Guess when 1.6 gets released

[henniae]

The long wait is almost over. Very soon you will be basking in the afterglow of 1.6 bliss.

[neil12011]

Yeah, but I'm kind of freaked over the new way that zigbee traffic will be managed. I have not heard good things so far.

[trippinbillies4]

General consensus is that it's not going to make a big difference. i think people are making a much larger deal out of it than they need to.

[tebery]

We can always set our sights to version 2.0!

[waynechi]

I am already looking ahead to CEDIA and then hopefully a 1.6.1/1.6.2 at CES

[trippinbillies4]

You wont see 1.6.1 or 1.6.2. You'll see a jump straight to 1.7 and 1.8

[derickson1472]

I tried to register my product, but the directions don't line up (probably just me)...I got a code it said to enter "Composer under Tools, Account Services"...if you go there on my system there is no field to enter a code into...it also says "Navigators remote access configuration found under info"...if I go there there is also not a place to put the code. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

Dave

[tebery]

I had the same problem. I wonder if they are talking about composer pro. So a dealer would need to be involved?!?

[trippinbillies4]

Or it might look different on 1.6?? :cool:

[derickson1472]

You are probably right, it is probably instructions that will work once you have 1.6.

I LOVE control4, but it seems they need a better communications person for how they launch their releases.

First they posted the new 7 inch, talking about the music integration and 1.6 with a ship date. Then they posted on their web site where end users log in to register and sign up for the music integration (still with no firm communication anywhere that 1.6 was coming and what is in it)...and it seems that registering is tied to a release that is not out yet...not the way I would manage communicating a release

[waynechi]

Totally agree, but for some reason I think there is a risk with this mgt team at C4 that they would take all these little mis-steps to mean that they should communicate less, instead of communicating better. For some reason external marketing and communication doesn't seem to be in their DNA....they shy away from opportunities to build end user enthusiasm. Its not just "the person". I had a discussion with my dealer about this once, and his response was that even when they are asked head-on by dealers how/whether they are going to communicate new releases to end users, they always push it back on the dealers by saying that they will write talking points for them to use with prospective clients. I also think C4 is afraid of communicating directly because they are afraid of a hostile response from their dealer community, some of whom view direct communication as and 'end run' around them.

Its too bad because I too LOVE the product and think it could really catch on more than it has already. Its really an enthusiasts type of product that could use more viral marketing than it is getting.

[RyanE]

Other than this statement: "Its really an enthusiasts type of product that could use more viral marketing than it is getting", I agree with much of what you've said, Wayne.

Control4 was designed to be a *dealer-sold* system. As Control4 was designed for that, that's where the focus is. It's also designed to be a *dealer-advertised* and *dealer-installed* system. Control4 touts it's new products, releases and features in industry publications, on it's website, and through release notes and beta programs so dealers and prospective dealers know about them, but does not directly market to end users. That's how the game works in dealer-installed residential systems.

My opinion as to why Control4 is 'stingy' on releasing information about new products before they're available for purchase is that as a young company, Control4 announced quite a few products and features before they were even in development, and several of them never saw the light of day. That was probably good, as they were not the right product mix.

Unfortunately, when you pre-announce a lot of things, some of those things are going to take longer to develop, or won't ever develop, and that puts a black eye on the company.

Control4 has worked very hard to only communicate the things that are (for the most part) ready to ship within 30 days, and our standards for 'ready to ship' have also been tightened up, IMHO.

All in all, it's a much more professional approach to releasing product. That's not all there is to it, but that's the gist of it.

RyanE

P.S. If someone is having issues with controller registration in the my.control4.com site, it's likely due to the services being moved and setup for the 1.6 release. There was an announced outage last Friday when the new services were moved over, and existing 1.3 systems that were already registered should continue to work, but I don't know if the changes affect the instructions on how to register a new system.

If you continue to have issues with it, contact your dealer who can ask Tech Support about it.

[waynechi]

OK Ryan... I respect your view and see we disagree on this point. Let me just say that there are *lots* of dealer-sold products out there where dealers expect lots of direct marketing to the end user as a way to support their "dealership" (e.g. cars). You can still create direct consumer pull and enthusiasm in a dealer model.

