cnicholson

Right. That's the issue. If multiple rooms are on the same source, joining makes sense, but what do I do if I want each room to listen to a *different* stream from Sirius or Pandora or Tidal (or whatever). What is the best approach there? Maybe the first question is: which services will allow me to have lots of concurrently active drivers/streams? It's kind of ironic that the "old days" of dumping a bunch of MP3s in a directory and building playlists off those files would probably work automatically in C4. I assume it has no problem playing a different playlist/stream per room off a common set of files (until it runs out of audio-out ports). But this brave new world of streaming sources seems to make it harder to simulate this.

I'm about to implement Room Control driver with the Domosapiens "Keypad Audio" driver. I'm starting to think about how to set up the presets and am worried about "source contention" issues. I have lots of rooms, but take the example of just three rooms. Suppose I want the first preset (for each room) to be Sirius Channel 1, second preset to be Sirius Channel 2, etc. I go to Room 1 and select Sirius Channel 2. They I go to Room2 and select Sirius Channel 3. What happens? I assume each Sirius driver can only do one stream. Does Room 1 switch to Channel 3? Does it get turned off? See what I mean? I believe I read here that some services allow multiple drivers and simultaneous streams. And I think some (Tidal?) have "family plans" so I suppose I could install multiple drivers, each with it's own credentials. But is there an automated way to have C4 play Sirius Channel #3 from any available Sirius driver in Room #3? If not, it seems like I would have to have a dedicated set of Listen drivers for all services for all rooms, which seems a bit rough. So my question is: how do people deal with this issue? I would like the user experience to be: walk into any room and click Music and, with every subsequent click, rotate through a list of genres like Current Hits, Classic Rock, Alternative, Country, Classical (whatever, you get it). And for the rooms to not "step on each other." If they want to listen to specific music or playlist, they can use Tidal or ShairBridge to C4 from phone. Any thoughts/advice?

Thanks. Yeah, I saw that in the documentation and tried to do that. But, weird thing, using the Proxy ID doesn't work. But...using the Device ID, DOES work. I'm all good now I think.

Hi. So I'm playing with the Text to Speech driver by @Shivam Paw (which is great, BTW) and I'd like the system to speak (for example) "Good morning. Today's forecasted high temperature is [X]" where [X] is a numeric variable from another driver. The driver's "concatenate with variable" command seems to only let me pick text variables. So i thought if I converted the number variable into string form and stored that in a new (string) variable, I could do what I want. I see that there is a Chowmain "variable manipulator" driver available, which seems like it might do what I want, but it seems mostly focused on fancy math, so I'm wondering if there a a free and/or simpler way to do what I want. Or I might just be confused/screwing up how to use the Text To Speech "concentrate with variable" feature. Thanks

I can see that, for sure. I'm a bit of a tinkerer, so I like solving these little puzzles myself. But I was surprised that C4 doesn't support these kinds of smart joining/grouping controls out of the box. Coming to C4 as a novice homeowner, I kind of assumed this would be easy to deploy. Such an obvious and seemingly universal use case! I would say that, in addition to KPs, it would drive matrix/amp sales as well. It's pricey to have a ton of discreet zones that, in the real world, will often be used in multi-zone groups. C4 should make it easier to get more value out of all those zones. I also think C4 should also have an A/V endpoint/zone grouping/hierarchy for easier manual zone control (instead of a "flat" list of zones). Not user friendly to have to scroll through 50 zones.

I appreciate this. I'm the kind of guy who, if I am going to buy a new computer/phone/car, I want to buy a JUST RELEASED model-- feels like I'll get more years of use versus buying something that might be about to be replaced. I was worried that CA-10 (being a few years old now) might soon get replaced. And it might. But the Core5-->CA-10 swap was a BIG BIG improvement. Going from EA-5 to CA-10 would be even more dramatic. So if you feel like you're suffering now, I'd encourage you to upgrade. That said, as I asked above: why do you think you need to upgrade? Sounds like not a pressing issue if you are happy to wait, which is great.

This is exactly how I use the port: I plug my turntable into Core5 audio-in. Core5 already connected digitally to matrix, so this allows me to play turntable on any/all zone(s), including AVR zones. And C4 automagically routes the Core5 digital audio over IP to Guest House EA-5, then to matrix/amp there. All seems to be perfectly in sync. I have a somewhat flakey 300' network run between the buildings so I bumped up the latency/buffer settings, but I think a well behaved network would be fine with the minimum buffer settings (I don't really what the millisecond delays options re (is it specified?)-- but there are small, medium and large settings, IIRC. Slinging around digital audio streams is not a big deal on wired network. In my particular case, I could plug the turntable directly in to the matrix, but my main matrix (PulseEight) seems to have some limitations playing analog inputs to digital outputs (like to AVRs).

