What defines your levels? Cost? Programming complexity? Interface flexibility? Hardware reliability?

Asking which control platform is better is like asking which speakers sound better. You will find opinions, positive and negative, about all of them. It is subjective to the people selling it, installing it, programming it, and ultimately, using it.

In the end, you better like what you use, or you will be miserable at work. :)

+1000

I would probably recommend Logitech Harmony ;)

Little bit of background. I have been an integrator for over 10 years. I have trained and sold Crestron, RTI, Lifeware, Colorado vNet, and URC. I have lived with, in my personal home, C4, Crestron, RTI and URC. With the release of Total Control by URC I jumped off the Crestron ship. Total Control far out does any system available for it's market. With the combination of TC hardware and DashOS.net modules and software, I can do anything that any other system can do and more. It is the best system I have sold and personally lived with.

For 90% of integrators they think it is just about control of A/V systems. But it is much much more. Home automation is about automating your home. As some of my colleagues will agree home automation should be the automation of your homes features with minimal interaction by the user. An example, when a client walks into a room certain things should happen and happen based on variables. A little more detail, when a client walks into the kitchen, the system should run queries to see the time of day, the cloud cover, the last time the room was occupied, and if any other rooms are occupied. Based on the returns from those queries the room then should do "x". This is true automation.

Total Control can do this, with ease, and with the help of Dash. Something that my house does is, when you turn on the family room TV, check the time, if the time is 30 minutes before sunset then turn the lights on to 50%, if cloud cover is greater than 60% then turn the lights on to 50%, if neither of those are true, then simply turn on the TV. However, if while the family room is watching TV and the cloud cover becomes greater than 60% or sunset occurs, then turn the lights on to 50%. This is a very basic example, but from it you can see that certain things happen with little to know interaction from me. Automation.

Something that is very powerful and fun with Total Control is what we call reactive push notifications. With this, when something occurs, the client will receive a push notification on their iOS device (including Apple Watch) and then they will have an option to respond which will send a command without ever entering the URC app. A simple example is a home secure query. Something that I like to do is program the home to run a query at sunset. This query checks to see if locks are locked and garage doors are closed. If something is left unlocked or opened the client will receive a push notification. In that notification they have the option to send a command. They might receive a notification that says "Your front door is unlocked. Do you want to lock it?" If they press "Yes" then it will lock the front door, without ever going into the native app. This query is set up to run every 1 hour starting at sunset and running to sunrise. If the home stays secure, then no notifications are sent. Again, this is just quick example of what Total Control can do. I personally have not seen this from any other company.

I could go on with what TC can do, but won't. My purpose of posting is to counter the argument that TC is lame and doesn't require a skilled programmer. Programming basic functions with Accelerator is quite easy, and that is perfect for small jobs. But the capabilities to a skilled programmer are endless. URC's hardware is great. Their product design is the best in the business. Their processors are powerful.

It is laughable that someone posted C4 was for those that can't program and TC is for those who couldn't get into C4. C4 may be for those that cannot program, but TC is definitely not for those who couldn't buy into C4. There are more C4 dealers than TC. And I think that is by choice. Most TC dealers I know, world wide, use TC because they truly recognize a brand and product that is one of the best and sets the dealer apart from the rest of the "sheeple" in his/her area.

At the end of the day, TC is superior to C4. Much more customizable and malleable. C4 looks good to a lot of dealers because they are publically owned, advertise really well, their name is more know thanks to that, and upon first impressions does what it says it does. Something that hasn't been said yet, is that the automation system is only as good as the programmer who programmed it. A horrible programmer can make any product look bad.

We need more of your input around here. It's refreshing to read a response that doesn't begin or conclude with an insult. Thanks for that.

Is this sarcasm or did you miss the sheeple part?

I'm going to toss some fun on this fire. First, I'll make sure it's understood that I am a big fan of C4, have been for years. But I've heard little or no mention of Elan g! as of late. Where does it stand these days (I'm getting back into the business after a year's vacation, so forgive me for being a little out of touch)? Is it viable as a solution versus Control4? Is it attractive enough to make me consider it?

I will chime in on Elan G! I could come with lots of words for what G stands for. But not here.

We have been selling and installing G! for about 8 months now. We have 6 or 7 systems out there now. Some small, some large. Here is my take. The hardware seems solid. Just like the old Z series I installed hundreds of, most of which are still working, if they have not been upgraded yet.

The software.....well.....I was told by someone in a pretty good position within Core Brands that the software was being re-written from the ground up and would be out this year....maybe CEDIA with that huge blue booth? Hopefully? It is pretty cumbersome to use, but you get used to it like anything else. You have lots of flexibility in custom programming. UI can be tweaked pretty good. You can pretty much have at it as far as custom source pages, graphics, etc.

Their IP/RS232 driver database leaves a lot to be desired IMHO. We have worked with it, and it has not been a huge limiting factor. It is just harder to implement say a DirecTV or Tivo IP driver. And they are 1-way AFAIK.

Their handheld remote is decent. I honestly like the C4 SR260 better. But the Elan remote has a touchscreen with custom graphics if you are into that. It is spendy. So if the kids drop it, or the dog eats it, your customer will have to drop coin for replacement.

Now we have been a C4 dealer since the conception of C4 (old Phast dealer). We were on the board before anything was even thought up yet. My boss picked up Elan because there are 2 or 3 other C4 dealers in the area and he basically got tired of being shopped/compared. So he figured if we had Elan, we could offer something no one else did. That has its merits, I am sure.

Right now, C4 would be my choice. I would rather put it in my house than Elan G! Now if Elan hits a home run with the new software they are promising, and if they would come up with an alternative remote that was cheaper, I may be swayed back that direction. But for now, I am still a C4 fan.

All in all, as I mentioned before, none is "better" than the other. It is about fulfilling needs. Your customers' and your business' needs. For our customers, C4 has fit the bill extremely well over the years. They have had some hiccups with some faulty power supplies over the years. But they have come a LONG way in a short amount of time. Today's C4 system is a completely different beast than what it was even 5 years ago....and certainly from the beginning. The limitations within C4, which really come down to the UI design, have NOT been a negative factor for any of our customers.

And with their new single room option, it will pretty much replace URC altogether for us. In fact, as soon as it was announced, we had a job coming up with 3 MX980/MRF350 combos we immediately returned, and ordered an EA3, SR260, and 2 EA1/SR260 bundles. I think it ended up coming to $200 more for the C4 hardware, but programming is faster, and it opens up other sales opportunities.

I have not used TC, so I cannot comment on it at all. I would actually like to get my hands on it at some point just so I can be familiar with it.