In the residential systems market, where the rules of the game have been historically set by the Crestron/AMX model, the dealer channel is used to a very high level of programming and value add for each install. With C4 trying to change the market by greatly simplifying programming/installation while making a push into more basic installs (e.g. - via its "No TV Left Behind" strategy), they are pushing down dealer value-add per install (but probably increasing the number of installs per year). Dealers might not be able to afford to create their own customized marketing campaign in this model, so they might benefit from a little more direct push from Control4.

I apologize, I know I've ranted about this before but I just think if C4 is trying to change the rules of the home automation game on the product development side, they should recognize the implications for the dealer distribution side as well instead of being bound to the rules set by Crestron/AMX.

[derickson1472]

Hi Ryan,

End of the day, I love Control4, and tell everyone about it...my neighboor is intalling one now after seeing mine. I was not meaning Control4 should pre release/announce anything, it just seems like their roll out was strangly planned.

Dealers don't call all their existing clients when new features are coming out, they just use it for their new sales (at least Magnolia Hi-Fi does not). So as an existing customer I would see something new is coming out when I hit "mycontrol4.com" (I actually see it as I watch this forum, but most customers don't). That is where it said "upgrade your controler", register for "Rhapsody"...but then it did not work, and no where did it say you should do this because "blank" is coming your way, contact your dealer for more information. That is all I meant by my post.

Thanks for being on this forum, and for always responding to all the questions.

Thanks

Dave

[markmsp]

July 24th

[trippinbillies4]

July 24th

Looks like you lose just like everyone else, hehe. Wait... unless you meant '09.... You might be onto something!!!

[wingzz]

Before Christmas

[neil12011]

Today... I win....

[takitezsdc]

Can someone please post the the 1.6 update info? What did they change?

Thanks!

[tebery]

Detail of Changes in this Release

New functionality and major enhancements

• Rhapsody – The 1.6.0 release introduces support for RealNetworks’

subscription-based streaming music service, Rhapsody. Rhapsody

provides users with on-demand access to millions of tracks, continuous

music through commercial-free channels, access to thousands of playlists

and the ability to build their own libraries of music. A free 30 day trial is

available on every Control4® system. To sign up your customers for a

permanent Rhapsody account, go to www.control4.com/rhapsody. Your

customers will love this!

• New Digital Music User Interface – Release 1.6.0 introduces some

changes to the Digital Music user interface that provide more flexibility to

search for music, to integrate their Rhapsody library with your own music

files, and to better control selection and playback of music. My Library

now includes all stored music content configured in the Control4® system

as well as the content you have bookmarked in your Rhapsody library

viewable by artist, album or genre. You can also find your playlists that

were created on the Control4® system or created from your Rhapsody

account all easily accessible under My Playlists. My Channels includes

your favorite Rhapsody channels that you have saved to your library for

easy access. You can also choose whether you want to play selected

music now or to add it to the current queue of tracks.

• Zones page – You will notice a new page for “Zones” found under

Navigator’s Music interface. The Zones page provides an overview and

control of all active zones in the system. This interface allows a user to

add or remove rooms from an active session and control volume or mute

of an individual room or all rooms in a session. Discrete volume levels and

mute states are represented for each room where the audio endpoints

provide discrete volume control and discrete mute control.

• Announcement Agent – The Announcement Agent provides the ability to

play an audio and/or image and text announcement on a Navigator

interface and in any room with an audio endpoint. This is an excellent

solution for doorbells and door cameras and can also be used for generic

messaging to rooms in a home. The images displayed can be individual

digital images stored on the controller or images accessed from web pages

or cameras. WAV files are used for audio to be associated with the

announcement.

• Timer Agent – Much more flexibility is now available in system

programming to control the timing of actions in programming scripts. The

Timer Agent allows the configuration of a timer that can be started or

stopped in programming as needed or required by programming.

Additionally, the timer does not block the execution of the programming.

A timer will run in the background until it produces an event upon

expiration or a forced stop due to other programming events. The timers

are perfect for turning lights on when motion is detected, turn off lights

after a specific period of time, and many other programming scenarios,

Version 1.6.0 Release Notes Page 7

and provide much more flexibility than the delays that were available for

programming use in previous releases.

