GregCAMS

Was interested in the outdoor shade use case. Have some Screen Innovations outdoor shades that have been quite problematic to use with them coming out of zipper track during high winds. Their companion wind sensor gives no information on wind speeds so was looking to get the unit you purchased and integrate to raise and lower with something more accurate and reliable once I look at changing to shades with a cable guide that may be more sturdy. Have you had any issues with the shade lowering/raising with high winds when it gets a notification from Tempest? Will have to do some research on the IFTTT to see if they integrate with Tempest and Somfy driven shades.

I've only had vary rare occurrences of latency issues pre-Core installation. If I had to put a number/percentage on it would be 2-3% tops and it is has typically been related to network/ISP issues in those cases. The system has been frankly more reliable on common devices like the door station referenced and video matrix switching (AVPro Edge) than Control4 for notifications, switching, and speed which was surprising at first for sure and didn't require the multiple OS updates (at least 4 now) that C4 needed for the Door Station intercom. Anyhow, I've only had the Nano/Core installed for a brief period in my office but has been very responsive. I couldn't give you a clear conclusion on responsiveness comparisons just yet as the Micros are used in more high traffic areas compared to the one in my office at present. By this summer I'll be pulling 2 of the 3 Micros to be put in other parts of the home and putting Nano's in those areas (Dining Room, Kitchen, Family Room). By then I'll have the ability to give a better comparison. Upon first request of a command the speakers voice output in my office work every time for the lights, shades, scene setting, and TV/Soundbar. I only use discrete commands for those and one for start of my work day and end of my work day voice commands that I defined a programmed response with their portal and used no coding. The highest use area with a TV or music and Josh in the room is in my Family Room and Kitchen. It does in fact 'duck' to hear me give a command as they advertise and showcase in their CEDIA demo from a couple years ago in Denver. It reduced the volume in my case and the pausing of video sources and music works well from the TV sources, especially on the Roku more than the Apple TV but the Apple TV issues are a myriad of them beyond the Josh piece. As far as investment I am not worried about that and did budget accordingly for several months for the first purchases of the Micros' and again for the first Nano and Core. It was a household decision seeing that we were not getting the utility out of the T3's and they were starting to become unreliable with the age/lifespan they'd been installed. The cost I got for the 5 year license was not cost prohibitive IMO but that like all in this space is personal preference/decision. I just know we get far more usage out of the Josh devices compared to previous so from a value perspective it was worth it for us. That and being able to do a lot of the time triggers, compound commands with scenes, and other functions in the portal has made it well worth it. I've 'invested' in other C4 controllers and devices similar to know I'll have to replace them and get a fraction of funds in return on selling them.

I've had Josh installed for just about 2 years in my home. First started with 3 Micros as replacements for my T3 touchscreens. The user experience between those that use touch interface of touchscreens versus those using voice can vary. In our household, we hardly used the touchscreens at all and the only one that received regular use was the one in the mud room/garage entry to arm and disarm the house in place of the alarm panel tucked away in a closet. We interface with the Josh Micros dozens of times per day and enjoy using it for its accuracy and privacy. Through the Josh portal it’s also been a lot easier and quicker to setup custom scenes for morning, evening, afternoons, and holidays for the various end devices (shades, lighting, TV, thermostat, Christmas tree, locks, etc). That scene creation is a lot more intuitive than the When>Then from Control4. The ability to test the scenes and make quick changes to ensure you have what you want works great. I’ve recently just upgraded to the Josh Core and 1 Josh Nano in my office and so far that works great with a get my day started command. I’m expanding to 2 other rooms in the house in the summer and having the VoiceLink where the common goes thru my audio speakers so far works really well. I’ve never used Amazon Alexa or Google so can’t speak to their efficacy. On the videos I’ve seen it is not as natural in communicating actions you want but that may just be a perception thing. Some may feel different, but for us we get for more utility/usage out of the Josh devices, app, and custom scene creation than the C4 touchscreens we’ve had. We also have found that its stability for items like the Door Station (have a DS2 and not a Chime) and it has been far more reliable in the audible commands and notifications from Josh (the DS2 is a 2N device rebranded) than from Control4.

well hopefully this will be good and bring about good feedback https://www.residentialsystems.com/news/control4-and-josh-ai-launch-consumer-campaign

