Control4 Unveils HC-500 Home Controller

When are the Venture Capitalists that have funded Phast2 aka Control4 going to pull the plug. These guys don’t care about CEDIA and Custom Installers and can’t do any business with Home Depot or Circuit.  Here is a link to the real story on control4.  Not even three months ago their CTO couldn’t make a basic theater work for an editor.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138837/article.html

Control4 from the start was never meant to be bought from Home Depot, Circuit City or the like. If you wanted that stick with X10 devices. One main thing that was mentioned is that the editor was using a WiFi AP. I’ve been VERY happy with my Control4 system for 3yrs. and the only issues I’ve had were programming related (which was my fault), I also have my devices hard wired, since I’ve ALWAYS had issues with WiFi. Just getting rid of the mountain of remotes, lighting/thermostat control was worth it.

Jason must have a beef with control 4. I think there great. So here is my question for the smarty-pants. What would you spec in a new million + home instead of Control 4 keeping all the functionality? HD and Same budget as control 4 home system would cost.

Currently, as I understand it, consumers cannot go out and buy Control4 products on their own. You might see the stuff at Tweeters and elsewhere, but it still needs to be installed by a pro.

Two guys that must work for Control4 or be paid by them.  A source very close to C4 told me they pay two guys to do nothing but monitor blogs and act like chearleaders when the nasty truth surfaces. My beef is the same management screwed many cedia dealers when they did phast as the system failed and cost dealers millions yanking them out.(many didn’t survive) If wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n is a problem then they are screwed as wireless networks exist in any house that will have home automation. Zigbee and wifi don’t mix well by our testing.  This architectual issue that in my prediction may ultimately close the doors. Good luck as either way if you work for them or are a dealer its going to be rough.  BTW wonder how the lutron lawsuit that they are about to lose will effect the VC’s… Read these links.

http://electronics.ihs.com/news/zwave-zigbee-wlan.htm

http://www.digitalhomeonline.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=0&articleID=451584

grow up! control4 has been awesome. they have taken care of their dealers and provided us with more training than we can handle. Zigbee and WiFi have worked superb for us and our clients. Are you just a crestron worker that is all upset that they can do the same thing at a tenth of the cost.

Have you read these links?  I think jason brings up some very valid isues.  I have no problem with C4, but a spade is a spade and he seems to back it up. Any dealer that carries any product is putting his customers, reputation, and probably his business in their hands. I agree with julie i beleive it to be a do it for me product today.  Not sure how eric things it can do the “same thing” as crestron.  Where to begin here?

I’ve read all the links and it’s funny how you guys pull stuff out of you know where. The first article is written by a “do it yourselfer” that doesn’t know how to do it himself. Hence hid “biggest problem” statement. Any advanced system needs a professional to programm it you dork. And Jason, it was obviously an installer that didn’t have proper training that put in the system to start, not Eric Smith. The CTO coming to you house to make things work - customer service! The writer even puts a disclaimer in that the system was installed by “Dr. Frankenstein”. You failed to mention this in your rant. I’ve installed $60,000 control4 systems that work flawlessly. Customers so happy they are ready to add stuff before the first phase is done. Funny how you are bashing C4 but not Colorado Vnet. A company that has the same IP based system. Any beef with them? Didn’t think so.
The lawsuit issue is funny. Every company will sue anyone so they can get money. Tivo against Dish Network? When I was at C4 in november I was told that C4 was asked to create Lutron drivers for their system. Lutron knows C4’s got a good thing going and wants to be a part of it. Read between the lines. This happens everyday. And the Crestron comment was exaggerated obviously. We are Crestron dealers. We sell Crestron to the client who has ungodly amounts of money and needs ultimate control. C4 is for everyday people that would like more out of their households. Whatever problem Jason has with C4 it is obviously personal and not professional. Get a grip man.

