OceanDad

Understood - just offering an option. I agree with you and others on Unifi GUI. It's comprehensive and very solid. On the other hand, Unleashed is an easy firmware upgrade (most of the gray market equipment is ZoneFlex, but some people don't realize how easy the switch of firmware is) and it does most of what you will ever need from within the app. You would have to pry my Ruckus 710's from my cold dead hands, but the new Unifi gear is good too. Just watch out for beta releases etc.

Ruckus cost is as long as a piece of string. There's plenty of gray market or lightly used commercial Ruckus equipment out there for fairly close to the official Unifi cost. Certainly not 5x the cost. If it's your own project, that's where I'd be purchasing. Different story if it's a customer install and you definitely want to have warranty etc. Personally, I've not had a Ruckus WAP go bad (now jinxed). I'm not sure that I've ever even had to do a reboot. Not saying that Unifi is a bad choice - far from it. But if you want new Ruckus AP's you don't have to pay $700.

Room Control is a 'free' driver, but you need a dealer to add it to your project. Quick and simple to do, and I'd suggest getting him to add a copy to every room that you might want to do any degree of useful programming to in the future. It opens up some programming events that come in very handy as referenced above.

TP-Link work just fine. Just be aware that while on/off/dim will be instantaneous, feedback on state will lag behind. That's because the driver will be polling for state only every 10 seconds +. In other words, the touchscreen will show the light as off for a few seconds, even after you turn it on. Not really an issue for your use case. The driver for TP/Kasa is from Chowmain and is easy to set up and robust, assuming that you have solid wi-fi. The switches use a 2.4 network, not 5 GHz.

Alan’s Hikvision driver is my favorite new driver this year. Works so well, and having true IP control of the NVR as an HDMI source is really useful.

Well if we are going to blow the budget, what about these ? https://luxurylaunches.com/gadgets/hart_audio_offering_47_million_solid_gold_speakers.php

You forgot Elan

For some twisted reason, this made me laugh this morning. There's always something waiting to trip you up...

I don't have a problem with metadata using Plex. Certainly not with regular movies. You can choose from a range of agents that contribute metadata. Very occasionally I have some made-for-TV documentary that shows up as a movie without metadata, but that tends to be something obscure and brand new.

These are my favorites : https://www.amazon.com/SECO-LARM-SM-4201-LQ-TRACK-MOUNT-OVERHEAD/dp/B011OXPZ7Y/ref=asc_df_B011OXPZ7Y/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475746716396&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13434317323208947126&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031013&hvtargid=pla-1155727946110&psc=1

And just like that... it is working again. I have no clue what mysterious self-healing just took place.

Same problem again today. A different Nvidia Shield Pro box, suddenly no control, even tho' I can see the commands in Lua. Have tried box reboot, controller reboot, new static IP, using IP instead of UUID. Still no control. The last time this happened, a change of IP address solved it. This time not so lucky. Anyone else seen this ?

Plex is great, and seems to improve continuously. You might think about grabbing an Nvidia Shield Pro and using the built-in Plex server. Faster than a Roku for just about everything, free C4 driver, AI upscaling that can make standard def stuff look pretty good, highly configurable.

We would definitely use the C4 remote to adjust ours if we could. Only really need a setting for 'Flat' and a recall of one upright position (the bed remote has a memory recall for one favorite). The bed remote has way too many buttons on it, and gets lost easily. Looks like it is bluetooth and 2.4Ghz RF (also has a phone app) so no integration. One of these days I'll open up the control box to see what's going on. Was hoping that Bond might release some 2.4Ghz functionality - they have talked about future support for it, but nothing so far.

