Control4Savant

22 hours ago, LollerAgent said:

How has your experience with SofaBaton been thus far?

22 hours ago, therockhr said:

wow i havent seen this. the remotes look just like Harmony (i happen to think they made great looking remotes).

What do you think about them? I never went with Harmony because it was so IR centric and didnt have the home automation features I wanted. Also, the EA-1 and the SR-260 are priced so well its hard to go with something else.

So far iv enjoyed them. I have tried a few different trying to notice any non obvious differences. Very much Harmony Lite. I need to order one for home myself and see what can be done about larger HA type integration

I have been trying to beta SofaBaton as much as possible on agnostic systems. 

5 minutes ago, RAV said:

6. Caller blames everything on the original installer, negative attitude, it never worked right. Typically these are a lack of communication, or tight finances, there are bad installers, but 8 out of 10 it wasn't all the installer.

I couldn’t disagree more… 

29 minutes ago, turls said:

What happens to customers when the original dealer disappears? Most dealers don't seem to want to take on rescues, which is basically what the former customers become...

They need to find someone else. Most good dealers enjoy taking on existing systems. As long as its a good experience it will always lead to additional business later on. 

23 minutes ago, therockhr said:

I guess what turns me off is that you are paying for the power of a home automation system but really only using the voice features. as i mentioned earlier, if it had the full feature set to replace a control4 or crestron then i could see installing it but paying all that money on top of what it costs for control4 just seems wild.

but as others have mentioned im sure there are people who dont care and will pay whatever.

Feel free to be deliberately ignorant and repeat yourself. Im out. 

7 hours ago, therockhr said:

This is all so tiresome.

Maybe its a scam…

Sorry, no Canada shipping…

1 hour ago, therockhr said:

I would be skeptical of any dealer who sells someone control4 and then sells them Josh on top. It would be like installing crestron and then then installing control4 on top of that. Voice control can’t be worth it to pay for 2 control systems that do the same thing. 

I guess you should stop dealing with any pros then…

28 minutes ago, therockhr said:

The white paper had to say something even if it was to say this is something they were just thinking about doing. 

My point is this, its at least something to talk about as it is interesting to think about how this impacts existing and new installations. its fine to say "hey there is very little we know about if/when this will happen" but the idea of "Forget about it until it's official" is silly and reminds me of when there was an FCC filing for the CA-1 and people were saying not to talk about it because it wasnt official.

Don’t talk about it because its not official is different from no information about it. Get over yourself and whatever secret society you think we dealers have meetings with /s

1 hour ago, therockhr said:

im pretty sure SnapAV had nothing to do with the Neeo remote. it came before them. the neeo evolved into the halo remote which looks to be much better than the AVA Cinema remote.

Josh.ai still looks like a scam to me. sorry.

Lol.. a scam?! wow. 

10 minutes ago, thecodingart said:

Savant has had Josh.ai integration..

https://joshdotai.medium.com/josh-ai-announces-savant-integration-295e0a06b285

 

Im a Savant, Control4 and Josh dealer… they do not integrate. C4 and Crestron only. 

14 minutes ago, therockhr said:

Isnt there a KB article out there that talks about the move? Wasnt the whole reason for redoing the ZAP server requirements in anticipation of this move/addition of standard Zigbee? These are the things that could be talked about instead of "dont worry about it until it comes out".

No one said dont worry about it until it comes out… we said theres nothing to discuss at the moment and no info to share. Early conversations about breaking features or products are literally dealer teasers to keep us impress with brand and system development and in-turn bring attention to clients about what may be available in the future. There are LOTS of things that never happen or take years to even reach beta. Right now nothing about zigbee upgrades has been discussed. 

5 minutes ago, thecodingart said:

There’s seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what Josh.ai is in this thread.

 

Josh.ai has voice oriented hardware, but it’s a home automation hub and is technically just as capable as Control4 or Savant controllers. The odd ball factor is that Josh.ai leans into existing pro solution platforms to close integration gaps — for now.

Most, if not, all of my automations for my home outside of my home theater are currently setup using my Josh.ai Core + their natural language scripts with a mixture of native and Control4 integrations. It works better than most of the competitors minus a few gripes I have.

If Snap were to remove the control4 integration with Josh.ai, I would be forced to move to a competitor (like Savant) plain and simple. I have not upgraded my EA-1 to a core yet and won’t until I have to atm.

I loved the Neeo remotes on launch, but SnapAV ruined the product over time. The Neeo remote is plagued by battery and networking issues and just didn’t evolve the way it should have.

