Hi Julie,

You asked a few weeks ago what we wanted to see in CEPro. Here's an article from one of your competitors that I loved because it was one of the first times in the history of our industry I saw an article that actually talked about the facts instead looking like a promo piece and brushing our little industry secrets under the rug.
[Link: resmagonline.com]
It's beyond belief to me that it took 7 years for an article like this to come out in our press. In more mature industries you see these types of articles all the time.

I think this is related to the comments you saw in the thread you started about the lack of coverge of Media Systems demise. You commented that you have tried to interview the principles of Media Systems to do a story but no one will talk. Frankly, I found that a weak excuse. From what I heard, all of Media Systems employees showed up one day to find the doors padlocked. If that's not a major story about what may be the most written about CE firm ever, I don't know what is! If Oracle or IBM or Microsoft went under, do you think the PC magazines might write about it? Why wasn't this the main cover story on CE Pro as soon as it happened?

"My first two PHAST installations included 200 dimmers. Every one of these failed and had to be replaced twice....."

I would be absolutely ready to kill someone.

And he's NOT kidding AHEM. Their dealers were screwed over BIG TIME and AMX hung them all out to dry. I would have liked to see AMX sued over it as I've never understood how they could just drop support for a product that was current over night (I'm referring to the lighting). They don't even want to deal with supporting the lighting any more. I wish I could screw my customers over that way (NOT really). "Gee Mr. Smith, I really don't feel like servicing your 2 old projector any more, you HAVE to buy a new one". Yet that's exactly what AMX did and continues to do to their dealers. Can you tell I have some issues with the company :-)?

Now's about the time Impaqt always shows up and tells me how great AMX is even though they had some "hiccups" with PHAST. That's because Impaqt hasn't spent thousands upon thousands of dollars out of his own pocket fixing those "hiccups".

This message was edited by QQQ on 01/22/05 09:52 ET.

You know it's real easy to blame a company or a management team that doesn't exist anymore.

C'mon people admit it.

Say it with me.

WE F***ED UP AND WERE SORRY. PLEASE FORGIVE US AND BUY OUR STUFF NOW.

BTW anybody want to buy some old processors and touchpanels?

QQQ, How many of these magazines do you pay for? That's what I thought. These writers can't trash anybody that is buying ad space.I don't think I ever read an acurate product review in any free trade magazine ever.

Nice article. I would pay for a magazine that didn't put me to sleep. I actually read the whole article.

Dave

studiocats1,

Hang on to those old processors and touchpanels ;-). I've got literally BOXES of PHAST crap, most defective that I'm keeping on hand for parts for when the stuff that actually worked for a while continues to break.

As far as the review thing, have you seen the "reviews" in Residential Systems Contactor by industry peers. What a JOKE! Not that Stereophile and their ilk and their "this $500 cable made the sound more open" is any better, far from it.

As the author of one of those "reviews", I must agree. I spoke with the editor about the problems with the format and it fell on deaf ears.

The review I wrote on the Samsung DLP was far more critical than the edited one thay ran.

The things we (integrators) really need in a review are... does it have RS232, is the protocol useful, What about discrete IR codes, does it have then, do they work well. How about rear IR jacks, anyone that doesn't have them should be taken to task.

CEDIA should have taken a leadership role on this a long time ago. But it has been my long time view that the best way to get manufacturers to give us what we need is bad reviews in print.

So Julie if your serious about serving this industry, try reviewing products from the integrators point of view, and don't pull your punches.

Forgive me, for raining on the parade but while a few hard questions were asked how many were answered? Any follow up questions to attempt to get answers to the unanswered questions? If you are going to do an article you need to speak to more than 2 players, especially when one of them was not involved and wishes only to portect the guilty and the other was one of the guilty who wishes to hush up the question for fear that the gullible might learn from history.

Investigative journalism is expensive. Trade magazines, more so than those intended for the general public, represent manufacturers who use them to place add and not the reader ship. Why? Because advertising dollars and not subscription dues finance magazine publishing. Did this article actually supply answers or assign blame to anyone? Other than the suggestion that the original creators of Phast did not have a working product as AMX thought ( believe AMX with a 51% stake in Phast did not know it was a work in progress? No follow up question questioned the facility of the AMX manager's response ) or that the original creators need to have been retained. Now Control4 is testing its products! Even I test my code in house before letting it loose on clients. In my example, if I screw up and cannot fix it you could fire me and hire Studiocat1 to fix the system. You mean to tell me this is a new concept in manufacturing to test your product to ensure that something as simple as a connector works? Any questions on beta or gamma testing? Sure. Those were the foolish folks who became dealers and became the beta and gamma test sites.

If a convicted child molestor moves into your neighborhood Megan's laws throughout this country mandate that he register with local law enforcement. There is a presumed belief that once some commits such acts they are likely to do it again. So if you bring a product to market and make claims that are not lived up to and you fail you are allowed to re-enter the market with an other business, make the same claims and everyone will forgive and forget. Is this P.T. Barnum or Roy Kroc? Is this an example of not under estimating the supidiy of the public or someone who failed finally making good?

Alan

Alan, you are 100% correct and it was amazing how Will West seemed to put all the blame on AMX, especially since AMX likes to put all the blame on Will West (the story at the time was that they booted him out). I think it goes without saying that AMX made a bad decision and thought they were buying a more complete product so it's obvious a HUGE part of the problems were due to Will West and the management team.

BUT, the article was SO unusual to even acknowledge that the problems existed that it's a start. 99% of the articles on Control4 pretend these guys are geniuses and never even mention the PHAST debacle.

In fact, that's EXACTLY what I was hoping for. I read a review on one product that is seriously flawed but of course there was nary a mention of it.

I agree again. Can you imagine how much easier our lives would be if CEDIA had the guts/concern to address this issue.

I agree again. Speaking of which, one of my favorite responses from a manufacturer was when Stereophile rightly pointed out how one of Rotels preamps had the infamous "feature" where when the mute button was pressed, the volume button did not unmute and to make matters worse there was no indication the preamp was muted. We all know what that can cause to happen. Rotel tried to claim that was a "feature" and that their customers prefered it that way. I'm not a Rotel dealer but I'll bet money their preamps don't have that "feature" any more.

I'm just glad that they announced this now, and not one year from now after beta and gamma testing at the customer houses of those few dealers who were talked into jumping in with both feet... We'll never again be the first on our block - BTDT too many times...

CEDIA should have taken a leadership role on LOTS of things a long time ago.

But hey, we've got the amp toss. What more can you ask for?

Seen it on HDNet - good enough for me...

The funny thing is that some of us dealers that got burned are normally quite conservative and careful but we ignorantly trusted AMX because they had been a leader in the field for so many years. But you are right, NEVER again. I'm LMAO at dealers that are pre-selling Control 4 systems. INSANE!!!