A while back I posted a video demonstrating our 'quick setup' system in CQC. That was some time ago and things have moved forward a LOT since then. So I figured I'd post an updated video. CQC has always been stupidly powerful and flexible, and that's great for systems that require a lot of customization, since it can do pretty much anything you want.

We never wanted to lose that customization capability, so that it can be used in the largest of solutions, but we also wanted to make it easier to set up as well, for smaller jobs. So we've provided an 'auto-generation' layer that works in terms of the underlying product. This allows you to create a sexy looking touch screen interface very quickly. Once the hardware is in place and configured, it can be done in usually around 15 to 30 minutes depending on how much gear and how many rooms are involved.

The big change that underlies this new system (we had a simpler one in previously versions) is the new V2 Driver Architecture. New V2 device drivers implement standardized interfaces so that they can be essentially interchangeable and consistent. So you can both swap out gear much more easily, and any auto-magic functionality like the auto-generation system can know ahead of time what to expect.

It's also much nicer in that (since the previous post) we have moved the product completely into the modern, inertial drag type scrolling world, and have greatly improved graphics capabilities as well, and all of that is taken good advantage of in this new system.

So, anyway, here is a demo video where we go from nothing to a very nice solution in 20 minutes, though a fair bit of that time is me talking, and it could have been a good bit quicker if I was just doing it as fast as possible. This generated content could be used as is, as is but taking advantage of some extension capabilities that aren't covered in this video, or used as the original content for a fully customized solution (but saving a LOT of time over starting from scratch.)

[Link: charmedquark.com]

And here's a follow-up video which demonstrates some more advanced stuff, building on the info in the first one.

[Link: charmedquark.com]

Here are some preview pics if you want to know it's worth your time to watch, though they are slightly behind the curve. Updated to the latest changes.

* Keep in mind that none of this stuff is special in any way. It is just regular content, created using our interface design tool. It's just used as source fodder for the auto-generation system. You could create stuff of this sort (and of course even more customized if you are doing it by hand) all without writing a line of code. This was all done in a point and click sort of way. Our interface design system is extremely powerful.



Drag up and down if more than a page's worth of tiles


Lighting and color lighting




Browse music or movies




Media search and sort




Music now playing


Thermo stats


Weather

...so what is there about this post that keeps it from being normal width?

The images aren't being scaled down by the browser apparently. I went through and manually updated the HTML to have it scale them down, so it should be better now.

Looks great Dean.

Thanks! The latest stuff looks nicer than the caps as well, and there's more functionality since we added thermo support since then.

We have gotten a lot of feedback from potential installers, many of whom are often doing smaller to medium sized systems, and they really needed a way to get in and get out quicker. So we've been working hard to address that. Of course since all of that power is still there under the hood, we think that having a single product that can handle both quick, auto-generated solution and can do Bill Gate's next house should be a considerable advantage. Not only can you address both types of customers using the same tools, but it also opens you up a lot more to get the door and then up-sell over time, so you can both get in the door at a reasonable price and not have to replace the original controller in order to scale up.

Any comments or criticisms? Are we heading in the right direction here? We are trying to make the product more useful slash appealing to installers, so feedback from such would be useful.

I updated the first post with a follow-up video which demonstrates integrating a custom screen into the auto-generated content, in this case a 'floor plan' layout type of screen over which lighting and security control and feedback is layered. It basically picks up where the first one left off.

I updated the first post with more up to date screen caps (and more of them to show more functionality, and scaled the displayed one down more for easier readability.)

A lot of views and only one comment. Anybody have any constructive (or even deconstructive) criticisms? Are we going in the right direction here to serve your needs as an integrator/installer, with our dual strategy of extreme flexibility combined with the option for easy setup of core functionality?

How are we doing? We are very serious about addressing this market, and we think we have a product that is as robust and powerful as anything else out there (and it's getting better all that time.) We are happy to address your needs, but we have to know what they are in order to do that. We are working on some mind reading software technology but it's not ready yet, and my mentioning it publically may have put me at risk.

Maybe on a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 is "This thread renewed my faith in my species, and filled me with an overwhelming feeling of well being" and 0 is "He should just shoot himself and get it over with"?

I just not gung ho on a control system that requires a PC to maintain. I started with Cinemar's Mainlobby and have moved on to what I think is more mainstream for the CI channel. Not saying you dont have a great product! And powerful.

Personally, i think the graphics look a little dated but most do, never enough color but thats just opinion!

I imagine that you'd find our product a lot more like a traditional control system than Mainlobby. And, to be fair, C4 is a Linux box, it's just in a box with a name on it. In a client/server system like CQC, a solid state server in the closet that is never interacted with directly is no different. You aren't using the server to surf the net, the kids never watch porn on it, etc... It's purely there to act as a back end.

As with Ranger, I find the graphics dull and kind of depressing to be blunt. The purple pop up looks like 70s calculators but with much worse color :). I see a modern touch to them but otherwise, not very attractive.

Do you auto-generate that UI for Android/iOS? Or is it PC touchscreen?

But yes, auto-generation is a big deal and requirement for any modern system. How much work is there to replace one blu-ray player for another? Or one TV for another?

Graphics is a never always win situation. One man's unbelievable is another man's ugly, and vice versa. We were discussing this elsewhere, and some folks really like the new Windows look. To me, that's Andy Warhol, which is fine if you like Warhol and some folks do. Other folks prefer Rembrandt. So, you can't really win.

We use our RIVA technology currently to support Android/iOS (through third party clients.) It remotes the graphics to those devices, so they are very thin clients, and the real work happens on the back end.

However, we just added Websocket support to our web server, and that is a precursor to doing an HTML5 based client as well. That of course would be a more fat client with everything happening on the client side. 4.6 is starting the cooldown phase before release, and all of this stuff is going into that. Then the 4.7 drop will be mostly about the HTML client.

Third parties can also use the Websocket interface as well of course, if they want to create custom user interfaces that way.

Oh, I failed to answer the last question. Sorry... The auto-generation stuff works in terms of our V2 driver architecture. This provides very well defined interfaces for device drivers. Actually it's at the level of 'device classes', which define slices of functionality like volume control, power control, source switching, resource monitoring, and that sort of thing. Most drivers implement more than one.

So normally it wouldn't be any issue at all. You'd just swap in the new hardware, update the room configuration, and regenerate. In many cases you wouldn't even need that, you'd just give the new device the same name (moniker as we call it) as the old one.

Keep in mind that, because the device class interfaces are narrower in scope than the device drivers, and each driver tends to implement multiples, you can also move some bit of functionality from one device to another as well. For instance, if you were using the A/V processor to do switching but decided to move it to a dedicated switch, that's not an issue because both implement the Switcher device class. You'd just use the other device for switching instead. Both have to have the same interface and semantics for doing source switching, so the same logic you created to work with one will work with the other. The type of the device doesn't matter, since your logic just cares about Switcher class interface.

You may have noticed in the video, where I selected audio control for a media configuration, I could use the actual device that is rendering the media, or I could use some other device that implements the Audio interface, such as the multi-zone audio zone it was feeding into, or the A/V processor it was feeding into. Anything that implements that audio interface will work, since all that particular logic cares about is that Audio device class.

So it's actually quite flexible, and can work more in terms of functionality chunks than in terms of monolithic device drivers. So much of your logic or touch screens don't have to be really oriented towards a give type of device, but just a specific type of functionality, wherever it might live.