Thank you for that insight as I haven't been tremendously active here until the last 12-18 months. I'm pretty far into C4 ecosystem with my residence and cost prohibitive to go another route. I will try and feed that input with my local integrator to see if they have more routine reviews with Snap.

would be good to get some surveys out there especially on new devices released in the last 12-24 months for customer feedback. They acquired NEEO but have not heard of a customer engagement platform to garner feedback to go into design and improvements as it being a daily customer user interface. Having worked with 4 integrators now over the 13 years I've had my system not once has there been outreach. Would be good to provide some feedback, beyond forum monitoring and small pool of dealers, to get a much wider array of input. Bought 7 of the NEEO's to replace the SR'S when they first came out and there are definitely some areas for improvement not just as a daily user but for friends and family that found some issues in just visiting for a few days at a time with them. Maybe enough attention in this forum will have the attention to get a wider array of input like other technology companies do in order to factor them into future designs.

I appreciate the details on this. Thanks

I just had 2 Infratech heaters installed and C4 keypad to control the heaters along with the switches inside their Infratech panel. However, I am unable to locate information on getting the controls such that they will show up on my touch screens, iOS app and NEEO. When I contacted my Infratech rep he and his source at the company said they don't supply a driver. Is there one that C4 supplies? My local integrator has not installed these specific patio heaters before and trying to find the information to shorten the time here when they do a truck roll. Any information appreciated!

Thanks for that feedback. Shame they aren't doing further reaching to the end users, especially those they can see have large systems or those that have done upgrades and kept with the ecosystem for a long period of time to get direct interaction, even with just surveys and not just exclusive panel acceptance or forum looking. Oh well. Thanks for that information.

Never tried the voice controls. When at the friends home i just use the tactile approach. At my own home I use josh.ai to pull up sources along with other home commands

Question for dealers - Does Snap/Control4 request user experience feedback on devices? Was wondering, with specific respect to remote controls. I've used both NEEO for about 16 months and the SR series for 8 years and all fall very short of the user experience I've had at friends' homes that have the Crestron remotes (HR-310/TSR-310). I had assumed so but in talking with my integrator they have not heard of such a program whereas my colleagues get regular request from their dealers that stated they have direct line of communications with Crestron engineering on user experience. Just curious as comparably both my types of C4 remotes fall short of what have had with those Crestron remotes. No experience with the newer Savant remotes. Seems strange that having long time user experience with Control4 (ten years installed) that not once have I received a survey from the company. Not sure if that is common but definitely not in comparison to other technology products (PC's, headphones, DACs, etc.)

Not fully sure if this will fit the bill for you but take a look at Video Wall product options from AVPro Edge. They have a few on the site and just linked to one of them below. Their products also come with 10 year warranty. I don't have a video wall but use their Video Matrix and works great https://www.avproedge.com/ac-fresco-cap-4.html

Colorbeam has actually been able to be integrated with Control4 for some time now. My local dealer has it all throughout their showroom and they've started the pre-wire for my landscape, theater, kitchen and dining room lights to be managed and controlled with my C4 system already in place. Here is the URL from Colorbeam that shows all the details. It contains drivers, step by step details, videos, etc. https://info.cb-na.com/guide/3rd_Party_Integration/Control_4/

Don't know what to tell ya! Bought one HikVision system with NVR and 3 cameras in 2016, Cameras lasted about 3 years before starting to give issues. Bought the 1st NVR in 2016 and then that one crapped out completely in 2019. Bought a replacement unit and it stopped working in August of last year. Regardless of branding or not they don't always make good product from first person trials and usage here.

Kind of surprised to hear all of the issues with Luma. I've had 13 of their cameras installed at residence (11 310 series, 1 PTZ, 1 DS2 integrated into Luma NVR). I've had zero issues using the cameras on the Luma App. They natively integrate with Josh.ai and have had zero issues with viewing the cameras thru their app or via the web portal. The biggest issue has been with C4 iOS app and the cameras. Since the most recent 2 OS updates and iOS updates, viewing the cameras within the C4 app crashes within 30-45 seconds of viewing them. So I've just abandoned any hope for Snap getting that to work right even though they sell both Luma and C4. Instead just use the Josh app and Luma directly for detailed playback or quick viewing. Regardless of rebranding I'd not buy a Hikvision again. Have had to replace the cameras and NVR from them twice in our retail store. At top of year switching to Luma for those as well.