I have an EA-5 and a Core 5 and recently added a CA-10. I have more than 1000 drivers, 20+ TVs, 50+ audio zones, etc. The point is that a CA-10 has MUCH more memory and processing power than a Core5, but Core5 doesn't have much more I/O capacity than an EA-5. So (CA-10 + EA 5) is better than Core 5 in all use cases that I can imagine. Make sense? A CA-10 would just be the "brain" and your EA-5 is an I/O and A/V "slave" and its CPU will be idling most of the time. I guess a question is: why do you think you need to upgrade at all? I'll bet CA-10 would get you more of a boost.

Unless you have use for existing EA5, instead of replacing it with a Core5, get a CA10 instead and keep your EA5 in service. You'll see a much bigger boost in performance.

I love SecutitySpy. I thought I was the only one using it with C4! I have all my DS2s and Chimes added to NVR. I have 32 total cameras (mostly 4K) and it works great with AI tagging of human/animal/vehicle (and you can fire off actions based on object type. Would be cool if they someday add more sophisticated AI (like Face ID and/or License Plate reading). But pretty seamless. And they have simple, but good enough Apple TV app for viewing live or achieve footage using Halo (so seems kinda intergated--- or at least "single control device"). I use some workarounds to send NVR triggers to C4 for various automations. A M1/M2 Mac Mini (with hardware transcode) has plenty of power for most installs, although I did upgrade to a Mac Studio for my 32 cameras (which does not stress the CPU/GPU at all, so might be overkill)

Does customer have the Control4 Phone app? If so, can they control lights from that? That might help narrow things down a bit. It does sound like root cause is network. If customer changed their router, it could be that static addresses were set for some elements and the IP subnet (think if it as a number range) is different on the old versus new router. This would mean that the HC800 can't talk to the lighting module/keypads or the touch panel. Looking at network settings on touch panel versus network settings when you join WiFi with your phone (not using guest network, using main WiFi SSID) could provide clues, too. See if first three segments of IP addresses match (like 192.168.1.X for both would be good, different first three numbers = bad).

I leverage "AI tagging" signals from my NVR using a kludgy workaround that would, in principle, work for face tagging if my NVR ever supports it. I use SecuritySpy (an old, but very well maintained, Mac-based system). A fast Apple Silicon Mac can easily handle 32 4K streams and does realtime human/animal/vehicle tagging. It can fire off events based on object type, and actions including triggering HomeKit/Siri actions. One of things I use this for is to open my front gate when a vehicle is detected coming down my (very long) driveway so the gate is opening by the time you get to gate. Humans and animals trigger motion record, but not this action. How I do it is by installing a C4 "Demo" switch driver (call it "Vehicle on Driveway"). I "publish" (and 2-way sync) this device to HomeKit ecosystem via DTI Siri driver (on C4 Side). On Apple/Homekit side, NVR flips that switch "on" upon vehicle detection. On C4 side, when the "switch" goes "on," I trigger the "open" relay on DS2. Works great. I'm sure you could do a similar thing on a Windows or Linux based system using a URL driver on C4 side. I'm assuming that, with face detection, you could do the same thing for a finite and static set of "known faces." Instead of just human/vehicle/animal signals, you'd add "known person 1," "known person 2," etc. You'd just have to statically "map" this with you C4 Programming. So seems very doable if you're willing to do some brittle programming. Obviously, it would be much cleaner with a C4 driver that natively supports these NVR signals.

Cool. Thanks. Reminds me that I want to get EV solar stats accessible in C4. You have all the cool drivers.

So I thought I was clever putting a Chime on my perimeter gate leading to my (far away) front door. Gate has a mag lock. But delivery people and others often don't get the clue and don't make the delivery if gate is locked. Of course, I could make a sign, but that is not cool. What would be cool is if my NVR sees a human approaching and if the gate is locked, I play a voice announcement "Gate is locked. Please press doorbell button to request access" (or whatever). So question is: is there a way to use Chime as an end-point/room/zone/whatever (or any work around) to play an arbitrary audio file in the speaker of the Chime (or DS2)? In this case the file would be dynamically created audio file with the voice message. Announcements agent doesn't show as option (unless I am missing it). Any ideas? As I type this, it occurred to me that I should look in connections incase maybe I can create a new (fake) room and bind the Chime as an end-point. [Edit: no love on that idea]

