Hi,
i´m pretty new to Control4, successfully passed the automation programmer certification last week and taking a deeper look into the system´s capabilities.
We´re doing higher end home cinemas in Germany and the neighboring countries. We´ve got Crestron and RTI in our portfolio, but especially Crestron sometimes is a bit over the top when it comes to automating just a single room. This is where Control4 should come into play. Plus our customers asked for the Neeo remote because they love the look.
I found the system is pretty easy to program and can be quickly deployed.
However, it seems as if the GUI is very limited. With Crestron, i´m used to design custom made GUIs that allow the customer to control several components from one screen or remote.
I learned the C4 GUI is fixed to the component you´re currently controlling (e.g. media player).
Real life example of what we´re usually providing to our customers:
Start cinema system with a push of a button (easy )
After selecting a source, you can control the source device with the remote control (or touchscreen / app). In addition to that, you can control masking system, lights, Surround processor (select different presets, upmixer, correction programs, etc.), seating (backrest, etc.) plus you get feedback from the system that can be displayed on the remote´s touchscreen (e.g. loudspeaker channel layout used, upmixer used, preset selected, etc.) all from one GUI/UI without switching pages.
I´ve asked the trainer in the certification course and he said that´s not possible with C4.
There are the three / five buttons on the SR260/Neeo that can be tied to custom functionality and you can use experience buttons. That´s it. But even for the "focused buttons" on the Neeo, you need to navigate back to the focused button screen.
Is the GUI/UI really that limited?
Don´t understand me wrong, this is no bashing, i just want to understand what´s possible to find the right solution for our use cases. (i also understand the simplicity of the GUI/UI is on of the reasons for the quick deployment of a C4 system, so it´s just pros and cons that need to be evuated)
Thanks in advance,
Thorsten