• DriverWorks SDK– Two-way serial and IP drivers can now be easily

created using the new DriverWorks SDK that is available with this release.

Using this new feature, you can create a new driver including the ability to

use ranges other than 0 to 100, do bit stuffing, use checksums and

ACK/NAK handshakes in communication and any other programming logic

that is required to control a device. The required functionality is added by

creating custom scripts that are included in .c4i files that can then be

added to a project. DriverWorks is available in all systems running 1.6.

You will find that it provides incredible flexibility allowing you to control

virtually any device controllable via serial or IP through your Control4®

system. For further information regarding the DriverWorks SDK, please

refer to the DriverWorks Getting Started and API Reference Guides

available in the dealer area of the Control4® website.

• Controller Registration – In release 1.6.0, it is required to register the

controller in a system to gain access to any online media service. These

services include the media identification service for music files, DVDs and

CDs, the service to configured TV and Radio stations, and Rhapsody.

Controller registration also provides the dealer and installer access to the

customer’s system for maintenance or troubleshooting without requiring

the customer to purchase 4Sight Internet Services. Controller registration

is available at no charge and is facilitated through the customer’s account

on my.control4.com.

Version 1.6.0 Release Notes Page 8

Significant changes in system behavior

Outside of the newly added features in 1.6.0, most functionality of the Control4®

system is unchanged from the 1.3.2 version. However, some behavior has

changed in order to improve performance or reliability, to respond to issues

reported and to enhancement requests. You should be aware of the following

changes which may be noticeable to your installers or the customer.

• Project back up is required when updating an HC-300 – When an

HC-300 is the primary controller in a project, you will be required to back

up the project and the media before continuing with the update to 1.6.0.

This is due to the file system of the HC-300 being repartitioned during the

update process. Please refer to additional detail regarding this item below

in the Updates section.

• Pressing skip back during playback of a song will cause the

current song to start from the beginning – In previous releases,

pressing skip back would start the playback of the previous song. In

1.6.0, the behavior of skip back follows most audio players and CD

players’ functionality of starting playback of the current track from the

beginning. Pressing skip back twice in a row will start the previous track

from the beginning.

• Controlling Wireless Dimmers from the System Remote Control –

Controlling the light level of a dimmer from the System Remote Control’s

display (List Navigator) is now available without having to go one level

deeper in the menu. By simply highlighting the dimmer in the list of

lights, pressing the select button act just as pressing a keypad button

does in controlling the light level. A press toggles the light status. Press

and hold ramps the light up or down. Pressing page up/down also ramps

the light up or down. Pressing the number keys sets the light level to the

respective level. For example, pressing the 2 button sets the light at

20%.

• Only the Radiant Blue (default) theme is supported – In release

1.6.0, the Radiant Blue Theme is the only theme supported. Alternate or

non-default themes that were used in the past are no longer supported.

Devices configured to use alternate themes will revert to the default

Radiant Blue Theme after being updated to 1.6.0.

• Tag-based music file scanning – Composer will scan files based on the

ID3 tags in the music files. All meta-data contained in the ID3 tags will be

represented in the Control4® media database exactly as it exists in the

files after the scanning process is complete. If cover art is included in the

ID3 tags, this cover art will also be used. If no cover art is included in the

tags, no cover art will be displayed unless the system is registered, in

which case, the cover art will be obtained from the online media

identification service.

• Polling – Control4 has implemented changes to the way some of the

traffic is managed on ZigBee networks. This new approach uses a

“polling” technique to control when devices send information. With this

new network management system, lighting scenes and other control

functions gain immediate access to the network, and therefore are faster.

The polling technique is able to speed up control data because it gives

lower priority to information data. This will cause some types of “status”

Version 1.6.0 Release Notes Page 9

information to be delayed in some situations. Our beta testing indicates

that such delays will not degrade the overall user experience. For

optimum system performance, Control4 recommends that the scheduled

polling interval be set to 10 seconds or greater.

Other Enhancements

This is a detailed listing of other improvements made with the 1.3.2 release.

