Just curious, are you talking just hardware prices or installed and programmed?

We've had clients tell us they don't need a touchpanel or a remote because they want to use their phones. And then they call us a few months later asking for a remote because everyone is always multitasking on their phones. If you're watching a movie and get a phone call, you have to change apps to pause the movie and possibly miss the call. It happens.

We've also had people want to control the whole home with iPads. We had one house with 30 iPads, two in each room. They kept getting moved around. That's why the dedicated touchpanel works still. It's always there, always ready to go.

Depends on the client though. Younger clients just don't have phone calls.


More than soon, it's a present reality. We've got Control4 working with Alexa right now and it's fantastic. The problem with voice control is it doesn't work if you're having a party, or if you have kids.

"Alexa, [inaudible because three people are talking]"
"Sorry, I can't find an answer for you."

It's a custom market. You don't "train" your client, you give them what they ask for.

Crestron is only as good as its programmer. Sorry to hear about your failure.

We do C4, Savant and Crestron. We've definitely had the client who doesn't want Crestron because of past experience, but we've also Installed Savant and then replaced it all with Crestron. Anecdotes don't make for solid advice in this varied, CUSTOM industry. There is no one-size-fits-all.

The DIY product is great, but there are loads of people who don't even want to try to set up an Apple TV, let alone integrate it into everything else. This market exists for people who don't have the skills to do it themselves, or patience to learn. Or they have more money than time.

The big box stores which service professional contractors, and contract out professionals to do the work?

When Apple provides a solution and contracts out the work to a local integrator, then you can compare them to Lowes.

Parts and labor.

And competitive with the guys who only do Control4 or only do Savant.

Crestron is the go to because it's reliable, flexible, profitable, and serviceable. Control4 is three of those. Savant is two of those. (Relative to Crestron benchmark.)

It depends on the size of the scope, but I can translate a Control4 offering into a comparable Crestron one at the same price. I can add to the Crestron one options unavailable from Control4 or Savant.

We also have RTI and URC, and they're fine as remotes when automation isn't required.