Hello - I'm new to the custom install world and am just getting started with full control systems. I'v been using Harmony for years but feel limited and want to start focusing on bringing everything together.

Right now I'm looking at RTI or URC TC 2.0 and trying to figure out which one I should put my time and effort into learning. I'd appreciate if you'd share any experience you've had with these systems from support to the learning curve with the latest configuration software, hardware reliability and real world flexibility of integration.

I hope I'm not opening a battleground that has been raging in the forum for years, but I can't seem to find any real comparisons between the latest URC system and RTI. I've been through what online training I can get on both and they both seem capable - it looks like I could provide a better overall value with URC but I don't want to dedicate a lot of time to one system just to find out there is a deal killer in there that everyone else has already figured out!

I did Total Control for a little while, was not a good experience. I don't normally like to badmouth companies but it was very bad.
Ran into some problems on a system, ended up having TC's guy come out to troubleshoot- twice. He reprogrammed the system from scratch, both times afaik, but definatley the 2nd time. URC continued to blame programming for this guys system locking up daily, no other explanation given. 2 full days wasted for them to keep shrugging their shoulders and offering no solutions, just blaming program, when their field engineer programmed the whole thing.

My rep told me that since I had done all of their trainings, including their 3 day total control training, that they had 100% confidence in me. He encouraged me to have my customer reach out to him. I had and still have a great relationship with the customer and wasn't worried about this, just wanted his stuff fixed. I've been doing work at 2 of his homes for years. When my customer did reach out my rep dick tucked and placed the blame squarley on my shoulders, everyone acts gangster until a real gangster shows up I guess. He has taken his TC out and uses lutron, Sonos and Harmony now. He is much happier.

What are you not able to do with Harmony? I went to a training for Harmony Pro recently and they said they should be able to do anything short of Crestron or Control4 at this point.


Edit- This was a couple months before TC2.0 and I did do a few systems that seem good, stopped selling after this experience. I can't afford to treat my customers like that. If you do have a problem, you are on your own. Alot of their tech support is not great and they will throw you under the bus.

I do not feel this is a accurate portayal of URC. I have been doing TC for a few years. CCP since day 1. While TC is not perfect, I have many systems out there working day in and day out without any issues. I have Wattbox's for power cycle issues. I would even say that the tech support I receiver is better then any other company. I use Level 2 Tech support. TC is not perfect. There are many things that I and other installers would love to see changed or added. I don't think any of the Control systems are. My best friend uses RTI and loves it. Many on this site hate it. I have it working in a Bar/Rest for 3 years with no issues...

It seems to me from what I read in the past that a big difference is the programming involved with touch panels.

Does URC automatically configure touch panel and tablet operation, or does it have to be configured manually each time? Others have consistently mentioned the time it takes to set up RTI panels. Not sure if this is still the case.

I did a URC training a couple of years ago. When I compared it to how easily Control4 programs, I just couldn't do. The fact that Control4 programs in real time without having to download the file to the controller every time you want to test something is huge for me.

We had different experiences then, I'm glad it's going good for you. I had also been doing CCP for over 10 years, I had Total Control in my house and it worked fine- have since moved on, I also have working systems in in the field.

I don't have any direct complaints about the tech support guys or their in field guy. They were all nice enough guys, it just seemed like they may have been overwhelmed with issues. I wish they offered solutions but if you're on your heels, always putting out fires, that can be difficult.

I couldn't tell you how many times I tried troubleshooting these issues, always taking the blame and saying I'm working on it. Then to have my rep respond like he did and mysteriosly stop taking my calls unless I called from an unknown number? My customer saw what happened.

I have dozens and dozens of Total Control systems out in the field. Customers LOVE it. Are there issues? There are always issues even with the beloved Sonos. Period. Just a fact.

The key is understanding how things work. Whatever system you decide to go with, just learn it, inside and out. The last thing you want to do is always look for greener pastures. You will find faults with every system you look at.

We can bring up EVERY control system and talk you out of EVERY one of them. NONE are perfect. I have ZERO desire to move from TC.

Concerning touch panels, with TC they require no more additional programming as they are just another interface and load like all the others. TC has come along way from the beginning where it would take 48 freaking minutes to download to a 25 room, 24 URC devices. Now, i can do it 4 minutes 48 seconds! You can load to an in interface in 9 seconds, start to finish. Thats pretty amazing. Are some faster? No idea, dont care. Happy with what I have. Very.

Thanks for the feedback - this is the kind of real world information I was looking for. I appreciate hearing the good and bad.

techvalley - in response to your question on Harmony. I love them for single room solutions - I have set up several of them and have been mostly happy with them. I do run into some latency issues with the hubs sometimes and end up mashing buttons thinking that the command didn't go through - when it did and is just taking a few seconds. I just don't think it's the right solution for whole home control. I am looking to be able to share audio and video sources throughout a house, tie in video surveillance, have multiple control points, control lighting, etc. My experience with Harmony is that once you start pushing beyond the single room, the interface gets clunky and it just gets harder. My wife is my barometer on things like this and when I showed her how to control the lighting with the Harmony remote she said "yeah, I won't be using that" and walked away. Harmony will remain in my offerings but for full home integration I just can't see it being the backbone.

Speaking of the latency with the Harmony - one of my concerns with TC is that it is a wifi based system. Has anyone had issues with delays in command response on these systems? I typically push toward the eero systems since I have had good luck with them and they are dead simple to install, but I am concerned about just how quick the "quick connect wifi" is on them.

The reason I'm asking about URC and RTI is that those are the two that are the most accessible to me starting out. The Regional Rep for URC has been very responsive to me and RTI is available at three of the distributors I work with. That and I'm looking to differentiate myself from the competition in the area - looking at the Control4 site, there are a ton in my area (and, Control4 won't give me the time of day as a startup anyway).

The wifi remote on TC are stupid fast. Everything is pretty fast. (pulling up rooms could be faster, but the MRX-30 coming out fixes that). Latency is not an issue. Others cry a bit about how fast streaming sources pull up. Its just fine.

I don't know if Eero is supported by TC. They were pushing Luxul which you can get thru their portal and endorsing Araknis at their TC training. Alot of people there were also using ubiquiti which they said was good.

ELAN. We have been RTI and HomeLogic (now ELAN) since 2004.

We now are pretty much exclusively ELAN other then commercial/conference room type projects, where ELAN isnt a great fit.

The UI is much faster then C4 and better layout imo.

How do the remotes communicate on Elan

Not sure how they price out with C4 but I like that the UI seems a bit more polished.