Question on Controller: Which one to purchase: HC300, HC500 HC1000

[rjbranston]

Hi

I am completing construction a new condo and have had it prewired for a Control4 integrated audio/video/lighting system. However, I am not clear which of the home controllers are best to purchase: the HC200, HC300, HC500 or HC1000

The condo is not that large, 2 levels, 1600 sq ft plus 500 sq ft terrace. It will drive about about 4 audio/ 3 video zones and about a dozen dimmer switches, a fireplace switch, a couple thermostats, and a few outlets. So less than 20 switches/dimmers.

It's not clear in the Control4 spec sheets, which Controller is best for this use case with this number of switches. It will obviously be linked to amps driving music and video throughout the condo. I have no need for the harddrive for media as I use AppleTV and external hard-drives and my Mac for all my media storage needs.

Any advice/thoughts/guidance is greatly appreciated as I am not sure which one is needed for this type of usage.

Confused in Toronto, Canada.

Richard

[dgbrown]

How is your video distributed ? Is your gear all in a central rack ?

[henniae]

You would be best served to have a dealer to a site survey and discuss your needs in depth. It is not that easy to recommend a system based on the limited description you have provided.

The HC-500 is no longer sold be C4 and was just disconnected a few months ago. It is still a great product but they just don't make them any more.

The HC-1000 can't be used standalone and requires additional HC-200s and/or HC-300s.

My home is similar in square footage to yours. I have about 30 ZigBee devices. A HC-300 ran my place fine for the last 2 years. It could have been a little faster if I added a second HC-300 to run the main processing but I waited because I knew I was going to expand my system a lot. I just added an HC-1000 because I plan on expanding my system, adding an alarm and doing a bunch of wiz bang programming.

It is hard to determine how many controllers you need.

How many simultaneous OSD do you want.

How many independent streams of music.

What is the construction of the walls, you might have issues with ZigBee coverage depending on the materials that would require additional hardware.

An HC-300 amd a few HC-200s might work or you might need more processing power with an HC-1000. HC-1000 are usually used on medium to large jobs. You described system fairly small.

[rjbranston]

Thx for the quick reply!

The gear will all be centrally located in rack

I am only using 2 appletv's for video. No cable, DVD, or satellite. Appletv's are in central stack and wired to go to end television units

Does this clarify? I'm new to this control4 soln

[rjbranston]

will do on advice on dealer, just want a second opinion and to get better educated

Condo construction is concrete walls, living room, dining room, kitchen and terrace are all one open room on top floor with den/media room and master bedroom on floor below separated by concrete walls and floor

only require 2 streaming music at any one time driving difft zones

[ichbinbose]

well a simple anwser would be to place an HC-300 in the rack and an HC-200 at each TV. This could be over kill, but at least you would know for sure that your system would work exactly as you want it to.

Remeber having extra zigbee coverage is always a good thing.

[M3AL]

Hi

I am completing construction a new condo and have had it prewired for a Control4 integrated audio/video/lighting system. However, I am not clear which of the home controllers are best to purchase: the HC200, HC300, HC500 or HC1000

The condo is not that large, 2 levels, 1600 sq ft plus 500 sq ft terrace. It will drive about about 4 audio/ 3 video zones and about a dozen dimmer switches, a fireplace switch, a couple thermostats, and a few outlets. So less than 20 switches/dimmers.

It's not clear in the Control4 spec sheets, which Controller is best for this use case with this number of switches. It will obviously be linked to amps driving music and video throughout the condo. I have no need for the harddrive for media as I use AppleTV and external hard-drives and my Mac for all my media storage needs.

Any advice/thoughts/guidance is greatly appreciated as I am not sure which one is needed for this type of usage.

Confused in Toronto, Canada.

Richard

I'm pretty sure the members can answer this better then me, but here goes my take.

Don't get the HC500 because it's discontinued. The rest depends on how many people you have in the house, you can get away with one HC300 but only one person at a time can access the Control4 onscreen. Since you have 3 video zones you can go with 3 of the HC300's and if you want to speed up everything add the HC1000. Plus when you get the HC300's they come with the SR250 remotes which retail for $200 each.

I'm building a new house with 8 zones of Audio, 11 zones of video and about 60 switches. I'm putting 1 HC1000 and 4 HC300's because it's just me and my wife and I am zoning the HC300's.