• Synchronized Audio playback – Audio playback in multiple rooms is

now synchronized based on NTP (Network Time Protocol), a client/server

protocol used to synchronize clocks on separate devices within

microseconds. The controller running Director will become synchronized

with an external NTP server found on the Internet. All other Control4®

devices will synchronize their clocks to Director’s clock. The

synchronization process on the individual device may take up to an hour

to complete after the device has booted up. After the synchronization

process is complete, the audio playback in those zones will be fully

synchronized.

• Garage Door Sensor – The Garage Door Sensor includes a contact and a

relay binding in a single device. The contact’s status is represented by the

garage door icon visible in the Navigator interfaces. Selecting the device

activates the relay.

• Saving a playlist as a Control4® playlist or a Rhapsody playlist –

When choosing to save the current queue as a playlist, the user is

prompted to save it as a Control4® playlist or a Rhapsody playlist. Saving

it as a Control4® playlist saves all tracks in the queue (local and

Rhapsody) as a playlist that is accessible on the Control4® system.

Saving the queue as a Rhapsody playlist will save only the Rhapsody

tracks in the queue as a Rhapsody playlist that is accessible on the

Control4® system and from any other Rhapsody client application.

• Ignore unexpected play, stop, pause on a Sony CX777ES disc

changer - To better handle programming associated with control of the

Sony disc changer, you can choose to ignore the unexpected commands

sometimes associated with the start up of disc playback. The disc changer

properties page now includes this configuration option.

• Debounce values are available per contact for the Contact/Relay

Extender – The Contact/Relay Extender’s properties page now allows

debounce values to be configured per contact.

• Collapse to Room view in Composer – By right clicking in the system

design tree in any view in Composer, you can choose to collapse to a

room view. All devices are hidden and can be viewed on a room by room

basis by simple expanding each room as needed.

• Pop up configuration for all Navigators – Now available in the

programming actions for Navigators is the ability to programmatically

display pop up and/or status text in additional to images from URLs.

• Composer latitude/longitude lookup service – On Composer’s project

properties view, latitude and longitude can now be configured based on

city, state or other location information. The zip code (US centric) is no

longer required for automatic look up of latitude and longitude

information. This information can also still be manually entered if desired.

• Use Rhapsody media in programming and in Wake Up Agents –

Rhapsody Channels and the Rhapsody playlists from the user’s Rhapsody

library can be used in programming as the selected media to use in a

Version 1.6.0 Release Notes Page 11

room. This media can also be used in a Wake Up Agent via the Wake Up

Agent configuration page.

• Select Television default input – On the Television properties page, the

default input for the television can be selected. This input will be selected

when the user selects the television from Navigator. The field is left blank

by default.

• Editing of queue – In 1.6.0. the order of the tracks can now be edited in

the queue. The user can also delete tracks from within the queue. This

new feature is available on all graphical navigators except for the Mini

Touch Screen.

[MSI]

Tanks for the Update !!!!!

****************

Editing of queue - In 1.6.0. the order of the tracks can now be edited in the queue. The user can also delete tracks from within the queue. This new feature is available on all graphical navigators except for the Mini Touch Screen.

****************

This is a great feature that we have been requesting. Why doen't it work with the min touch screens ?

What happens if a user has purchased the mini touch screens ? We have 4 screens. Will there be a trade in or rebate to move up to a touch screen that will work with the new features.

[panamagixxer]

In a few days, can someone post if the new zigbee control system works better? Just curious if pulling up music or DVDs takes longer on the remotes.

[michelo76]

Panamagixxer,

I was a beta tester for 1.6 and to me it seems that zigbee is a little faster (but that could be just an impression). I did not see any delay in pulling movies or music.

Michelo

[panamagixxer]

Cool - thanks - my dealer contacted me today about another small issue and said it may be a few days before they are ready to roll out the update because their techs need to be trained.

[punkrock]

all in all im happy with 1.6. Just happy in the fact that my hc300 and 2 htcs did not hang at all during the update. Only gripe i have is that with rhapsody. Looks like users that use the radio channel feature to create custom channels cant see those custom channels on the gui. not sure if im doing something wrong or if its just not written to download those. One other wierd thing is my contact relay ext has to be hard wired and id'ed with IP in order to get the latest firmware.