To get what I want, a Neeo like design with decent hardware, some form of platform portability, and good snappy UI — the AVA Cinema remote is targeting people like me. Control4’s offerings remain crappy tbh.

You just repeated everything we have discussed on this site about Josh… and Savant doesnt have Josh integration nor do I see it happening with their new deeper dive into Apple hardware and Siri integrations… 

1 hour ago, therockhr said:

great! lets get back to another thread talking about Alexa and Control4.

I get your vibe and I generally agree that conversations get snubbed here just because of bs… but the OP is specifically asking for more detail about stuff that there is no information about and will likely not be here anytime soon. 

1 hour ago, Cyknight said:

If C4 pulled your dealer satus, then it is going to be in (likely in a large) part because you weren't doing the numbers to maintain it.

Elan would do the same thing, though they may have a less saturated market (so a lower threshold).

But ANY of the more advanced options out there are dealer model based (to one degree or another) - and all of them will have certain requirements.

You basically say that C4 wasn't 'open' enough for you - but that translates to needing a lower threshold to becoming and maintaining a dealership status. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, but any of them will have those thresholds, and all o them will have (local/regional) market dependant thresholds. What I'm trying to say is that there is no singular answer to what system is easier to be/keep being a certified dealer for.

In any area it might be Elan, is could be Savant, Crestron or indeed Control4. But those 4 are basically the ones that are comparable in capability though of course each has it's advantages and disadvantages.

Maybe RTI or URC have all you're looking to do and maybe those fit the bill, but those two aren't near as complete as Control4 or the others are.

 

In other words, you're better off talking to the reps for these companies first and foremost to see what their requirements are.

Theres nothing wrong with what you are saying here. My point with Elan is distribution level dealerships are lower tier and  a lot of times require little to no requirements besides basic activity.  Again, they can certainly can you dealership just like any AV dealership line. 

We seem to be repeating ourselves… 

2 hours ago, Cyknight said:

? Elan is a dealer model as well. Their step in is likely less, but it sounds like you're jsut becoming a dealer to service your own system....they'd pull you in the year anyway.

Im not sure what you mean by dealer model… you can get Elan from distributions around the country as an approved vendor so thats not a direct dealership no.  You do have to be vetted in the same sense as other yes. 

40 minutes ago, wnpublic said:

I'm on home assistant for three properties.  I don't agree about smaller ecosystem, it's larger.  Definitely agree about lack of official support, and yes agree that you are depending on another community member or members for drivers.  And yes - you are doing it DIY, it's all you backed by some good, some bad documentation, and a community support forum and Redd it

I have HA “beta” systems running for clients who really want to pull away from dealer based products but most of them are still using the major 3rd party options like Lutron, Sonos, ReoLink etc…  its really a full time job and the service can be much more frustrating at times. There is only so much resetting you can do of a consumer product with someone else’s cloud credentials. 

I have a pair (2) of Revel L42 outdoor speakers that are brand new. They were left over from a larger install a year ago and I planned to use them for myself but outdoor designs have changed.  Awesome sound with an integrated LED to add to a normal landscape lighting 12v system. 

I also have (3) Triad Bronze in-wall LCRs that are new. Originally ordered for a custom golf sim project that never happened. 

I would like to get $1500 for either. Receipt and warranty included. 

Bump. Matrix are sold. 

LOL…Savant just restructured their whole bottom tier into distribution only. Tech is a fickle one. Always plan accordingly. 

5 hours ago, Rolecgroup said:

Even if they do allow you to become a dealer they may take it away at anytime...

We were a dealer (not massive) but ticking over, had about a dozen systems installed and then one day C4 told us no longer a dealer as didnt want to dilute for other installers, and that was it, no real notice, just chopped us off...

 

This is market specific. A place like Chicago had close to 50 dealers in the metro area at one point. It’s also honestly dealer specific. There are plenty of dealers who have active accounts in several brands that are “unlisted”.  

But yes, it is possible that they would cut you at any point they feel is no longer in their best interest. Thats been that way for a while. 

5 hours ago, Rolecgroup said:

Thanks - I'll take a look into it

It was purchased by Nice a while back so it’s pretty much a distribution product. It hits the same price brackets with some added features like MyQ integration …

They are changing over everything to “Nice” branding and a new UI so they might become more competitive with some better looking hardware too…

EDITED - 2023 systems updates look ….nice…  https://na.niceforyou.com/features/nice-elan-smart-home/

Elan

Have you worked with the product professionally before or carry any other elevated brands? 

Unfortunately you are likely SOL. I am not sure what market you are in but being a 20 year old brand, there are an abundance of established dealers in most areas. 

Sold.