zaphod

With an EA3 you have three audio outputs, hence the 3 in the name, but one is HDMI. so you can get two “pure” audio streams.  The amp, assuming that it is a C4-16AMP3-B, is a matrix switch as well as an amp.  So you can put the two audio outputs from the EA3 into the amp. The one complication is that I believe one of the outputs of the EA3 is digital, and the amp only takes analog inputs, so you need a digital to analog converter, but those are cheap. 
 
if you need more streams then you will need to split the audio out of the HDMI, which is not always a good idea, or get an EA5 or get another EA3. 

Thanks Mitch and Ryan!

I was using the third party HTI one - I didn't know that there was a Control4 Roku TV driver.  Is this new?
The appears to work - at least to power on and off.    I was having problems with the 3rd party driver.
Thanks!

There are a bunch of threads on this issue.  Meanwhile, I have a couple of C4-16AMP3-B that are older but keep ticking along.  That generation has been WAY more reliable than the C4-AMP108.
So buy a new amp or if you don't want to spend much money, get a used C4-16AMP3-B and you might even be able to fund that purchase by selling your matrix switch since you wouldn't need it any more.

We had video distribution suggested by our Pinnacle dealer. We just put Apple TVs on each tv in in-Wall box. Family delighted. Not sure why anyone would use expensive video distribution. Only scenario is if you want all your TVs playing same content in sync (or if you wish to play dvds). We’d never do that. If you don’t wish to be wed to appletv just add a roku behind each tv. We’ve also got ovrc to help me reboot when atv needs it. 

I vote keep them on Zigbee lol

G'day, 
I actually wrote the Chowmain Shelly Driver.. In the past, I had a Vera plus installed in my place, with a lot of the Zwave Plus gear.
 
Zwave
So, Zwave is obviously mesh based. Great for your typical smaller home, but as a custom installer, chances are, you have an awesome wifi network anyway (or should). You can guarantee  the quality of the connection on Wifi a bit better. Zwave is 900mhz so should have better penetration, but there are also less channels available (so, more affected by intererence). And similar to Zigbee, if you have less Zwave devices, you may have a coverage gap, and areas where you need to extend the signal somehow.  
A good Zwave job can be as good as a wifi job though (if you're using a good gateway). Zwave does have a bigger range of products, and a wider variety of manufacturers. Zwave is more power efficient, so some devices like remotes may work for longer before they need new batteries (if you need them, few C4 users do).
Shelly has some really cool products like the Uni though for upgrading dumb devices to smart devices. 
 
 
Shelly Protocols:
There are two types of Shelly modules now, Shelly Gen 1, Shelly Gen 2 (generally known as Shelly NG).
Shelly NG will (likely) be all modules released from now, and Shelly PM Pro (4,2,1), Shelly 1 Plus, Shelly 1Plus PM, and since it uses Websockets and a cleaner protocol (and newer chips), its preferred. 

With Shelly, we basically poll it (and I have some secret sauce that was added into late releases, so it's now extremely fast). In fact, I combined a Shelly Light with Tuya PIR sensor (which had its own built in light), and both the Tuya Light and Shelly triggered at the same time.. 
Both are great protocols, but the new ShellyNG protocol is a lot more succinct. 
 
With Shelly, its cheap, and we have a 90 day trial (or showroom licence) for all of our drivers at chowmain (and you can contact me anytime if you have an issue).
All feature requests have been resolved with our driver at this time, with the exception of 1 which can't be implemented well (dimmer calibration, which is only ever needed once, and is easily accessible via web interface). We have a lot of users with our driver (everything from effects to Control4 BUTTON_LINK connections are supported.. We even built in an easy announcement option).  We only have 3 outstanding issues (2 unconfirmed, and those are only unconfirmed as the installers took a while to get back to us, and I was awaiting some additional hardware). I'm hoping to have all resolved within the next week (so we're back down to 0 once again)
If you do have any questions, feel free to contact me. But overall, the protocol is extremely fast (and we actually work directly with the Allterco / Shelly team, who are amazing to work with).
Shelly is a great Wifi based product, and Shelly NG makes it even better. So, I definitely recommend them. 

Well it's not like Hue is a popular smart lighting brand, just like Boston is not a big college town.

This is awesome, and all drivers should work like this.

Ok, that's a smart way to do it.

To clarify, only dealers can get legitimate copies of Composer Pro. 

To clarify, only dealers can get legitimate copies of Composer Pro. 