was updated about a month ago in early November. Before then it worked about 30% of the time. Since that update it worked 100% of the time until the last 2-3 days

ok hasn't worked since Sunday so figured something else

Has anyone with a Chime or DS2 had an issue in the past couple of days with their Intercom not triggering/calling on the iOS app? It was working fine for about 2 weeks. However since the last 4 days by visitors and myself each time the DS2 doorbell is pressed it does not trigger a notification or phone call in the IOS app. No updates to my system for the past 3 weeks so not sure what is going on with C4. Intercom setting in app and settings on iOS are correct. VErsion 3.2.3.606460 (Sept 13 21) Connected same 2N/DS2 with Josh system and get the notifications on that app 100% of the time

Definitely AVPro Edge. Have had the new Axion 8x8 for a few months and works great with all sources, distribution and downmixing. The last part comes in handy uncompressed when playing the Kaledescape across multiple zones from mono to full Atmos

They told my dealer they had a script to run for each DS2 and told them mine was done. Of course that's not the case. It still only works about 25% of the time at best. Worked on 4 of 9 door bell rings yesterday by visitors and 0 out of 4 today. The Josh app works 100% of the time on notifications and their app launch. The C4 scripting/programming definitely the problem and needs better user acceptance testing before rolling out to public. A Beta in their format is simply not proficient enough.

good grief! Have had similar experiences and did some testing since the DS2 is just a rebranded 2N door station. Rang Doorbell 12 times approximately 1 hour apart from each other 6 Times was to test with C4 and 6 times to test with Josh Had my phone with me at all times with the most recent C4 iOS update and current Josh.ai app version. Have Josh notifications and C4 notifications turned on. Have Josh Micros set to give audible announcement that someone is at front door when bell rings The results were: Control4 app 2 out of 6 times the C4 app launched the notification and allowed me to answer Of the 2 times 1 time the screen stayed blank for over 30 seconds before finally showing image 4 out of 6 times the app did nothing, no notification no launching of the app Josh.ai app 6 out of 6 times I received the notification 6 out of 6 times it gave the audible command to thru the Micros of someone at the front door 4 out of 6 times it loaded the image after pushing the notification within 3 seconds. The other two were between 6 and 10 seconds From that rudimentary test it provided me with enough detail to take back to the dealer. We've submitted requests to Snap/C4 a few times and no one responds. We know it's not the lag based upon hardware since I'm running both a EA-5 and CA-10 and have no throughput issues on other wired devices in the home. This is further verified when comparing it to Josh app. I The only downside to the Josh app at present is it doesn't allow me to do an intercom interface for speaking to them or a macro to unlock/lock the door. From this test it's evident the problem is with the C4 app itself and its inconsistency or ineffective programming and testing before releasing.

unfortunately that solution is not full-proof. It only works on setup here about 20-25% of the time. Logs sent to SnapOne/C4 and dealer worked with them. Still only works a fraction of the time, while other apps that leverage 2N work 100% of the time. No response from any support at Snap to date

Agreed - I am wondering if the experience is any better with the singular app using Intercom with the Chime doorbells? I'd consider replacing if that was the case. Until SnapOne/C4 improves the reliability of the app with DS2 I've just been using my Josh.ai app and set notifications for it and have it give an audible thru the Micros and VoiceCast to indicate someone has rung the front door. If there was a 2N direct app for the DS2's I'd use it to communicate with as a workaround until C4 gets this fixed. I am not even sure they realize it as a problem at this stage.

This only worked temporarily here. Have done these steps and worked for about 2-3 days. Then since it works about once every 10th ring. For some reason this works with Josh.ai with absolutely zero programming required since the DS2 is a 2N product rebranded.

Has anyone had issues with sporadic performance of the DS2 with the new combined app? After updating the system it didn't work at all. After my dealer worked with C4/SnapOne support for over an hour it finally worked that day. Since then it works about 20% of the time. The only reliable notification from the DS2 (as a 2N product) is via the Josh app that 100% of the time sends the notification of a doorbell ring. I don't understand how C4 can't get this to work reliably. This isn't a lag factor consider a CA-10 and EA-5 are in use at my residence. Any hints to get this 100% working considering no C4 support has been reliable as a solution is greatly appreciated. The phone is a iPhone 12 on the latest IOS and latest C4 version.