Time2Jet

We normally agree on things, but I beg to differ here. In my opinion, true automation should lean toward less user interaction and more intuitiveness. This isn’t to say that Voice integration is “intuitive” per se, but certainly removes some of the physical actions required to fire a “then” scene (scene being a very common Josh term).

If you look back through some of my old posts I have always felt that the future of automation was voice, motion, occupancy and fencing (since they haven’t figured out how to read our minds… yet) via programming. When we walk into a room at a certain time or day, maybe certain lighting fires at one time, a different brightness fires at another time and potentially no lighting fires at another time. When someone is sensed in a room for a predefined period of time, maybe the temperature is adjusted differently. When you leave your home, certain “scenes” may fire and others when you arrive home. When another person leaves the home or arrives home, maybe any of those actions are different arrive/leave scenes depending upon if anyone is still or already in the home. Maybe a scene is fired when a vehicle arrives in your drive and maybe that’s different depending on which vehicle or what time it arrives. Maybe an event fires when someone enters a specific area of your home or property. And amongst many many other automations, maybe scenes fire based on time of day, day of the week, month or year. Could also be when you leave the home and rain is in the forecast, you’re sent a notification telling you not to forget your umbrella. The possibilities are endless.

Voice control, eliminates the need to rise out of your chair or bed, walk across the home or room and other overt physical actions to fire a device or scene or to check a status. In the most simple of benefits, Voice eliminates the need for fumbling for a remote or getting up to use a touchscreen.

Control4 is an automation platform and not simply a AV/lighting Remote Control system. We strive to make our home smart and work the way we live.

Josh integration is leaps and bounds above any of the other voice control systems in every way. Integrating Josh with Control4 creates a much more powerful home automation system than either as a standalone. Anything you can do in Control4 can be done via a voice command with Josh using natural language tailored specifically to you. “Hey Josh, who is at the front door” will show you the front door camera (Yea, even a Chime) on the display in the room you are in at that time. And the room level scenes feature allows you to say “Hey Josh, turn on the lamps” (or turn on the ceiling lights, turn off the TV, and turn on the music for example) and Josh knows to turn on the lamps only in the room you are in. If you call the foyer “foyer” and your kids call it the “entry” it doesn’t care. You can say “hey Josh, it’s a little warm in here” and Josh will lower the TStat. It also handles compound commands “do this, this and this” and it accommodates. When I leave carrying something to my car I can say “hey Josh I’m leaving, lock the door in 1 minute” so it gives me time to clear the door before it locks and fires my away scene”. And of course the most advertised feature is that you can walk into a room and say “hey Josh, turn on the lamps, close the shades and let’s watch S1E3 of Better Call Saul. Josh will deep dive programming for you. You can ask for a movie and it will find options for you. (During setup the Josh driver for Control4 finds all of your steaming services and you can prioritize both where it looks first for video or music).

Okay, that was a lot… but it’s my opinion that voice control is very important and Josh is the gold standard in that space, nothing else is remotely close today. It pains me as an end user and dealer for both products that they didn’t form a better alliance and they are at odds legally right now. It is in the best interests of both to resolve this quickly and to the benefit of each.

We normally agree on things, but I beg to differ here. In my opinion, true automation should lean toward less user interaction and more intuitiveness. This isn’t to say that Voice integration is “intuitive” per se, but certainly removes some of the physical actions required to fire a “then” scene (scene being a very common Josh term).

If you look back through some of my old posts I have always felt that the future of automation was voice, motion, occupancy and fencing (since they haven’t figured out how to read our minds… yet) via programming. When we walk into a room at a certain time or day, maybe certain lighting fires at one time, a different brightness fires at another time and potentially no lighting fires at another time. When someone is sensed in a room for a predefined period of time, maybe the temperature is adjusted differently. When you leave your home, certain “scenes” may fire and others when you arrive home. When another person leaves the home or arrives home, maybe any of those actions are different arrive/leave scenes depending upon if anyone is still or already in the home. Maybe a scene is fired when a vehicle arrives in your drive and maybe that’s different depending on which vehicle or what time it arrives. Maybe an event fires when someone enters a specific area of your home or property. And amongst many many other automations, maybe scenes fire based on time of day, day of the week, month or year. Could also be when you leave the home and rain is in the forecast, you’re sent a notification telling you not to forget your umbrella. The possibilities are endless.

