juliejac1 Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 So, what do you guys think? I think it's a really big deal. Curious to hear your thoughts. Control4 Hires Charlie Kindel, Amazon Alexa Smart Home Mastermind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 Great news! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 If he can drive phrase / voice recognition to the C4 level, it will be good. If C4 developed a skill to pass a trigger phrase directly to C4 (or added it to the existing skill) so that an event could be fired when the phrase is received, that would go a long way. Ditto to local voice control f devices (though that much more resources). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therockhr Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 https://ceklog.kindel.com/2018/05/24/concierge-home-technology/ Quote from his blog a few months ago: However, not even the high-end stuff (or industry) is perfect. Some old-school incumbents have intentionally made their products complex to artificially support dealer networks and protect crazy margins. Some do a horrible job interfacing with other companies’ products. There are not enough skilled installers and programmers, which is limiting growth. And it’s all pretty expensive – everyone in the value-chain wants their fair share and the value-chain is deep. Will be interesting to see what he brings to the table Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 3 minutes ago, therockhr said: https://ceklog.kindel.com/2018/05/24/concierge-home-technology/ Quote from his blog a few months ago: However, not even the high-end stuff (or industry) is perfect. Some old-school incumbents have intentionally made their products complex to artificially support dealer networks and protect crazy margins. Some do a horrible job interfacing with other companies’ products. There are not enough skilled installers and programmers, which is limiting growth. And it’s all pretty expensive – everyone in the value-chain wants their fair share and the value-chain is deep. Will be interesting to see what he brings to the table Or how fast he disavows that comment ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliejac1 Posted August 2, 2018 Author Share Posted August 2, 2018 C4 didn't hire him for voice control. He understands scale, which is a talent C4 could use. More interestingly to me (and this will come in part 2) is Charlie's experience building ecosystems and communities. Now, Windows Media Center fizzled, but he was the guy that built the whole MVP program around that, and it worked. And his connections run deep. Not that C4 or Crestron or any of the others can't get to the people they need, but Charlie could very well expedite the connections. It's a good kind of person to have on board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 1 hour ago, juliejac1 said: So, what do you guys think? I think it's a really big deal. Curious to hear your thoughts. Control4 Hires Charlie Kindel, Amazon Alexa Smart Home Mastermind Julie i think that Charlie Kindel brings on a wealth of experience. His latest blog entry is quite interesting. If you haven't read it have a read. https://ceklog.kindel.com/2018/08/02/im-betting-on-control4/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegreatheed Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 18 minutes ago, jfh said: Or how fast he disavows that comment ... I don't think he has to disavow that comment if you read the rest of his blog. He already sounds sold on Control4 in that blog entry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 I am excited to see what this holds for the future. Seems like an excellent hire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therockhr Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 1 minute ago, thegreatheed said: I don't think he has to disavow that comment if you read the rest of his blog. He already sounds sold on Control4 in that blog entry. He was sold on Control4 the whole time. The comment he may have to walk back is the one I posted where he said how traditional automation companies have made their products artificially complex to support dealer network and crazy margins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegreatheed Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 4 minutes ago, therockhr said: He was sold on Control4 the whole time. The comment he may have to walk back is the one I posted where he said how traditional automation companies have made their products artificially complex to support dealer network and crazy margins. he said "old-school incumbents". I guess Control4 is sort-of old school, but there are other companies that fit that bill much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomOnTech Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Charlie is a great get for Control4. I worked with him at Microsoft as a summer intern when he ran Windows Home Server . He's always been passionate about this space. When I joined the Home Server team, one of the first things I was given to read was the vision document he drafted making the case for the product. It was clear that he had been thinking about this idea for a long time. When I learned the product's internal code name "Q", I asked what was significant about "Q." I learned that it was originally "Quattro" because Charlie had ideas about the connected home since 1999 and it took him four tries to get MS execs to buy in on his vision. It's not easy in a large company, and especially the Microsoft that existed 10+ years ago to launch an entirely brand new product and get OEM partners all over the world to commit to a new category. Charlie and a great group of people made it happen. He understands ecosystems, the importance of partners and developers, and he knows marketing. My personal favorite was the "Mommy, why is there a server in the house?" campaign. As a C4 customer, I'm very excited to see where C4 goes with Charlie's vision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Too bad they killed WHS - I still have a server up and running but I have switched most things to unRAID. