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C4 Connect and Assist - new CIaaS offering


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I think the reality is that everyone on this forum is going to have to pay for Connect eventually.  We all talk about the latest features.  I'm actually surprised there are so many people who don't use 4Sight/remote access already.  

There are people who probably never upgrade their C4 system and just want it to "work" and provide basic functionality.  They'll probably never pay or will hold out as long as possible.  Those people aren't typical of people here on this forum...

I'm still unhappy as I think this is just a massive 4Sight price increase, but, if they do actually use it to improve the software, fine.  E.g., I would pay to have better Sonos integration natively without Roon.  And it would have been nice if they had a list of real things they could show us now that they are planning for Connect customers.  But if they just pocket it for the shareholders, which is what I expect to happen, that is going to stink. 

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2 hours ago, ekohn00 said:

Can you define "new systems"? Does that mean something like a core 6 is coming out, or if I add a core 5 to my existing or just for new customers?

Registering a new controller 

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13 minutes ago, Shoe said:

image.png.053222ba4ddda670411ebe29cadb84ad.png

This is the doc, but I'd like to point out it's gone from rev a to rev c in the last few days.

https://www.control4.com/docs/product/control4-connect/dealer-faq/english/latest/control4-connect-faq-rev-c.pdf

Interesting. According to the document, there is no way yet for existing customers to change to Connect from 4Sight. Wonder if that will be figured out before the April 23 start date. 

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14 minutes ago, BY96 said:

Interesting. According to the document, there is no way yet for existing customers to change to Connect from 4Sight. Wonder if that will be figured out before the April 23 start date. 

Only needs to be figured out before they deliver any value to only Connect subscribers. So some future date.

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The implementation of a subscription service / requirement is a positive.   I was an early and big user of HAI's OmniPro product line that ultimately went bust.  I have no issue paying for quality software stability and upgrades.  SnapAV deserves to get paid and incentivized to create best in class product.  I am concerned that the Composer HE variant of Composer Pro is not functioning post the latest OS upgrade (3.4.1).  I hope that the issue is indeed an unintentional bug and not a deliberate migration away from HE.

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17 minutes ago, BDavisNJ said:

The implementation of a subscription service / requirement is a positive.   I was an early and big user of HAI's OmniPro product line that ultimately went bust.  I have no issue paying for quality software stability and upgrades.  SnapAV deserves to get paid and incentivized to create best in class product.  I am concerned that the Composer HE variant of Composer Pro is not functioning post the latest OS upgrade (3.4.1).  I hope that the issue is indeed an unintentional bug and not a deliberate migration away from HE.

It's a bug. It's being fixed currently 

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20 hours ago, chopedogg88 said:

Hopefully the additional cost will help to cover licensing fees that Control4 may need to pay for things like future Apple Music/Spotify/etc integration!

And implement Zigbee 3.0 device compatibility. And Matter (Thread too). And hire a couple developers to Sherlock 3rd party drivers that should be part of the base system. 

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I feel like it has been obvious for awhile now that custom home automation is not a growth business suited for the stock market. A company can obviously make money doing it like Crestron and others but it is just not going to generate the high growth needed as the dealer/integrator is where the money goes to (as it should they do most of the work). There is only so much hardware that a dealer can sell to an end user no matter how large or complicated the project is. A dealer could be working on a huge 100k project and may only buy a few items from C4 (controller and remotes) if they went with 3rd party for lights and music. That isnt going to be enough margin for C4 so something like this was inevitable.

The only way to really grow the userbase like they want is to get a CORE Lite and remote into more family rooms but they arent going to do what is necessary for that to happen.

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I guess the question remains open on whether this is a viable business over the long run.  Snap One has not made any money in the numbers that I see from 2019 to the present.  Their sales also seem to be stuck at about $1B over the last three years and the estimate for next year is $1.1 in sales.

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1 hour ago, zaphod said:

I guess the question remains open on whether this is a viable business over the long run.  Snap One has not made any money in the numbers that I see from 2019 to the present.  Their sales also seem to be stuck at about $1B over the last three years and the estimate for next year is $1.1 in sales.

Very Good Point - There Share Price is also taking a beating 

They need new revenue and need end users to lift there profits. 

 

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3 hours ago, lippavisual said:

This is a good example of why I always wait about 4-6 months before updating.  I can’t afford to be a Guinea pig for new software.

agree 100%.  Even if you "need" a new feature, I'd still wait a week or so, I mean you didn't have that feature previously, what's another week. 

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2 hours ago, eggzlot said:

Even if you "need" a new feature, I'd still wait a week or so, I mean you didn't have that feature previously, what's another week. 

You probably put your socks on and THEN your pants. Probably wait for pizza to cool before eating it. Wait for the heavy kid to skate on the lake before going out...

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1 hour ago, eggzlot said:

agree 100%.  Even if you "need" a new feature, I'd still wait a week or so, I mean you didn't have that feature previously, what's another week. 

While I hear you… I am the kid in the candy store when it comes to C4 updates… has only bitten me twice BUT, the 2 bites have been the last 2 updates.  

I bricked my system at my Beach House with the OS3.4.0 update.  Waiting a week wouldn’t have helped although waiting for 3.4.1 probably would have.  All that said, C4 support across 4 continents were a great support and got me back up and running although I did have a heart attack (or two) for a 1 week period…

The second bite is not having HE available on OS3.4.1. And while irritating, it is not the end of the world (will be in a week or so though 🙈)

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1 hour ago, Gary Leeds UK said:

Very Good Point - There Share Price is also taking a beating 

They need new revenue and need end users to lift there profits. 

 

Yes, and Hellman & Friedman, which is the Private Equity firm that bought Snap One from General Atlantic in 2017, still owns 72.4%.  But the stock is at $8.71, down more than 50% from the IPO price of $18 in August of 2021.  

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1 hour ago, Shoe said:

You probably put your socks on and THEN your pants. Probably wait for pizza to cool before eating it. Wait for the heavy kid to skate on the lake before going out...

I know you didn’t quote me but….

who has the time, money and patience to be field testers?  I sure don’t and I don’t expect my clients to either.  Technology/features are changing too fast and almost all software being pushed out now is a “hope and pray”, while they wait for field reports to come in.

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37 minutes ago, lippavisual said:

I know you didn’t quote me but….

who has the time, money and patience to be field testers?  I sure don’t and I don’t expect my clients to either.  Technology/features are changing too fast and almost all software being pushed out now is a “hope and pray”, while they wait for field reports to come in.

No, just trying to lighten the mood. Stability is important. I'm typically a rev behind on everything accept new installations of anything. I completely agree with not being on the bleeding edge. Heck at work we have systems on the last version of software before it goes unsupported.

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2 hours ago, Shoe said:

You probably put your socks on and THEN your pants. Probably wait for pizza to cool before eating it. Wait for the heavy kid to skate on the lake before going out...

at least I am still not on WinXP

but for the sake of sanity and happy household, I never have auto updates set.  Even things like my Unifi APs, they aren't on auto updates.  I'll wait for a weekend that the wife is out of the house (or even just for a long day) so I can upgrade and if things go sideways I have time to troubleshoot and fix it before she gets home and wonders why she cannot use a device.

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