On February 21, 2007 at 11:24, Small Axe said...
It makes sense that many IT type companies
would be interested in this product because it fits a
business model they are familiar with. Most CI's are not
ready for that level or type of commitment!
"Commitment" is not the word I would use. I don't think CI's necessarily want to see our industry emulate the "pass the buck" mentality that is far more rampant in the software industry than in the home automation and A/V industry. i.e. "we have no idea why that is happening, it must be a software conflict, now please give us your credit card # for this support call" or even better "yes, we've discovered that our product does not run properly when it's installed on a machine that also runs Yahoo Widgets, sorry about that, now please give us your credit card #". (after two hours on hold).
2) There is a good possibility that hardware will become
a commodity - most of it already has. Software is where
many will head.
Yes, the software industry has been telling us that for about 10 years now. And after 10 years they have about what? .01% of the market? I'm NOT saying it won't happen, it may. But so far it is not. Many many businesses have failed because it was assumed that what works for one industry would work for another.
Sidenote: I heard there is an large MDU project in Philly
where the integrator is using placing mulit-room audio,
lighting control, and LifeWare in every unit. That takes
a lot of balls for an unproven product!
Or a lot of stupidity. The more likely scenario for these types of situations is that the dealer lacked experience and high-end lines. In such a situation the dealer is often all too happy to seek out a company such as LW who will embrace them with open arms. It's a marriage of convenience.
The argument of whether or not windows can be used succesfully
in home automation needs to be given a rest. How much
industrial automation is done on the windows platform
on a globa scale - TONS! See Rockwell, GE Funoc, Schneider
and the list goes on. A lot more heavy hitters in industrial
automation than our industry.
The arguments need to be given a rest on both sides...because your argument above is as specious as many of the arguments that Windows is one big giant virus. The systems you mention are usually being run on highly maintained RAID servers or specialized machines running nothing else.
I've seen more fancy unusable touchpanel
designs than ones that are simple and inuitive (not just
from the big 2).
Couldn't agree more.
Just because you or I think it's usable
doesn't mean our clients think so.
Couldn't agree more.
2-Way control is overrated. In many cases useless
other than eye candy...........
I'm not going to quote all you posted on this subject nor write a long refute (I'll leave that to Alan). But your statements on it makes me seriously question how much if any higher end automation you have been involved in. That you even dis 2-way volume feedback is ridiculous. 2-way feedback is of IMMENSE value in automation. I should not need to explain why.
