ntlord

I think the intercom point here is worth emphasizing here. The DS2 is worthless—avoid. The chime hardware is actually pretty nice. But the intercom app for C4 is garbage. It doesn’t work half the time, and constant requires “reconnections”. And there is some delay, which is annoying, but not a deal breaker. I’ve never had a ring, so I can’t compare. But I suspect it works a lot better.
As for video surveillance, I have pretty good integration, and it works well. I have zero complaints. But I use blue iris. Most of the other integrations don’t work as well. 
 
 
 
 

Like: it integrates with everything. And it is pretty stable.

Dislike: NEEO remote. It’s a little personal preference, but it’s not as slick as it seems. First, the touchscreen is a little wonky. Battery life isn’t great. The WI-FI is finicky. And no backlight is annoying. I’d strongly suggest seeing if you could test it out first before dropping the money on it.
In all of my Control4 installations, I always use Lutron lighting (with C4 keypads). I do this so I’m not entirely reliant on C4. In addition, Lutron is basically the industry gold standard for lighting control.
I’m also torn on the touchscreens. In my last house, I had a few of them—and I rarely used them. I decided for my new house the problem was that I didn’t have enough of them. So I put them in more places. I still don’t use them! That said, they are pretty slick, which is why I’m torn. But this is simply personal preference. They work great, I just find that I don’t use them. I typically just use my phone or the remote.
I also recently switched to a C4 thermostat. It’s not as slick looking as a Nest or ecobee. But the integration is second to none. I’d suggest getting one.

C4 is honestly only worth it if you are going to integrate a ton of stuff in your house. Yes, the app is not a slick as other apps. And yes, it sucks big time that it is dealer only. And yes, the NEEO is a joke and the SR260 is ugly as shit. 
 
But it is freaking awesome that everything can be accessed from a single app. I can control everything from my lights, garage door, locks, TVs, and everything else in my house—from a single app. There are just not that many other solutions out there that have the wide support of devices like C4.
The only thing that even comes close in terms of integration is some of the open source products like Home Assistant. But good luck trying to find a remote control that works with that now that Logitech is done with Harmony. 
 
If you want just a few things integrated, choose a different product.

I run pfsense with ubiquiti APs. Here is the bottom line. Assuming you are going to have a separate vlan for IoT devices, then just make sure they are all on that vlan (including C4). If you do that, it works well. Now if you want to do some more complex stuff like allow casting, airplay, or Sonos across VLANs, then there are more issues. But that has nothing to do with C4, and you can google out solutions to each. 
 
As long as you keep C4 and all the devices it controls on same VLAN, it will work fine. And pretty much out of the box.

I don’t disagree in general with these points. But I think this is still being very charitable to C4. The Neeo was released with less functionality than an SR-260. A lot less. And it has some significant hardware flaws. It’d be one thing if it was priced accordingly. But it’s not. These are premium products. I think it’s reasonable to expect fully-baked. After all, that’s why people generally buy C4 as opposed to a consumer-grade system.

I”m glad to see C4 get some recognition too. But obviously these awards, like most “industry” awards, are totally bullshit. That is all the more true when Neeo—a product that was not innovative by definition—is the so-called “product of the year.” 

I made the mistake of buying Hunter Douglas. Biggest mistake I've ever made in the automation space. I was trying to save money, and that was super short sighted because they suck. The only answer is Lutron.  Pay the extra money. It's worth it. 

Is this an award or an advertisement?
$445 entry fee
"All entrants will receive extensive exposure of their products to end-users."
All Entrants Receive
Featured online promotion of photo and product description on cepro.com. (Residential products)  Featured online promotion of photo and product description on commercialintegrator.com. (Commercial products) Featured exposure to high-value corporate end-users via MyTechDecisions.com Winners Receive
A product image and listing in April 2020 print editions of CE Pro and Commercial Integrator Social media exposure through various CE Pro and Commercial Integrator channels Use of the TNT 2020 winner's logo on your website and marketing materials, valued at $1,500 https://tntawards.secure-platform.com/a/?utm_source=CEP_Promo&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=TNT2020

I made the mistake of buying Hunter Douglas. Biggest mistake I've ever made in the automation space. I was trying to save money, and that was super short sighted because they suck. The only answer is Lutron.  Pay the extra money. It's worth it. 

lol. I'm mostly done. I'm sure everyone can agree I've bitched enough at this point. And I agree too.  I will now go back to my regular scheduled programming of bitching about composer pro access. Just kidding. 