I highly recommend using the Chowmain Hikvision driver in that case. Your NVR model is supported, using a new version of firmware that Hik have endorsed for this integration. The latest update allows you to control the NVR via IP, which is really useful if you are using the HDMI output to feed monitors in the house. You can switch camera views, do PTZ etc using your C4 remote. Auto-configures a lot of stuff as well. Comes with an NVR driver, a static camera driver and a PTZ camera driver. Works really well. http://www.chowmainsoft.com/hikvision-control4 https://us.hikvision.com/en/control4-smart-home-solution On the problems that you were having with configuration, have you checked that all your camera port numbers do in fact match with what you have in the driver ? Can you view your cameras locally on the network via the URLs you are using ? I use a load of ColorVu cameras with no issue, but I don't bother integrating them (or any other cameras) fully into Control4 viewing because of the lousy 720P resolution restriction. Why hobble a 4K camera back to 720P when there are so many other better ways of viewing it ? I still use all the various triggers for C4 programming, but I use HDMI over CAT to view in the house, and NVMS7000 app to view on a phone remotely.

Are you using a Hikvision NVR with these cameras ? If so, which one ?

Would love to hear your review once it's installed, especially with Wi-Fi6. All of the installs I have done with Ruckus have been rock solid, even with strange buildings containing a lot of metal.

Exactly as Mitch says. You need a basic controller, and a little bit of programming. You look like a super organized person from your inventory, so you are a great candidate to work with a remote programmer, rather than a local dealer. That remote programmer can configure a controller and send it to you, then work a little with you over the phone to get you to push some buttons to identify your switches to that new controller. He can also send you some new plastic bits for your old switches. $1000 USD maximum, if those switches can be saved which looks entirely likely. Only other big consideration is the size and layout/construction of the home, as you need to consider the strength of the Zigbee network that is the backbone of Control4. You have some light switches, which helps, as everyone of those is like a little repeater station for the zigbee signal. Ideally, your controller can reside somewhere reasonably centrally in the house (not in a metal rack in the basement), and hopefully it can be hardwired to your internet connection. If all those things are true, then you should spend a little bit to save the system. You will then have something that is upgradeable to manage things like remote control of audio-visual, other lights, door locks, alarms etc. Almost limitless possibilities, but you can do it or not at a time that you choose. Good luck. (Oh, and @msgreenf is a great remote programmer...)

Ruckus. And don’t look back. Use Unleashed - it is free, and you don’t need a separate controller for residential. But, if you can’t get a CAT cable to the right place for each one then you might have to consider a mesh solution. Bear in mind that a well configured Ruckus WAP will have significantly better coverage than the standard consumer gear. Our 4000 square foot home is easily covered by a 710 and a 610, and would probably be ok with just one. If you have to go mesh with a C4 system to consider, then Eero in bridge mode is probably a better bet than Orbi. But definitely not ‘recommended’ by C4.

Thanks Mitch - we have Dots laying around, so will try first. Echo Input definitely neater (and no speaker to cause confusion). This is definitely the way to go for this client - no need to use Spotify Connect, which they don't like.

In my client example, there is no audio matrix - just an 8 zone Episode amp. I originally thought I would add the 'Rack Dot' to an EA-5 input, but I guess that's not correct. It should simply be connected to the Kitchen Zone input on the Episode amp, correct ? Then just configure as per David's example. IF they like it so much that they want to do the same in other rooms, then use another pair of Dots - one in the room, the other to a Zone input, configured as a room group in Alexa as above.

We have a client who wants to use an Echo Show in their kitchen to control music in that room. Kitchen is fed by an Episode 8 zone amp, and has ceiling speakers. That Episode amp lives in the rack, alongside an EA-5. Client prefers to use Spotify if possible. I was going to use the Show to call some scenes/favorites through programming, but.. Would it be better/possible to put an Echo Dot in the rack, and feed that into an audio input on the EA-5 ? Could I then group the Show and the Dot together within the Alexa app, and use the Show to command the Dot to play any track/artist etc through the EA-5 ? Challenges/pitfalls ?

The absence of the word Ruckus on the front of them. You know it makes sense - just do it.

Check out the Chowmain Hikvision NVR driver. It's just been updated to allow very comprehensive IP control of the menu functions of certain models of Hik NVRs. If you have one of these, it's a great choice. I have a 9600 series, and I use one of the HDMI outputs hooked into my matrix. View my 4K cameras in 4K, and control them via remote control or programmatically. Would be perfect for the use case you describe - it's exactly what I do on a doorbell push.

No. But I do know of some guy. He's called your dealer.