Voice control, eliminates the need to rise out of your chair or bed, walk across the home or room and other overt physical actions to fire a device or scene or to check a status. In the most simple of benefits, Voice eliminates the need for fumbling for a remote or getting up to use a touchscreen.

Control4 is an automation platform and not simply a AV/lighting Remote Control system. We strive to make our home smart and work the way we live.

Josh integration is leaps and bounds above any of the other voice control systems in every way. Integrating Josh with Control4 creates a much more powerful home automation system than either as a standalone. Anything you can do in Control4 can be done via a voice command with Josh using natural language tailored specifically to you. “Hey Josh, who is at the front door” will show you the front door camera (Yea, even a Chime) on the display in the room you are in at that time. And the room level scenes feature allows you to say “Hey Josh, turn on the lamps” (or turn on the ceiling lights, turn off the TV, and turn on the music for example) and Josh knows to turn on the lamps only in the room you are in. If you call the foyer “foyer” and your kids call it the “entry” it doesn’t care. You can say “hey Josh, it’s a little warm in here” and Josh will lower the TStat. It also handles compound commands “do this, this and this” and it accommodates. When I leave carrying something to my car I can say “hey Josh I’m leaving, lock the door in 1 minute” so it gives me time to clear the door before it locks and fires my away scene”. And of course the most advertised feature is that you can walk into a room and say “hey Josh, turn on the lamps, close the shades and let’s watch S1E3 of Better Call Saul. Josh will deep dive programming for you. You can ask for a movie and it will find options for you. (During setup the Josh driver for Control4 finds all of your steaming services and you can prioritize both where it looks first for video or music).

Okay, that was a lot… but it’s my opinion that voice control is very important and Josh is the gold standard in that space, nothing else is remotely close today. It pains me as an end user and dealer for both products that they didn’t form a better alliance and they are at odds legally right now. It is in the best interests of both to resolve this quickly and to the benefit of each.

We normally agree on things, but I beg to differ here. In my opinion, true automation should lean toward less user interaction and more intuitiveness. This isn’t to say that Voice integration is “intuitive” per se, but certainly removes some of the physical actions required to fire a “then” scene (scene being a very common Josh term).

If you look back through some of my old posts I have always felt that the future of automation was voice, motion, occupancy and fencing (since they haven’t figured out how to read our minds… yet) via programming. When we walk into a room at a certain time or day, maybe certain lighting fires at one time, a different brightness fires at another time and potentially no lighting fires at another time. When someone is sensed in a room for a predefined period of time, maybe the temperature is adjusted differently. When you leave your home, certain “scenes” may fire and others when you arrive home. When another person leaves the home or arrives home, maybe any of those actions are different arrive/leave scenes depending upon if anyone is still or already in the home. Maybe a scene is fired when a vehicle arrives in your drive and maybe that’s different depending on which vehicle or what time it arrives. Maybe an event fires when someone enters a specific area of your home or property. And amongst many many other automations, maybe scenes fire based on time of day, day of the week, month or year. Could also be when you leave the home and rain is in the forecast, you’re sent a notification telling you not to forget your umbrella. The possibilities are endless.

Voice control, eliminates the need to rise out of your chair or bed, walk across the home or room and other overt physical actions to fire a device or scene or to check a status. In the most simple of benefits, Voice eliminates the need for fumbling for a remote or getting up to use a touchscreen.

Control4 is an automation platform and not simply a AV/lighting Remote Control system. We strive to make our home smart and work the way we live.

Josh integration is leaps and bounds above any of the other voice control systems in every way. Integrating Josh with Control4 creates a much more powerful home automation system than either as a standalone. Anything you can do in Control4 can be done via a voice command with Josh using natural language tailored specifically to you. “Hey Josh, who is at the front door” will show you the front door camera (Yea, even a Chime) on the display in the room you are in at that time. And the room level scenes feature allows you to say “Hey Josh, turn on the lamps” (or turn on the ceiling lights, turn off the TV, and turn on the music for example) and Josh knows to turn on the lamps only in the room you are in. If you call the foyer “foyer” and your kids call it the “entry” it doesn’t care. You can say “hey Josh, it’s a little warm in here” and Josh will lower the TStat. It also handles compound commands “do this, this and this” and it accommodates. When I leave carrying something to my car I can say “hey Josh I’m leaving, lock the door in 1 minute” so it gives me time to clear the door before it locks and fires my away scene”. And of course the most advertised feature is that you can walk into a room and say “hey Josh, turn on the lamps, close the shades and let’s watch S1E3 of Better Call Saul. Josh will deep dive programming for you. You can ask for a movie and it will find options for you. (During setup the Josh driver for Control4 finds all of your steaming services and you can prioritize both where it looks first for video or music).