Hope this helps.

[henniae]

I'm building a new house with 8 zones of Audio, 11 zones of video and about 60 switches. I'm putting 1 HC1000 and 4 HC300's because it's just me and my wife and I am zoning the HC300's.

I don't know what your exact design needs are, but the HC-300 seem like a bit overkill if you are just using them for the OSD. Four HC-300s give you 8 independent audio streams and 4 relays and 4 contact switches.

Are the HC-300s going in a rack or will they be distributes throughout your house?

[M3AL]

I'm building a new house with 8 zones of Audio' date=' 11 zones of video and about 60 switches. I'm putting 1 HC1000 and 4 HC300's because it's just me and my wife and I am zoning the HC300's.[/quote']

I don't know what your exact design needs are, but the HC-300 seem like a bit overkill if you are just using them for the OSD. Four HC-300s give you 8 independent audio streams and 4 relays and 4 contact switches.

Are the HC-300s going in a rack or will they be distributes throughout your house?

Well my dealer had originally quoted 11 HC300's and 1 HC1000 and I thought that was too many so I put them in zones. Everything is going in a rack on the 2nd floor in an AV room.

[henniae]

Well my dealer had originally quoted 11 HC300's and 1 HC1000 and I thought that was too many so I put them in zones. Everything is going in a rack on the 2nd floor in an AV room.

You might consider have a HC-200 or 2 placed behind a few TVs throughout your house. With ZigBee Pro you will be able to take advantage of ZAPs and have better ZigBee coverage and failover in the event a ZAP fails.

[henniae]

Well my dealer had originally quoted 11 HC300's and 1 HC1000 and I thought that was too many so I put them in zones. Everything is going in a rack on the 2nd floor in an AV room.

You might consider have a HC-200 or 2 placed behind a few TVs throughout your house. With ZigBee Pro you will be able to take advantage of ZAPs and have better ZigBee coverage and failover in the event a ZAP fails.

How big is your house?

[rjbranston]

If OSD means On Screen Display, I am not planning on using the TV's for OSD but instead using iPhone/iTouch/iPad (when avail) as I do that already and am fine using them to be main user interface vs using Control4 TouchScreens or TV OSD's

So would I still need HC300's at each TV?

[M3AL]

Well my dealer had originally quoted 11 HC300's and 1 HC1000 and I thought that was too many so I put them in zones. Everything is going in a rack on the 2nd floor in an AV room.

You might consider have a HC-200 or 2 placed behind a few TVs throughout your house. With ZigBee Pro you will be able to take advantage of ZAPs and have better ZigBee coverage and failover in the event a ZAP fails.

How big is your house?

It's 5000 sq/ft. I'm trying to avoid putting anything by the tv except the tv itself. Will I really loose a lot of signal even though I have the light switches all over the house and the 7" in wall screens? I thought they talk to each other and increase the range.

[ichbinbose]

the additional HC-200's distributed around the house will provide not only the on screen which I personally find to be much better than using my iPhone, but will also provide superior coverage, and local IR control of the TV.

[ILoveC4]

You might consider have a HC-200 or 2 placed behind a few TVs throughout your house. With ZigBee Pro you will be able to take advantage of ZAPs and have better ZigBee coverage and failover in the event a ZAP fails.

How big is your house?

It's 5000 sq/ft. I'm trying to avoid putting anything by the tv except the tv itself. Will I really loose a lot of signal even though I have the light switches all over the house and the 7" in wall screens? I thought they talk to each other and increase the range.

You can mount the 200's behind the TV, they're about the size of a VHS tape. They're cheaper than the 300's as well. Unless you need tgw increased contacts, relays, and audio streams the 200's probably make more sense.

[M3AL]

So how many 200's should I go with? And should I put any 300's in the rack?

[Mav-Jason]

1 200 at each TV and a 300 or 1000 (depending on your speed expectation) in the rack, is a safe bet.

[M3AL]

Wow so I need 11 200's? That's crazy. If I don't do that what am I sacrificing? I mean will the system run extremely slow or something?

[jberger]

Having the 200's placed at the TV locations will allow them to also operate as ZAP's which improves the performance of Zigbee Pro. Having one controller per TV has always been the recommended "Best Practice" for C4 implementations and the move to Zigbee Pro has only re-enforced that recommendation.