Slow Down… First off I understand technology way beyond the average dealer. EE Lots of differences between C4 and vNet.  I haved tested vnet and their stuff is coming along slowly but surely (above link worries me about zigbee and wifi though with thvnet’s new wireless solution due out later this year).  Lots of experience with amx and crestron, both are great if you got dollars and time.  I did try some C4 early on in house as a trial and it did not work, I have spoke them and event wrote them an official letter.  They know the issues, trust me.  I do beleive they intend to get them worked out and I hope they do.  I am pretty close to Lutron as I first used their products in the mid 90’s and trust me their lawsuit is serious and they already won versus Vantage and Leviton…  It is not totally about money, Lutron has plenty of that.  It is about patent infringement and protecting the technology they created and not letting companies steal what they created.  I’ll bet you a six pack that C4 loses that one…  I am not as optimisitc as you about C4 becuse of my experience and a few homeowners who have called with problems and dealers that keep disappearing.  Just had a call this week from a local design firm who had a dealer set up a kiosk of C4 and do some installs with them and now they are getting calls from homeowners who are unhappy with there systems and the dealer is out of biz.  All i am saying is buying an unproven product, with a company with a not so shiny track record, and a bunch of what the above links seem to validate is baggage, is a bad recipe.  At least we agree on Crestron.  I had a record year in 2007 and life is great. Got a firm grip on 2008.  But I won’t be buying any C4. We can however deliver an RTI solution competive with C4 for those who don’t have the bucks for Crestron. Did you really read the links and do some google searching, scary stuff for 802.15.4 -wireless has always had challenges and takes years to perfect.

WiFi is a given for any home automation project. We try to hard wire everything. We just did a Crestron touchpanel that completely relies on WiFi. All I’m saying is that every automation project is going to be somewhat dependant on WiFi. To bash C4 on this issue is stupid. It doesn’t matter what company your using. Every C4 project I’ve done has worked great. These dealers that go out of business are probably truckslammers that have no business doing automation projects anyway. If you go out of business because of a couple of projects you either don’t know what you are doing or you have a bad busines model. Don’t blame C4 for that. We have been in business since the 70’s and C4 is a big part of what we do. So, if you don’t like C4 don’t use it. If you can’t make it work then you are probably doing something wrong. Do you test a house for WiFi and Zigbee dead spots? We do. And if your wondering if C4 is good, then check out the City Walk project in Las Vegas. 7500 rooms all automated. The enginneers tested over 100 different automation systems and decided that C4 was the best option. Nuff said!

Sorry, it’s called the City Center.

My rep told me that City Center is back on the drawning board as of last week, becuase C4 failed the accelereated test where there is lots of wi-fi and the communications are failing between lights and such?  We’ll see when it opens?  Also good point that C4 is selling direct to City Center he said and cutting out all dealers.  Great partner.  I would never touch C4 again, we tested it as well in late 2006 and it failed.

Sorry you guys don’t know how to program. I’d like to know what company you work for so I can recommend to people not to use you. And get your facts straight, it was a C4 dealer that got the City Center job and brought C4 into it. Maybe you should just stick with the original TV remote, sounds like that’s all you can handle.

We just yanked a C4 system out of a big house here and are putting in crestron.  Homeowner claims that C4 even sent factory engineers out to the site before the holidays and couldn’t get things stable.  Software and communication issues apparently.  The proof is in the pudding and at this point my experience says C4 isn’t cutting it.

Can someone help me understand the issue that Jason is referring to in the white paper he cites?

Last I checked Zigbee operates at 915 Mhz in the US, vs 2.4 Ghz for Wifi.  Being that these are not even close to each other I find it hard to claim that they cause each other interference.  However, he may be referring to Zigbee Worldwide which in some cases does operate near the WiFi frequency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee).

Jason:  Your bashing of a company/product does nothing more than accentuate your ignorance.  C4 has been very supportive of the custom market, whether it be through CEDIA certified training, wonderful dealer support, CEDIA review courses, or custom tailored products (video sense ports, 2U form factors with rack ears, etc.).  And your mention of WiFi issues is valid, however I would say that although C4 functions over Wifi I would never recommend ANY automation system use WiFi because outside interference is not predictable (new microwave, access point, phone, etc. installed by homeowner or neighbor).

I by no means am claiming C4 to be the Holy Grail of automation, however for companies like ours that used to install HAI, C4 is worlds ahead, both from an installer and client experience.  So yes, C4 may have some issues (quite a few just a short time ago), but I think they offer some amazing features for the money.  And yes, installing the system by “Dr. Frankenstein” is a guarantee for failure.  As many who read CEPro know, the programming is the key to success or failure for just about any automation project.

And I always love it when people cite AMX or Crestron as a superior automation system to ‘fill in the blank’.  Now are you also going to tell me that an Aston Martin is superior to a Geo?  No way!  Seriously?