Okay, that was a lot… but it’s my opinion that voice control is very important and Josh is the gold standard in that space, nothing else is remotely close today. It pains me as an end user and dealer for both products that they didn’t form a better alliance and they are at odds legally right now. It is in the best interests of both to resolve this quickly and to the benefit of each.

We normally agree on things, but I beg to differ here. In my opinion, true automation should lean toward less user interaction and more intuitiveness. This isn’t to say that Voice integration is “intuitive” per se, but certainly removes some of the physical actions required to fire a “then” scene (scene being a very common Josh term).

If you look back through some of my old posts I have always felt that the future of automation was voice, motion, occupancy and fencing (since they haven’t figured out how to read our minds… yet) via programming. When we walk into a room at a certain time or day, maybe certain lighting fires at one time, a different brightness fires at another time and potentially no lighting fires at another time. When someone is sensed in a room for a predefined period of time, maybe the temperature is adjusted differently. When you leave your home, certain “scenes” may fire and others when you arrive home. When another person leaves the home or arrives home, maybe any of those actions are different arrive/leave scenes depending upon if anyone is still or already in the home. Maybe a scene is fired when a vehicle arrives in your drive and maybe that’s different depending on which vehicle or what time it arrives. Maybe an event fires when someone enters a specific area of your home or property. And amongst many many other automations, maybe scenes fire based on time of day, day of the week, month or year. Could also be when you leave the home and rain is in the forecast, you’re sent a notification telling you not to forget your umbrella. The possibilities are endless.

Voice control, eliminates the need to rise out of your chair or bed, walk across the home or room and other overt physical actions to fire a device or scene or to check a status. In the most simple of benefits, Voice eliminates the need for fumbling for a remote or getting up to use a touchscreen.

Control4 is an automation platform and not simply a AV/lighting Remote Control system. We strive to make our home smart and work the way we live.

Josh integration is leaps and bounds above any of the other voice control systems in every way. Integrating Josh with Control4 creates a much more powerful home automation system than either as a standalone. Anything you can do in Control4 can be done via a voice command with Josh using natural language tailored specifically to you. “Hey Josh, who is at the front door” will show you the front door camera (Yea, even a Chime) on the display in the room you are in at that time. And the room level scenes feature allows you to say “Hey Josh, turn on the lamps” (or turn on the ceiling lights, turn off the TV, and turn on the music for example) and Josh knows to turn on the lamps only in the room you are in. If you call the foyer “foyer” and your kids call it the “entry” it doesn’t care. You can say “hey Josh, it’s a little warm in here” and Josh will lower the TStat. It also handles compound commands “do this, this and this” and it accommodates. When I leave carrying something to my car I can say “hey Josh I’m leaving, lock the door in 1 minute” so it gives me time to clear the door before it locks and fires my away scene”. And of course the most advertised feature is that you can walk into a room and say “hey Josh, turn on the lamps, close the shades and let’s watch S1E3 of Better Call Saul. Josh will deep dive programming for you. You can ask for a movie and it will find options for you. (During setup the Josh driver for Control4 finds all of your steaming services and you can prioritize both where it looks first for video or music).

Okay, that was a lot… but it’s my opinion that voice control is very important and Josh is the gold standard in that space, nothing else is remotely close today. It pains me as an end user and dealer for both products that they didn’t form a better alliance and they are at odds legally right now. It is in the best interests of both to resolve this quickly and to the benefit of each.

We normally agree on things, but I beg to differ here. In my opinion, true automation should lean toward less user interaction and more intuitiveness. This isn’t to say that Voice integration is “intuitive” per se, but certainly removes some of the physical actions required to fire a “then” scene (scene being a very common Josh term).