Yup. That's totally worth the extra $300. Flash and RAM is super expensive these days. C'mon.
But one questions remains unanswered by C4. Why did C4 intentionally remove the replaceable battery? Is it not to further screw the unlucky souls who have decided to beta test your $600 "new" remote? I'll give my guess. Tell me if this rings true. C4 did not do any hardware development at all with Neeo. All of the alleged improvements C4 has been touting as new, were already in the so-called "Neeo Pro" that Neeo developed before they were bailed out by C4. My guess is prior to the acquisition,  Neeo decided to remove that feature, probably because they were unquestionably an ego-driven, poorly-run company that didn't give a shit about their customers, which incidentally is why they needed to be bailed out by C4 in the first place. So C4 takes the Neeo Pro releases it unchanged, and as a consequence, we end up with a half-baked product.
So why didn't C4 fix the hardware? I mean how hard could it be to add backlighting? Well because they needed to focus on the software. It wasn't easy to port Neeo over to C4, and releasing new hardware would only complicate that. So they made a decision, as RyanE conceded. Release hardware they know has drawbacks (i.e. is shitty), with the hopes that a few suckers will buy it and be beta testers for the software. So there you have it--that's how we ended up with C4's "new" remote.
So what do I predict is going to happen? Well per RyanE's earlier post, C4 will release some new remote (likely sooner than later (although admittedly he is not saying that)). The new remote is going to be super expensive. Can you even imagine how expensive if $300 only buys you some extra flash and RAM? 

Exactly. Cash grab. 

Haha. As I've been saying since before this remote was released, this was a lazy, half-baked design by C4. And is a bad attempt by C4 to quickly address a clear shortcoming compared to its competitors. The hacky solutions that people are forced to use to make this remote just barely useable are hilarious and plain confirmation that C4 missed the mark here.  
It genuinely warms my heart to know that the vast number of reviews of the Neeo are negative because it means most people are rational, and don't believe the hype. That gives me faith.  And I truly believe that the very small minority of people that have given this remote positive reviews are just lying to themselves and trying to justify wasting $600. This remote sucks, and everyone knows it---most of all C4. Hopefully, that will mean that the product managers and developers at C4 responsible for Neeo will be disappointed by how shitty everyone thinks their product is, and perhaps be motivated to actually try next time to release a good product. And I have no doubt that the Neeo 2 will be great, and will come sooner rather than later given how crappy this product is. 
And please don't forget THAT THE BATTERY IS NOT REPLACEABLE. You pay $600, and need to throw it in the garbage can when the battery gets weak. And interestingly, of the very small number of trivial design tweaks C4 made to this remote from the original Neeo, one of them was modifying the case to disallow battery replacements.  Let that sink in. C4 basically made no modifications to the original Neeo, except for specifically disallowing battery replacement. Talk about a cash grab...

Haha. As I've been saying since before this remote was released, this was a lazy, half-baked design by C4. And is a bad attempt by C4 to quickly address a clear shortcoming compared to its competitors. The hacky solutions that people are forced to use to make this remote just barely useable are hilarious and plain confirmation that C4 missed the mark here.  
It genuinely warms my heart to know that the vast number of reviews of the Neeo are negative because it means most people are rational, and don't believe the hype. That gives me faith.  And I truly believe that the very small minority of people that have given this remote positive reviews are just lying to themselves and trying to justify wasting $600. This remote sucks, and everyone knows it---most of all C4. Hopefully, that will mean that the product managers and developers at C4 responsible for Neeo will be disappointed by how shitty everyone thinks their product is, and perhaps be motivated to actually try next time to release a good product. And I have no doubt that the Neeo 2 will be great, and will come sooner rather than later given how crappy this product is. 
And please don't forget THAT THE BATTERY IS NOT REPLACEABLE. You pay $600, and need to throw it in the garbage can when the battery gets weak. And interestingly, of the very small number of trivial design tweaks C4 made to this remote from the original Neeo, one of them was modifying the case to disallow battery replacements.  Let that sink in. C4 basically made no modifications to the original Neeo, except for specifically disallowing battery replacement. Talk about a cash grab...

Yea. I know that. I appreciate his help too. Really.  But man he can be incredibly condescending sometimes. So I met a dick response with a dick response. 

You're right. Forgive me. How could I forget that your vast experience of plugging-in ethernet cables and crimping RCA jacks makes you the authority on circuitry design. 

I assume that LOL is agreement with me. Because you can’t possibly be asserting that expanding the size of a flash chip and RAM is anything beyond trivial. But then again I actually have designed circuitry and hardware, so you know, I speak from actual experience.

Yea. I know that. I appreciate his help too. Really.  But man he can be incredibly condescending sometimes. So I met a dick response with a dick response. 