Of course it's possible to run 11 TV's from a single navigator, but it's not recommended.

Only someone who has performed a site survey and knows the location of the zigbee pro devices in the house can make an educated guess about the number of ZAP's needed and the overall mesh design. But a simple way to ensure good coverage and a supported configuration is to stick with the guideline of one HC per TV.

[M3AL]

Having the 200's placed at the TV locations will allow them to also operate as ZAP's which improves the performance of Zigbee Pro. Having one controller per TV has always been the recommended "Best Practice" for C4 implementations and the move to Zigbee Pro has only re-enforced that recommendation.

Of course it's possible to run 11 TV's from a single navigator, but it's not recommended.

Only someone who has performed a site survey and knows the location of the zigbee pro devices in the house can make an educated guess about the number of ZAP's needed and the overall mesh design. But a simple way to ensure good coverage and a supported configuration is to stick with the guideline of one HC per TV.

Ok I understand now. So let me ask another question regarding two locations of TV's:

1. I have a TV in my Master bedroom and one in my Master Bath, the distance is 20' from each other, can I use 1 HC200 for both? If I can, does it need to be pre-wired from the master bedroom to master bath? Like running a Cat5 from the master bed tv to the master bath tv?

2. I have 5 TV's in my Gameroom, the AV Closet is next to the Gameroom, maybe 2-3' away. Can I use one HC300 for that room and put it in the AV Closet?

I know you said it's best for 1 HC200 per TV, but just curious on that setup.

[wingzz]

Having the 200's placed at the TV locations will allow them to also operate as ZAP's which improves the performance of Zigbee Pro. Having one controller per TV has always been the recommended "Best Practice" for C4 implementations and the move to Zigbee Pro has only re-enforced that recommendation.

Of course it's possible to run 11 TV's from a single navigator' date=' but it's not recommended.

Only someone who has performed a site survey and knows the location of the zigbee pro devices in the house can make an educated guess about the number of ZAP's needed and the overall mesh design. But a simple way to ensure good coverage and a supported configuration is to stick with the guideline of one HC per TV.[/quote']

Ok I understand now. So let me ask another question regarding two locations of TV's:

1. I have a TV in my Master bedroom and one in my Master Bath, the distance is 20' from each other, can I use 1 HC200 for both? If I can, does it need to be pre-wired from the master bedroom to master bath? Like running a Cat5 from the master bed tv to the master bath tv?

2. I have 5 TV's in my Gameroom, the AV Closet is next to the Gameroom, maybe 2-3' away. Can I use one HC300 for that room and put it in the AV Closet?

I know you said it's best for 1 HC200 per TV, but just curious on that setup.

do you want all the game room tv's to show the same thing or to be able to show different things?

[ichbinbose]

Having the 200's placed at the TV locations will allow them to also operate as ZAP's which improves the performance of Zigbee Pro. Having one controller per TV has always been the recommended "Best Practice" for C4 implementations and the move to Zigbee Pro has only re-enforced that recommendation.

Of course it's possible to run 11 TV's from a single navigator' date=' but it's not recommended.

Only someone who has performed a site survey and knows the location of the zigbee pro devices in the house can make an educated guess about the number of ZAP's needed and the overall mesh design. But a simple way to ensure good coverage and a supported configuration is to stick with the guideline of one HC per TV.[/quote']

Ok I understand now. So let me ask another question regarding two locations of TV's:

1. I have a TV in my Master bedroom and one in my Master Bath, the distance is 20' from each other, can I use 1 HC200 for both? If I can, does it need to be pre-wired from the master bedroom to master bath? Like running a Cat5 from the master bed tv to the master bath tv?

2. I have 5 TV's in my Gameroom, the AV Closet is next to the Gameroom, maybe 2-3' away. Can I use one HC300 for that room and put it in the AV Closet?

I know you said it's best for 1 HC200 per TV, but just curious on that setup.

1. you could use one hc200 for the bedroom/bathroom setup. You may not get the navigator on both displays, so consult your dealer as to your system design.

2. You can use the video wall agent for the 5 tv's in the game room. So yes the single HC-300 will work perfectly for this.