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therockhr Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 1 hour ago, thegreatheed said: he said "old-school incumbents". I guess Control4 is sort-of old school, but there are other companies that fit that bill much better. I won’t disagree with you. Crestron, AMX, RTI and others that have to be programmed rather than configured have many more layers of costs built in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippavisual Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 This is a great get. Can’t wait to see what’s in store. i only regret that they are public now cuz I want to know what’s going on!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 On Twitter someone has posted a tweet from him that says: "7/ They pull all sorts of customer antagonistic stunts like refusing to allow end-customers access to change their own systems." But I can't find that tweet myself and it seems to be a screen capture from a past tweet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therockhr Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 40 minutes ago, zaphod said: On Twitter someone has posted a tweet from him that says: "7/ They pull all sorts of customer antagonistic stunts like refusing to allow end-customers access to change their own systems." But I can't find that tweet myself and it seems to be a screen capture from a past tweet I posted a link to that tweet months ago on here but now I can’t find it. Guess it got deleted... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therockhr Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Tweet is still there https://twitter.com/ckindel/status/994307285152284673?s=20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukas.polivka Posted August 6, 2018 Share Posted August 6, 2018 Well, Control4 customers do have some limited means of making certain changes (Composer HE, When>>Then). Far from full access, but better than some competitors, I guess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therockhr Posted August 6, 2018 Share Posted August 6, 2018 Just checked my "Recent Visitors" and there is a user that matches his picture and uses one of his online aliases. Good chance that is him. I know lots of people have posted to the contrary but Control4 employees are all over this board, as they should be. It is the most visible and active C4 community on the internet. I would be disappointed if they were not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted August 6, 2018 Share Posted August 6, 2018 3 minutes ago, therockhr said: Just checked my "Recent Visitors" and there is a user that matches his picture and uses one of his online aliases. Good chance that is him. I know lots of people have posted to the contrary but Control4 employees are all over this board, as they should be. It is the most visible and active C4 community on the internet. I would be disappointed if they were not. reading and participating are not the same thing. But I agree - they do read and should. They can't always reply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted August 6, 2018 Share Posted August 6, 2018 On 8/2/2018 at 10:13 PM, therockhr said: Tweet is still there https://twitter.com/ckindel/status/994307285152284673?s=20 It would be nice if they offered a power user option that gave you Composer Pro. I would think this is what he would have wanted for his home system, assuming that he installed C4 but wasn't a C4 employee. I wonder if he is moving to Utah as it appears that he lives in the Seattle area - which makes sense as he has worked at AMZN and MSFT in the recent past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted August 6, 2018 Share Posted August 6, 2018 9 minutes ago, zaphod said: It would be nice if they offered a power user option that gave you Composer Pro. I would think this is what he would have wanted for his home system, assuming that he installed C4 but wasn't a C4 employee. Perhaps an outsider is what it will take to push C4 to realize that such an option, which likely to be used by a very small percentage of end users, isn't going to destroy the business if done correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegreatheed Posted August 6, 2018 Share Posted August 6, 2018 7 minutes ago, jfh said: Perhaps an outsider is what it will take to push C4 to realize that such an option, which likely to be used by a very small percentage of end users, isn't going to destroy the business if done correctly. Control4 already allows more end-user optimization than their major competitors, savant, crestron, etc. So... they already know those options won't destroy business. What's the point again? A customer wants Composer Pro? Welcome to c4forums thread #652908 on the subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Africa C4 user Posted August 6, 2018 Share Posted August 6, 2018 2 minutes ago, thegreatheed said: Control4 already allows more end-user optimization than their major competitors, savant, crestron, etc. So... they already know those options won't destroy business. What's the point again? A customer wants Composer Pro? Welcome to c4forums thread #652908 on the subject. You are definitely mis-counting... it is #652909 actually... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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