxes ( that convert 802.14 to analog ) do not exist save as prototypes. While Netstreams can exist on a wireless network they do seem to recomend a wired solution. Premise Systems seems to have lost its way in the Motorla umbrella but my chat with one of the boys in the booth seemed to suggest that they need to remain small to be nimble. It is exciting but as it is a work in progress it is also a risk. If there are hardware or software issues as there were with Phast are you prepared to be the unpaid beta site? Or will everything come out of the box and work?

Alan

Zon is not an IP system, rather they are line driving standard digital (PCM) feeds.

I attended the demo too. It seemed pretty cool, but I would have to see it in house and test it before I trust it. Not very customizable either as far as the UI goes.

The willingness of dealers to fall all over themselves to sell this product is amazing (that statement is NOT directed at anyone in this thread). It is a very interesting product. Completely unproven IMO, but interesting. And terrifyingly like PHAST in many aspects. I asked one of the reps if I could modify the GUI and first he started a sales spiel about how we could apply different skins to the product. Whoopee! I pressed him further and he bragged about how they had eliminated all that unnecessary design work for us. I pressed him further and he got very nervous and said I could modify the XML data to change the UI.

Anyone that sells this product without testing it in their office for 3 months first needs to have a lobotomy. That applies to me as well.

This message was edited by QQQ on 09/15/04 00:51 ET.

BTW, if anyone wants to take a chance on a new product, I would vote for NetStreams DigiLinX (though I'd still test it thoroughly first).

Checked them out, as well as Colorado VNET... They both had some cool stuff..But let's face it they just started.. See me in 3 years if your still around and have tested your product and all of it is shipping...BTW.. Got a great t-shirt from Control4 to cut the lawn in..LOL... Crestron Rules!!!!!!

THXRick

I talked to their VP of marketing on Sunday. He admitted that if he cound get the light dimmers into a Best Buy or a Home Depot, he would. He says that he will not sell them the automation end of the equipment. Their thoughts are if a client likes the dimmers, he will contact an integrator for the good stuff. Time will tell.

I attended one of the classes as well as sat through 2 demonstrations at the booth. Had a very hard time finding any rep to speak with because the booth was so swamped. I claim responsibility for starting the Control4 discussions here on Remote Central and I have been enthusiastically awaiting their unveiling. Am I sold? Nope. I like many of the concepts and products they have unveiled and appreciate an entry in the market whom I do not feel competes with any one manufacturer being that Control4 lies right in the middle of Niles and Elan. I have emailed the company and have requested a copy of the software to try for myself as well as an in-office demo where we can speak to a sales rep one on one to ask all our questions. Personally, I really liked the software used to program the system - seems like an updated version of Via Tools. What I learned from my short exposure to the product is that this is a brand designed for simple and quick installs for small to medium sized homes where the budget is under $10,000 or so for control. Best of luck to Control4! I hope things work out really well for them and they have the opportunity to dismiss any bad feelings people have about them because of their past efforts - I think it's sad that people will not even give them a shot because some of the managers created a system many years ago that was ahead of it's time that didn't quite work properly.

If that is directed at me, that is not remotely my position. As I said, I find the product VERY interesting. I'm just not going to sell it to ANYONE until I've thoroughly tested it. That applies not only to Control4 but ANY product of this type. It's one thing to give a chance to a new speaker company. It's another thing to install a new and un-proven product EVERYWHERE throughout a persons home.

This message was edited by QQQ on 09/13/04 18:37 ET.

oxjox, most of us who own our business do not want to be standing in front of a wealthy client, who can afford expensive lawyers, explaining that the control system that you sold him is a bleeding edge technology and hopefully in a year it will be working properly.

I can't afford it and it's wise to be sceptical. However,if you can afford to bring in house and play with until the bugs are ironed out even better, but that costs time and money. Don't get me wrong it looks like it may have some promise but, AMX and Crestron look great to me right now.

Are we all aware that we are discussing vaporware? Has anyone touched any gear from an actual production run? Has anyone tested the firmware? Has anyone any real time experience with this product? We are arguing about hopes and dreams. Just because a pretty girl smiles at me and permits me to buy her drinks does not logicly lead to her going home with me. Control 4 is a pretty girl and we are all competing for her attention. The only problem is that today she is a figment of all of our imaginations. Can we not see real product released and not just prototypes before rushing to judgement one way or an other.

Alan

The fact of the matter is that there WILL be some dipsticks adopt this product immediately. Prolly some out there prepping a house for as we post.

Even the lowly Abus products had some issue in the first issues. Think about that. A basic Volkswagon if there ever was one, and it had some bugs (pun intended).

No way I'd jump on the bandwagon without doing some rather lengthy testing.

Contol4 can talk to me in a couple of years......

My point was directed to everyone. My point was merely that it seems people are not even going to consider a new product based on old history of a few managers within the company - do some more research on the others who are in charge of their divisions. It seems to me that there are some very experienced people involved with the creation and development of Control4 that should not be ignored. I whole heartedly agree that this product should be approached with caution and tested in-house before ever installing it for a customer unless they are prepared to be the guinea pig.