Prodigy Composer is very easy to walk thru and configure but as i am sure you and everyone else here has already found.. your working inside a very small box. Look at the responses in this thread.. everyone here is a Prodigy dealer asking for help with System Builder. They have already outgrown the tiny box and now they are in a slightly larger box. cgav is already working around the parameters to customize his projects. This is why i chimed in here. These are not guys who are going to deal Prodigy as Prodigy is meant to be dealt. These are guys who will be doing full blown Crestron systems next year or maybe next month and i am offering up my opinion/advice/history to try and get them to head what i think is the right direction. I spent 5 years learning System Builder inside and out and now we don't use it because our average job is well beyond its capabilities. Before that i spent 2 years learning Application Builder. If i had spent those 5-7 years learning simpl i would have a valuable skill instead of a story to tell.
Before i go much further.. Im not saying you cant accomplish a large system with System Builder.. just that its MUCH more efficient/less expensive to do it with simpl.
System Builder is like a WYSIWYG front end for multiple Crestron programs. This is a great idea and it works very well. As an installer i am able to program a crestron system myself. This is the appeal. Its easy to get started with a rock solid product. Your interfaces are autogenerated and then you go in page by page moving fixing changing adding things. If you were using VTPro-e and simpl you would create 1 TPMC-8X file (for example) that could be used for 10 TPMC-8X's. When your client changes from cable to DirecTV you just have to update one menu page on the VTPro file. Obviously its a more difficult program to learn but if your going to spend hours/days/weeks learning one then IMO you should start with simpl.
Second, it seems that after six years, a lot of things are going to change. Isn't is natural to assume that some of the equipment is going to be outdated and unsupported? Are you saying that Simpl works for the oldest Crestron systems to the newest? Nothing gets "broke" in Simpl as you said would happen when Systembuilder is upgraded?
I dont know the answer to this question because i am not familiar enough with simpl to know if todays current version can edit a 10 year old system. My lack of information is because i went down the wrong path when i reached the fork in the road many years ago. I do know that we took over a 5 year old simpl system and our current programmer was able to make changes to it with simpl. At another job where the client had 3 - 1 room systems that i programmed with Application Builder...i had to rewrite them all with System Builder when he got new DirecTV boxes. My other option was to uninstall all of my crestron software and reinstall Application Builder and have to go thru it all again the next time he makes a change. So i bit the bullet and rewrote the 3 rooms and now fingers are crossed that i can edit them with System Builder when i go there again.
My posts are not saying Prodigy is not for you. My posts are saying that if you are a Prodigy dealer and your now looking for ways to work outside of the box.. that your time is better spent learning simpl. If your not interested in being the programmer in 5 years.. dont try to be one now. Hire one. Handle the partof the business that your interested in handling and find a professional to outsource the other areas to.