I just installed this driver (mainly for the variables), but the UI is really nice. Not full access to all the native app stuff (no history or charts), but access to the hourly forecasts. Not sure if "worth" the $300, but handy to have as a favorite on T4's

I did the Tempest driver. It has exactly the variable I wanted: Today's forecast High (F). I haven't implemented programming yet (just got back from being out of town). There's a rigorous way of using math to determine when sun will shine into particular windows, but I plan to just use estimated offsets after sunrise. I might also try to use light sensors. I think I saw somewhere that C4 keypads have a built in light meter, so I might be able to leverage some of those if the happen to be in the right spot. Or I might add light meters. We have over 100 shades, so it will take some work to dial them all in-- although I'll group them to make it easier. I also think Lutron has an fully automated system geared at office buildings, but I imagine it is too pricey for casual use.

I trust your judgment. I'm going to go for it. Thanks.

Thanks. Got it. This has a CurrentTemperature variable-- so maybe that's good enough for my purpose. I'll just have to manually guesstimate what "too hot" is with reference to the rough time of day it is when sun is about to shine through particular windows. Driver has device variables FORECAST_NEXT (tomorrow?) and FORECAST_NOW (today?) but they seem to be text type (or at least not numbers) since conditions allow only = or != and not over/under conditions. Meh, as I think about it, I'll just buy a driver. Thank you though!

Can you elaborate? I looked it the "Web View Sample" driver and it seems to just take a URL with no apparent way to screen scrape for data and pop into variables. What am I missing?

T4's show this data on weather screen, but i can't find in Composer. Maybe that screen is like an HTML5 app and not really "in the system?" Or maybe they don't expose or maybe (most likely) it's there but I can't find it. If not, what 3rd party drivers offer this ability. For now, my needs are simple: If today's high will be >X degrees, then close shade groups as the get direct sunlight (I would implement via schedules I guess and just do nothing if forecast is below my trigger point). I have a Tempest weather station, but driver I saw seems pricey ($250) for my simple needs. I think internet weather would be good enough for this.

It sounds like you have a pretty simple setup with only a few devices that had fixed or reserved IP addresses. If you still have your old router and have the credentials, just power it up, get into its settings and print out the IP address space/subnet settings and any reserved IP settings. Probably your old router was using 192.168.0.X and your new one is on 192.168.1.X (or whatever-- the point is, different). Just set your new one to those settings (as well as moving over any MAC address IP reservations). If this sounds confusing, then, yeah, you'll need to hire someone to help you.

For digital sources, I don't think there is a reason to ever connect to controller versus matrix--- perhaps other than if you are out of inputs on your matrix and this is the only possible path without buying more gear. Not relevant to digital Bluesound, but as a matter of trivia, I had a situation where i had to connect an ANALOG source to controller instead of matrix. I have a Pulse-Eight ProAudio32 and it does not reliably route analog inputs to digital outputs-- normally not a problem since primary outputs are analog connections to Amps. But I was also outputting to AVR zones via digital connections and to an additional matrix. I was adding a turntable (analog) and it wouldn't play in AVR zones and zones off the secondary matrix. I figured out the issue and plugged turntable into Core5 (already connected to matrix via digital). Boom. Everything worked. Again, just trivia, not responding to your Q. (I also acknowledge that putting an ADC converter (and a DAC) in the signal path of a turntable is terrible design for audio quality, but I couldn't tell the difference)

Cool (but pricey). Looks like AMB box supports two Apple Music streams, so I assume the three-stream MMS3E (which appears to get feed digitally from AMS and then would connect to matrix via digital inputs?) would allow you two Apple Music streams and one Spotify (or whatever) stream? Is that right? Do you have experience with this? Is the C4 interface like Tidal? Full text searching, etc. Short video promo makes it seem pretty close to Sonos in terms of cross-service searching, etc. Is that right? It touts room grouping. How does that work vis-a-vis C4? This makes me think.

Agreed. I added a Sonos Port thinking I would use that as a "bridge" to Apple Music. I basically never use it. As I mentioned above, instead I mostly use Apple TV. With Halo Remote (especially when voice is working), using Halo to browse Apple Music on Apple TV "feels" more integrated (single remote) to me (even though, of course, it's not) versus switching to Sonos app. Even though I don't use Shairbridge much, I've found that guests find that pretty easy intuitive to use.

Anything is possible, but I think the safe bet is to assume this isn't happening anytime soon. Other than Sonos (which is probably "grandfathered" via an early contract), I'm not aware of other "streamer aggregator" type services that include deep Apple Music integration. I assume that C4 and Apple must have cooperated extensively on the Halo Voice integration, so maybe that's a good sign. But, again, I wouldn't hold my breath.