If you look back through some of my old posts I have always felt that the future of automation was voice, motion, occupancy and fencing (since they haven’t figured out how to read our minds… yet) via programming. When we walk into a room at a certain time or day, maybe certain lighting fires at one time, a different brightness fires at another time and potentially no lighting fires at another time. When someone is sensed in a room for a predefined period of time, maybe the temperature is adjusted differently. When you leave your home, certain “scenes” may fire and others when you arrive home. When another person leaves the home or arrives home, maybe any of those actions are different arrive/leave scenes depending upon if anyone is still or already in the home. Maybe a scene is fired when a vehicle arrives in your drive and maybe that’s different depending on which vehicle or what time it arrives. Maybe an event fires when someone enters a specific area of your home or property. And amongst many many other automations, maybe scenes fire based on time of day, day of the week, month or year. Could also be when you leave the home and rain is in the forecast, you’re sent a notification telling you not to forget your umbrella. The possibilities are endless.

Voice control, eliminates the need to rise out of your chair or bed, walk across the home or room and other overt physical actions to fire a device or scene or to check a status. In the most simple of benefits, Voice eliminates the need for fumbling for a remote or getting up to use a touchscreen.

Control4 is an automation platform and not simply a AV/lighting Remote Control system. We strive to make our home smart and work the way we live.

Josh integration is leaps and bounds above any of the other voice control systems in every way. Integrating Josh with Control4 creates a much more powerful home automation system than either as a standalone. Anything you can do in Control4 can be done via a voice command with Josh using natural language tailored specifically to you. “Hey Josh, who is at the front door” will show you the front door camera (Yea, even a Chime) on the display in the room you are in at that time. And the room level scenes feature allows you to say “Hey Josh, turn on the lamps” (or turn on the ceiling lights, turn off the TV, and turn on the music for example) and Josh knows to turn on the lamps only in the room you are in. If you call the foyer “foyer” and your kids call it the “entry” it doesn’t care. You can say “hey Josh, it’s a little warm in here” and Josh will lower the TStat. It also handles compound commands “do this, this and this” and it accommodates. When I leave carrying something to my car I can say “hey Josh I’m leaving, lock the door in 1 minute” so it gives me time to clear the door before it locks and fires my away scene”. And of course the most advertised feature is that you can walk into a room and say “hey Josh, turn on the lamps, close the shades and let’s watch S1E3 of Better Call Saul. Josh will deep dive programming for you. You can ask for a movie and it will find options for you. (During setup the Josh driver for Control4 finds all of your steaming services and you can prioritize both where it looks first for video or music).

Okay, that was a lot… but it’s my opinion that voice control is very important and Josh is the gold standard in that space, nothing else is remotely close today. It pains me as an end user and dealer for both products that they didn’t form a better alliance and they are at odds legally right now. It is in the best interests of both to resolve this quickly and to the benefit of each.

Thanks to @JSTRONG I am going to try out Josh and I will report back my opinion after!

This is quite unfortunate a turn of events but hopefully at least current state does not get worse in terms of integration.  The VC of Josh has definitely opened up our use of the system more than other interfaces like the C4 T3/T4 touchscreens have.  The ability to do compound commands, program multi-function scenes far easier than When>Then, and the usability by guests and the wife have all been benefits of Josh in conjunction with Control4.  Combine that with the ability to learn items like my Lutron shades without even needing the dealer to come out to the house to program and use via Josh is fantastic.  Other industries regularly have ongoing litigation and suits (oil & gas, automotive, Google/MS/Apple) and still have ongoing and mutually beneficial strategic partnerships.  Josh needs more development and has strengths in voice.  Control4 has weaknesses in UI and timing to market of offerings their competitors offer.  So recognizing the gaps and the benefits especially for end users like this community are important to maintain and keep progressing.

Good write up Greg. I think we will continue to see great control4 and josh integration. It would be in everyone’s best interest. 

agree - there seems to be a divergent path being taken in the sophistication and user experience when comparing what C4 is doing compared to the OS's UI of Crestron Home, Savant and Josh.ai to name a few.  There is a much more updated, streamlined, pleasing view of status pages at the outset of the app, user commands and the like that are on a lever higher that what I see with these C4 OS updates.  I download the demo versions of the Crestron and Savant app just get a feel for them and own the Josh App in addition to C4.  Just between the latter two the Josh interface IMO is leaps and bounds above what C4 has to offer at present.  Hopefully they will get on a projected path to something that meets their peers but in the decade plus owning it don't see it surpassing or being an UI leader in the industry.  I like C4 for the reliability and integration but the interface leaves a lot to be desired.  We use Josh for most of our system interactions and only the remotes for TV playback

I have my fans hidden in lights and use experience buttons to control them in comfort (and / or favourited to the Home Screen). Both bNet solutions and Chowmain have cool experience buttons for fan control.