Further, the only changes according to RyanE were ram and flash size. That makes both versions pretty much the same in my mind. And certainly makes any changes C4 made as trivial.
But I’m even dubious of that. Before NEEO was purchased they were close to releasing a “pro” version. I wonder whether the C4 NEEO is the same as that version. If it is, C4 made zero changes to anything NEEO had

This has really been my point all along. There is no way C4 couldn't have anticipated this reaction. It's plainly a lazy product launch. Not only is it identical in almost every way to a failed product--Neeo. But the software isn't even as capable as a T3. No control of thermostats! No cameras. I'm sure there is more too. Wakeup agent perhaps?
To be frank, I hope the developers and product managers at C4 look at all of this negative reaction (which is largely universal across all platforms of communication) and feel super disappointed. Now I don't pretend to understand the internal politics of C4, but in my opinion, but they should feel disappointed. There is no innovation here. That is undeniable. I can only hope that perhaps next time that will motivate them to do better. I have no doubt the V2 of this remote will be great. 

This has really been my point all along. There is no way C4 couldn't have anticipated this reaction. It's plainly a lazy product launch. Not only is it identical in almost every way to a failed product--Neeo. But the software isn't even as capable as a T3. No control of thermostats! No cameras. I'm sure there is more too. Wakeup agent perhaps?
To be frank, I hope the developers and product managers at C4 look at all of this negative reaction (which is largely universal across all platforms of communication) and feel super disappointed. Now I don't pretend to understand the internal politics of C4, but in my opinion, but they should feel disappointed. There is no innovation here. That is undeniable. I can only hope that perhaps next time that will motivate them to do better. I have no doubt the V2 of this remote will be great. 

I figured you might  And I actually agree with almost everything you said, except for obviously the "great" product part. I think it's at best going to be an ok product given the limitations I have already stated. I agree that design and development is a series of tradeoffs. And my point was that here C4 traded off having a truly great product with a fast go-to market strategy.  That is a tradeoff for sure, just not the tradeoff I wish C4 made. But I guess that's why I don't work in the consumer product space. 
To me it's unclear whether any of this still doesn't mean it will be a success. The Neeo is impressive to hold--I'll give you that. And that might make it easy sell to consumers. But I think it will be a purchase they regret. I think the SR260 just has better usability. Why do I think that? First, I own a neeo and an SR260--so I have some ability to compare. Second, my portable T3 stays in the closet. Why?  Although it looks cool, its a pain in the ass to use--I like the buttons (like most people). I suspect others on this forum would back me up on that point. But I guess we'll agree to disagree there.
But with this. I'm done being negative about this. I'll reserve any further judgment until I see one in action. 
P.S. Ok. I can't help myself. I notice there s no comfort menu. Is that additional functionality that is missing? I can't adjust my thermostat?  

C4 knows damn well that people want more buttons and back-lighting. They know that makes a better product. All the excuses in the world won't change that. But here is the bottom line: C4 was behind on the remote control game. Instead, of coming up with their own product, the bought a company. Nothing wrong with that. But instead of fixing the obvious design flaws of the Neeo, C4 is hastily releasing it in an attempt to stop any bleeding to competitors. They could have waited. Released a great product. But they didn't wait. Instead, they will now likely release a better version in a year or two, fixing all of these problems (claiming they now listened to customer feedback), and then leave everyone who bought this shitty version high and dry. So my advice, wait. Don't buy it. Show C4 with our money that they should release well-designed products, instead of re-branded half-baked bullshit.
 

C4 knows damn well that people want more buttons and back-lighting. They know that makes a better product. All the excuses in the world won't change that. But here is the bottom line: C4 was behind on the remote control game. Instead, of coming up with their own product, the bought a company. Nothing wrong with that. But instead of fixing the obvious design flaws of the Neeo, C4 is hastily releasing it in an attempt to stop any bleeding to competitors. They could have waited. Released a great product. But they didn't wait. Instead, they will now likely release a better version in a year or two, fixing all of these problems (claiming they now listened to customer feedback), and then leave everyone who bought this shitty version high and dry. So my advice, wait. Don't buy it. Show C4 with our money that they should release well-designed products, instead of re-branded half-baked bullshit.
 

I figured you might  And I actually agree with almost everything you said, except for obviously the "great" product part. I think it's at best going to be an ok product given the limitations I have already stated. I agree that design and development is a series of tradeoffs. And my point was that here C4 traded off having a truly great product with a fast go-to market strategy.  That is a tradeoff for sure, just not the tradeoff I wish C4 made. But I guess that's why I don't work in the consumer product space. 
To me it's unclear whether any of this still doesn't mean it will be a success. The Neeo is impressive to hold--I'll give you that. And that might make it easy sell to consumers. But I think it will be a purchase they regret. I think the SR260 just has better usability. Why do I think that? First, I own a neeo and an SR260--so I have some ability to compare. Second, my portable T3 stays in the closet. Why?  Although it looks cool, its a pain in the ass to use--I like the buttons (like most people). I suspect others on this forum would back me up on that point. But I guess we'll agree to disagree there.
But with this. I'm done being negative about this. I'll reserve any further judgment until I see one in action. 
P.S. Ok. I can't help myself. I notice there s no comfort menu. Is that additional functionality that is missing? I can't adjust my thermostat?