That's a very good question for just your 1st post.

While it may be his first post Navot is no beginner. I had the pleasure of meeting him at Vidikron University and I'm sure he will have some helpful thoughts to bring to the forum. Welcome

Vidikron University? dude I've sold 14 Vidikron Vision Ones back when they were the "cats pajamas" Vidikron was crem de la crem while back but if you are just getting them and their training now, don't trat that as a badge of honor

no offense

ah, well, alrighty then...........

Too bad they cant get their reps to respond to THEIR OWN DEALERS instead of using that time puting on a nice PR face on an internet forum

I am a Control4 dealer. The truth about the product is that in it's price point, NOTHING else on the market comes close. There were some problems with the first shipments of product, and I had to RMA almost every major part of my fist 4 installs. The good news is that the replacement parts worked perfectly.
The first shipments were rushed out by local factories and had many problems. Everything since has come from the Chinese factories that were meant to build them all.
Don't expect this big box plan to flow very well. The programming, while pretty easy for those of us who are in the buisness and already familiar with the basics, will not be something that the consumer will find very easy. After a few thousand phone calls to tech support from a lamen who can barely program their VCR, C4 will question the decision.
For those who are having trouble getting a Rep to call, be aware that C4 said from the beginning they were only going to take 600 national dealers. You may have waited to long.

Good question Spire1.

I’m not too worried about that market. A lot of the products that I sell can be had from the big box stores, but I still make a living selling it. Service is what drives my business, and what will drive it in the future. If anyone believes that they are going to be able to maintain profitability with product margins, they have another think coming. I spent a few years in the computer industry, back when there was actual margin in computers. By the end of my stint there was about $100 margin on a $1200 computer. We still sold a lot of computers, but our income was mostly on add-on sales, and most importantly, service. The margins are going to continue to slide on almost everything we deal with, but our service should never loose value.

Although Control 4 is considerably easier to program then an AMX or Crestron system, it is still beyond the majority of my clients. Not that they couldn’t figure it out, but they don’t have the time or the patience to. I also sell pronto and mx remotes, both can be had for any diy’er but I can still sell them as most people don’t want to spend the time to learn.

In the end I hope that they do not go into stores like Home Depot, but if they do I think I will continue to sell their product.

ttocs

I believe that if the internet was as powerful as it is today back when Crestron was cutting their teeth there would be a lot of people "bagging" their products as well. Hell I may have been one of them.


I will never say that I don't have problems with Control 4, quite the contrary. I will say that I have been able to overcome them and produce a reliable system.

By the way I am not a rep for the company. In fact I didn’t even make the trek to Utah to drink the coolaid…

jcmca, I fail to see the purpose of your response to my post other than to tout your own badge of honor for selling a fine product back in what can now be considered the dinasuar age. A wise man I worked for in the past told me quite candidly "I don't give a crap what you did in that past as you are worth what you sell today."

The funny thing is you finish your post with "No offense" after essentially stating if I wasn't selling the Vidikron line years ago I'm not worthy today. Regardless of when I started selling the line, Navot is still a knowledgable and nice guy to know and I anticipate that he won't be replying to any posts with a "you suck, no offense" attitude.

Hey guys,

We are Control 4 dealers. I am actually surprised that no one has mentioned Control 4s tech support. I feel that it is just starting to get better. Don't you think that a new house control system that interacts with so many different systems in a home should have an outstanding backbone for tech support? I do, and unfortunately that’s not the case. The good news is that it seems to be getting better. The bad news is they are starting distribution to Europe soon. Those extra techs they have on now will be divided between two continents. Oh yeah and don’t even get me started with the distribution to Circuit City thing, another company stepping on us on the way up just like DirecTV...

I thought the trek to Utah was mandetory? At least that was what I was told by the rep.

As I said before, I think this is the future of home automation. NetStreams and C4 are just scratching the surface with what these products can do. Consumers accept PCs, and feel comfortable with them. You can fancy up an Crestron or AMX panel all you want, but if it looks like Windows and acts like Windows it will be accepted.

I have no problem with the products or the technology. I have a problem with a company having a HUGE coming out event before they have actual product to ship. These guys were not new to the industry, they new what they were doing. Someone said they were only going to accept 600 dealers. I was told that, but have they reached the 600 yet?

Here is my take on it. They had this huge booth at CEDIA and got everyone all excited. They don't get a lot of people to sign up because they don't actually have product yet. They do a national roadshow to have smaller groups look more closely at the product. Again, they don't get many people to sign up because they products that everyone is interested in are not shipping yet. They realize it is not being taken seriously by the CI market so they go to CC who is excited because they are getting their butts handed to them by BB. By doing this they have ticked off the CI community who won't support them.

Let's face it, it is people like us that drove this industry. BB didn't make the VCR famous, they made it cheap. Ultimate didn't make the DVD the must have item for Christmas, they made it cheap. The big boxes just move product, and that is exactly what most manufactures want.

I think I have ranted long enough.

Someone from the company has to make the trip, it just wasn’t me.

I think that their decision to make a big splash at CEDIA wasn’t all that bad. They made enough waves that you are still talking about it today (nearly two years later). That kind of advertising can’t be all that bad.

As far as dealers are concerned, they have 5 dealers in my market. Not that big of a market either. I think that they could easily have 600 dealers nation wide.

I’ll reiterate that I’m not happy about manufacturers going to BB, CC or others. I’ve just learned to accept that as the reality of our industry. I will do my best to work with this new model and continue to make my offers attractive to the clients I serve.

Rant Off

I apologize, response was not warranted, just had a bad day. Please accept my apology.

Apology accepted - it takes a lot for a man to say sorry in a public forum.

There are many different experiences being expressed here and in a way they're all right. The reps are not good communicators at times. The product is very stable after you get past the learning curve, see the landmines, and the occasional bad equipment.

I would give C4 an "A" for marketing, a "D" for initial product, a "B" for training and current tech support, and a "B+" for current product.

I have a dozen systems in with one C4 caused issue (dimmer went bad) after project completion. I have no customers that are dis-satisfied with the final outcome. Your mileage may vary based on installer knowledge and willingness to put in the time to do it right while going through the learning curve.