Just Announced:

Cedia has just announced it's new manufacturer partner program for certifying consumer electronics products. The aim of this program is to help manufacturers provide useful products to the custom installer community. Cedia certified equipment must adhere to a guideline of features necessary for the proper integration of electronics in a custom installed environment. There will be two levels of certification, Cedia Certified, and Cedia Select Certified for more advanced control.


A brief overview of various requirements-



Surround Preamplifiers and AV receivers must incorporatee:

Discrete Infrared (IR) commands for all inputs, surround modes,
power, and multi-zone. Status Feedback for Cedia Select

1/8" mini-jack infrared input on rear panel. RS-232 on Cedia Select products.



DVD Players and other source components must incorporate:

Discrete Infrared (IR) commands for power, status feedback on Cedia Select.

1/8" mini-jack infrared input on rear panel. RS-232 on Cedia Select products.



Display Devices must incorporate:

Discrete Infrared (IR) commands for all inputs and power. Discrete input commands will also be tied to a power on command to allow for rapid macro execution. Status Feedback for Cedia Select

1/8" mini-jack infrared input on rear panel. RS-232 on Cedia Select products.





I made all of this up, but I think we as installers and CEDIA members should FORCE this issue upon CEDIA. We pay them way too much money for this not to be addressed. Please add to this as you feel necessary. Keep it going!

This message was edited by eastonaltreee on 02/08/05 21:08 ET.

Rather than that, why not simply purchase the products which provide the features you want already?

eastonaltreee,

Good one, I actually took your post completely seriously at first. And the funny thing is I think you figured out how to get CEDIA involved since they've done nothing about this important issue for years. And guess what the solution is...

Just as your post suggests, they get to certify products just like THX...and of COURSE charge a fee for it. Now that the CEDIA marketing organization realizes they can make money off of it, they'll be all over it like flies on s**t ;-). After all, otherwise it might only help revolutionize the industry for us custom installers, and why would CEDIA want to do that ;-)?

The fact that CEDIA has always refused to do a damn thing in this area while focusing God knows how much on other areas like the "service contracts" they were offering (do they even still offer them) has always been a sore spot for me.

I meant to say something about the possibility of licensing revenue for Cedia. It clearly would not be as lucrative as that of THX, but it would certainly cover any overhead on their part to implement and market this program.

Can I get a witness?

Because this approach does not FORCE manufacturers to take a PROACTIVE approach to SOLVING our current dilemma.

I feel that CEDIA is large enough, and influential enough at this point to effectively implement a program such as the aforementioned.

Julie, your thoughts?

Now I just need to put together a formal outline and serve it up to Billilynne Et. Al on a silver platter.

I was all aflutter with hope, then came crashing back to earth! :-}

Here's the biggest problem I see. What if products meet the specific criteria, but the product otherwise sucks? Possibly, if it has the specific elements, it could be pre-certified, but it requires three dealer endorsements to be fully certified.

Or, just have a checklist of pro-friendly features. The checklist could be printed on easily recognizable labels, slapped on spec sheets, used in ads, etc.

We (CE Pro) might be able to do something without a lot of red tape.

don't see why we couldn't have a running list of dealer-friendly (CE Pro-K!) products that could run in CE Pro, especially in the forthcoming Buyer's Guide we're working on.
Is anyone going to EHX? If so, I can arrange a round-table where we could discuss.

Everything looks good about your list ...except..."power on" being tied to the input select for the TV. If the unit already has discret power then I don't need or want it tied to the TV input commands. I might want to just listen to CDs or SACDs on the DVD player w/o turning on the TV or PJ. And if I activate that device on the remote I would not want the TV to turn on in that scenario. But everyhting else looks good! Oh yeah one more addition. Discrete aspect ratio commands for display devices!

This part is simple, we just don't spec crap, like we do now. The dealer endorsement part is solid.



Good idea. Needs to have a recognizable trademark associated with it. Hence, the CEDIA badging.



Not going to EHX, but would be happy to submit a proxy agenda.

Power would only be tied to the DISPLAY DEVICE input code. When you want to listen to a CD, the display device is not tied to that startup macro. Think about your current macros and how long they take. Have you ever installed an InFocus projector? After you tell it to turn on, it is blind to IR for approximately 27 SECONDS! That makes a typical system startup take a half of a minute. Sim2 has the input-power feature I am referring to, and now our theater DVD macro taks <3 seconds including projector turn-on + input, preamp turn-on, DVD turn-on, Preamp DVD imput.

Reading this post was the most excited I've been in a long time, too bad it was a pipe dream. I am going to email CEDIA that very post in hopes that they will see the logic in it. I think we should all copy that post and send it too CEDIA, strength in numbers.




Just emailed every one on the board at CEDIA... Lets see who responds

This message was edited by vts1134 on 02/08/05 19:22 ET.

On 02/08/05 18:20 ET, juliejacobson said...
Here's the biggest problem I see. What if products meet the specific criteria, but the product otherwise sucks? Possibly, if it has the specific elements, it could be pre-certified, but it requires three dealer endorsements to be fully certified.


What I meant was that you wouldn't want an otherwise crappy product to "wear" a brand like CEDIA or CE Pro simply because it meets certain specs on paper. It may not, after all, meet the other vital specs like: It works, it doesn't blow up, etc.

Because many times there's no way to know until the product is in your hands, plasmas & LCDs specifically. These companies read you the manual when you call for support, and refer you to this site when you want discretes.

I posted the thought of making CEDIA certify gear last year, and emailed them about it a few times, with no response.

[Link: remotecentral.com]

Doug @ HomeWorks

Julie,
CE-PRO ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO DO THIS!!!

If you want pros to be invloved in determining the overall list of criteria, there are plenty here to PM for such a purpose.

Wow, what a bummer that this isnt real. We use a lot of Integra gear and it meets all of the requirements you listed for audio/player products. It would be nice to see more 1/8" ir inputs on the back of televisions, or even a working RS-232 port. With serial control, however, it would also be helpful to see 'simple' protocol for these units. I have worked with many serially controlled devices and its about a 65/35 split for devices having incomplete protocols or undesirable protocols. Because I have seen, IMO, protocol that is 'simple', I know that it can be done. Integra's protocol is an example of 'simple' protocol. It works well and gives great control. Dwin is another manufacturer that has 'simple' protocol but could use improvement(its a one-way protocol). IMO, although they have a great relationship with Crestron's I2P program, XIVA-Net based equipment could use a more 'simple' protocol. Having manufacturers NEVER use another multi-mode/toggle bit ir code would be a big help, as would never issuing discrete codes based on RC5/RC5x/RC6 codesets. Julie is right in that we dont want to have unworthy gear brandishing a badge just becasue it has a few features that are 'integrator friendly'. I wouldnt want to have to start hanging *insert cheap asian manufacturers name here* plasmas on peoples walls just because they wanted it because it was 'certified'.

Not to hi-jack this thread but while we are dreaming of improvements to the industry, can we get the manufacturers to include some reimbursment program for us CI guys.
Wouldnt it be nice to get paid from a manufacturer for going out to service, replace or repair a piece of gear instead of 'eating' the labor costs because a unit failed under warranty?