A good dealer is key.
 

It depends what you want C4 to do, how much you are willing to spend, and how active you want to be in terms of making changes with the system.
If you are willing to spend >$10,000, and in many instances WAY more than that, and are looking for a turnkey solution where the dealer does everything then C4 is perfect. You should also be prepared to spend another $10k+ every decade or so to upgrade hardware like controllers, touchscreens (if you get those), remotes, etc.  And you will probably also be spending at least a few hundred dollars per year for stuff like changes to TVs, cable boxes, streaming boxes, etc.
If you want to do some stuff yourself and want more control over changing the system then C4 may not be for you.
But Control4 does a very good job at being a whole home solution.  It is particularly strong if you want to do centralized video and audio distribution.  But to do that you need lots of wiring done in your house, like lots of LAN drops and speaker wiring. Centralized video distribution is less attractive than it was 5-10 years ago as it doesn't provide as many benefits if you are primarily using streaming services like Netflix.
If you want to tie together lighting, AV control, AV distribution, fireplaces, HVAC, blinds, doors, security system, etc than C4 is one of the best solutions out there.
I have had a C4 system for about 15 years and for the most part I like it, but I wish it were more DIY.  Initially I used the system for lighting, blinds, fireplace but not for AV.  Since then I added AV control for more 9 TVs and I have a whole home audio solution with speakers in most rooms that are controlled by AV.  But I don't have centralized video, nor do I have touch screens.  I use C4 remotes like SR-250s,SR-260s, keypads and the iOS app as input devices for C4..  If I had to do it all over would I?  Probably.

I agree - one of the advantages is that they use the Spotify UI that they are familiar with.  Then it is just one click to send to the Control4 Device, such as Kitchen or Brittany's Bedroom or whatever.  So they don't have to learn the Control4 UI to play music.

Outdoor tvs are stupid pricey.  Is the TV covered?  We purchased a cheap vizio with thought we may have to replace frequently which is still cheaper than the sunbrite, etc.  10 years and no issue.  Humid climate, 10 ft from salt pool.  Ymmv

Hi,
I have a beta version of a C4 driver to obtain cloud cover for any location on the map. If you want to trigger an event on a cloudy day and don't have a light sensor, this could be a solution. Since this is a first release I don't recommend adding this driver to your customer controllers at this time. I still have a few minor issues to work out and also need to write documentation. 
The driver uses https://www.tomorrow.io/ API to retrieve the current cloud cover for the latitude and longitude obtained from the project, however values can be manually changed. 
You must register with https://app.tomorrow.io/signup to get an API Key which you will need add to the driver. The Free plan is good for 500 API calls per day / 25 calls per hour / 3 calls per second. If you are paranoid and need to make more API calls, a paid plan is available. I have no affiliation with tomorrow.io, just found their service to be the most reliable.
The driver was only tested on 3.2.2 and is not guaranteed not work on anything older.
Please don't share your API Key (The key shown below is for illustration only, don't try to use it in your system as it's invalid.)

HTTP GET is a required command before you set up any conditions. If configured correctly HTTP GET will update the CloudCover field in the driver when driver is called. 

When you set up a condition for the driver, Cloud cover value will not display in the Actions, PARAM2 will show instead. (I am still working on this problem)
At this time you can only see the selected value if you enable the debug on the driver. 

Feel free to post your results here or email us directly if you have any problems with the driver.
 
 

Is there a quality difference between the various strips, or all they all made in the same factory in Shenzhen?

But beware that an EA-1 doesn't really have an audio output.

Talk to your dealer and have him contact C4 ASAP.

It is great that these can be repaired, but it should still be on C4 to make these repairs as they supplied a defective product. Cars can still get recalled outside of a warranty period, but I guess a dim screen is not going to cause an accident. 

Is this a change in policy as I thought that C4 never pre-announced functionality before releasing hardware and software.
And Equalizer support in Navigators - no one has mentioned that yet.
Would still be nice if they were moving Composer to being a web based app so that it would be OS agnostic.

It is great that these can be repaired, but it should still be on C4 to make these repairs as they supplied a defective product. Cars can still get recalled outside of a warranty period, but I guess a dim screen is not going to cause an accident. 

It is great that these can be repaired, but it should still be on C4 to make these repairs as they supplied a defective product. Cars can still get recalled outside of a warranty period, but I guess a dim screen is not going to cause an accident. 

True but it was mentioned doing NYCE wireless sensors so WF2CC would be all that is needed.