Awesome!  It’s definitely easy to overlook a reboot.  Funny how in 2023 the electronics/automation technician’s best tool is a simple power cycle.  

Its a core5 and yes a reboot did not change the behaviour.
cheers.
 

Yes they can be integrated 

Actually, you could trick this by connecting the driver’s button 5 to another button on the physical keypad…

Here is a photo of mine. The four custom buttons I programmed for the Home Theater room show up as the four buttons with dots. 
 

 
 

That project should have zero issues with the Core3 @Gary Leeds UK And constant rebooting would not be what you’d expect if the processing is taxed.


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These are not hard limits. What categories does you system control? 

If you don't personally have an enthusiasm for Ubiquiti and are just looking to get a better WiFi experience, your dealer would also be able to provide Access Networks' Ruckus bases APs. Those are fabulous APs and can run without a controller for most deployments. They're "in the family" and would allow you to keep your Araknis gear in place.

The NVR on the dream machine is great.  The whole Unifi protect experience is way better then the Chinese NVRs.  The DC driver allows you to integrate the smart detections (people, cars).  You can limit your notifications based on when you are home or away.  Its really turning out to be a great system and improvements and features continue to be released  monthly.
I'm not sure on the need for 10G.  The only real application I've seen for 10G in residential is the new SDVOE devices.  MXNET 10G requires 10G networks to work.  I only have 10G as a backbone between my switches as Unifi made that easy with 10G SFP+ ports.  I know I'm not even coming close to reaching the 1G limits. 

What’s that saying… someone would “bitch if you hung them with a rotten rope”?

The Halo Platform Touch Remote is the by far the best remote ever released to date in the AV industry. We’re always going to find something we don’t love or we feel is missing, but they didn’t miss too badly here. And I’m sure as new things roll out, the Halo platform will only get better and better. As a dealer I’m not privy to much more than interested end users (outside of Betas with NDAs), but what we have been told is that there is a lot coming to enhance the experience and the Halo Platform remotes are designed with this in mind.

One thing overlooked is that if you use a third-party HomeKit driver setup with a bridge device etc, you can focus on AppleTV and voice control your home via Siri-(ish).

$550/$900 net is a big ask, but if we think about what they asked for the SR platform remotes and reconcile to today’s dollars, it’s not insane.

I’d suggest everyone try just one. I’m terms of touch, I was shipped Silvers only so far, but I think they look fantastic and I’m one to prefer black remotes. I had the Halo tactile day one. Had reasons to complain (WiFi & battery life issues) but FW fixed all of them. I do miss the 3 customs on the tactile they didn’t carry over to the Touch, but a few experience buttons favorited works.

All in all, I’m sure there has never been a better remote launched by anyone to date.


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Thanks.  The road to getting this on DC has been long but I have a few drivers that I'm working on to package up.  I'll shoot you a new trial.  

Thanks for the Sonos Extras trial @DanITman   It’s been flawless and definitely makes the Sonos integration much better.  I particularly like the Soundbar Modes considering I had bars in every bedroom.  So nice to be able to have night & dialog enhance modes favorited to the room on the remotes. Having to reach for my phone at night to open the Sonos app every time was a pain.  The Clear Queue feature you added is also huge.  Thanks.  
 
One favor if you could… My trial expired, do you mind shooting me a new trial until it’s live on DC?  

Spotify strikes again.  God I hate Spotify in every way.  But I think only integrators and audiophiles hate it.  My wife and kids are Spotify all day people.  I think the audio is horrid, the entire Spotify Connect thing is absurd (Sonos/Heos) and… I just hate it.  Oh, and the app is nice.  So that’s my issue.  Imagine if it was a native full integration.  Even with the horrid audio (who cares in 80% of distributed audio scenarios) it would be so killer. 

Spotify strikes again.  God I hate Spotify in every way.  But I think only integrators and audiophiles hate it.  My wife and kids are Spotify all day people.  I think the audio is horrid, the entire Spotify Connect thing is absurd (Sonos/Heos) and… I just hate it.  Oh, and the app is nice.  So that’s my issue.  Imagine if it was a native full integration.  Even with the horrid audio (who cares in 80% of distributed audio scenarios) it would be so killer. 

They should be, unless there is another mode which won't break things?