cnicholson

In your EA3 connections you only have one output feeding matrix, so you'll only be able to have one stream active at a time. Also, in your Matrix connections, you have assigned volume controls but not audio selection to you endpoint rooms. It should look more like this: Why not pay an expert a few bucks for initial set-up, then you can tweak thing yourself later if needed?

I have a couple of secret rooms behind false walls. Not C4 integrated, but I just use a spring-loaded magnetic latch (non locking) and a Stealth Lock with RF keypads. Honestly, I just leave it unlocked 90% of the time. Other than the general impulse to "Put everything under C4 Control" (which I get), I'm not sure if I see the use case for C4 control. I prefer the dedicated StealthLock keypads (one inside the room and one outside) versus the risk of getting stuck inside without a way to access Control4 controls to unlock. https://stealthlock.com I do have a mag lock on a "man gate" in my front fence. It is controlled by a spare contact switch on a (pretty far away) EA-5 and works great. I put a Chime on the fence near gate so people can "ring the bell" to be let in. A also have a custom code on the nearby DS2 that controls the car gate that unlocks the man gate for 10 mins.

@Cyknight, thanks. Really appreciate the info. Fundamentally, I know it is dumb to attempt this in 2023, but I still might go for it.

Seems like good solution for secondary rooms. I might get a few of these Bundles. Looks like audio out is only via HDMI? Since my TVs all have audio backhaul to matrix, I'm assuming it could increase number of different simultaneous streams in a pinch by routing the audio path through the TV and back to matrix (and then to the in-ceiling speakers)? I've never run out of outputs on my Core5, but could provide some edge-case headroom. Main use case would be OSD for guest rooms without T4 and where guests may find OSD easier than installing C4 app on phones.

I have extensive Control4 system in my new main house and am enjoying it. I also have a vacation home where I did the Home Automation work DIY using Insteon switches, Indigo control software (a Mac product) and custom interfaces to Nuvo Grand Concerto whole-house audio system (including meta data and controls using Nuvo in-wall keypads/displays). I did it with a bunch of AppleScripts and HTML interfaces for controls. I know, right? Super old. I am considering trying to put in a Core 3 if I can preserve this old hardware (and redo the automations in Composer). I see that there are Insteon and Nuvo drivers for C4. Any "old timers" ever encounter these drivers and have experience using them? I realize that this would be a million miles from best practices, but I sort of don't want to rip and replace 40 wall switches and 6 in-wall controllers for fairly limited benefit right now. The main point is to have a common interface for main house and vacation house (for benefit of family and guests) and to allow me to rip/replace other gear (TVs, HDMI Matrix and AVR) using C4 drivers instead of having to revisit my 15 year old code that won't even run on modern Mac (due to legacy serial interfaces and software in the mix). Any thoughts? Shot in the dark, I realize.

I mean: able to control other devices (like Apple TV) via the "Home" app on your iPhone, not just via the built-in Apple TV remote widget.

I use CoolMasterNet with VRF Mitsubishi City Multi split systems (but I think it works with basically all VRF systems). Maybe overkill for your situation, but it works great. I have five "outside units" (compressors) and 20 indoor zones. Instead of physical wall thermostats, I have "under the paint" temperature probes. Again, perhaps not applicable to an existing install, but the money saved (and clean look) from skipping wall thermostats more than pays for the CoolMasterNet box (for large systems, anyway). It is sold via Control4 and has free supported driver.

AFAIK, the C4 Controller (EA5) isn't supposed to "appear" in the sense of show up as icon, but rather C4 (via C4 iPhone app and "Home" iPhone app on your phone) installs a Homekit Bridge (allowing Homekit to talk to non native devices) and then, for each Apple TV in the system, is installs a "device" that is basically a virtual remote control for the Apple TV (which is actually the EA5). Forgetting about C4, do you have Homekit set up on your phone and working with other devices?

@Amr Thanks so much for this. Does the FL driver have the concept of child drivers per C4 room such that saying "Hey Siri, open the shades in here" will open the shades only in that room (assuming you have a HomePod mini in each room so that Homekit knows which room you're in)? Also, you mention virtual switches and buttons. Does FL support these in C4 --> Homekit direction. In other words, have C4 programmatically "press" a switch triggering arbitrary Homekit action (if you program it on the Homekit side)? I use this with DTI to do some kludgy bi-directional stuff. Thanks.

How does this Finite Labs driver compare with the DTI driver (if you know)?

I think we need a bit more info. I'm assuming that you have a physical audio connection between your EA-3 and your matrix and the Connection bindings in Composer are correct, right? To listen to Apple TV audio via matrix, you need to get the signal from that device to the matrix. If all of your TV sources are run through your AVR, then you'd run a cable from a "Audio Out" port on your AVR to the matrix. Depending on your AVR and your main listening zone speaker setup, you might have other nuances to deal with in terms of making sure your AVR can down-mix, for example, Atmos to analog stereo (some AVRs don't do this).

In terms of use case for *controlling* and not just monitoring, I have several garage doors in two different locations on my property and have a DS2 near each set of garages. I use programming to use special codes on the DS2 to open/close each door. Cleaner and easier than having several manufacturer's wireless keypads (with batteries that need replacing). I set up the DS2 codes in the format of base code + door number "suffix" to make it easier to remember. I also find it convenient to open/close doors using C4 interface when you're far away from garage. In terms of MyQ integration, I have done this using a fairly Rube Goldberg-esque approach: The open source program "Homebridge" has a free plugin to bring MyQ into Apple's Homekit/Siri ecosystem. The paid DTI Siri driver connects Apple ecosystem with C4. In this way, I can use C4 to control MyQ devices. You would not do this *just* for MyQ control, but you get that ability "for free" (at the margin) if you've already used the DTI driver to add Siri voice control to C4. As a further aside, one of the cool things about the new Halo "voice button" is that you can use it to invoke the DTI/Siri voice commands (since Apple TV's native Siri functionality already does that). So you could press the Halo voice button and say "Open Large Garage Door" and it will happen. Or, outside garage control context, you could tell Halo "turn on the lights" and it would turn on the lights in the room that you have placed the Apple TV that Halo is talking to (but not your other lights).

I just did the factory reset again, but then went in Homekit Home app and I found FOUR different copies of the Core5 bridge! I deleted them all and then turned on Apple TV controls in C4 app. Seems to work! But problem is intermittent, so can't declare victory yet. I chickened out about deleting bridge driver itself because docs say it auto installs with first Apple TV driver, so I feared screwing this up. But I'll do that if problems resurface. Multiple copies of the remote control bridge sound like the root cause, so fingers crossed. Thanks again.

Good idea. Will try that. I figured the Factory Reset action did pretty much same thing, but a manual delete / "clean" install on both the C4 and Homekit sides seems even better. I'm assuming you didn't need to remove the individual AppleTV device drivers, right? That would be a big pain in the butt to reconfigure.

Recently, but intermittently, I have a problem where a single click (using C4 iPhone app or Halo) becomes two or three clicks from Apple TV perspective. So, from the main Apple TV screen, a single click "right" moves the cursor three spots. What usually fixes it, but is tedious, is to go to Apple Bridge and do the "factory reset" action and then re-enable Apple TV controls from C4 App (which brings up the Home app and re-adds the bridge and devices for each Apple TV on Control 4). Has anyone seen this before and know the root cause? I don't think there is a limit to how many Apple TVs you can have in a project, but I have 17 of them, so maybe that's causing some issues somehow? Another clue (maybe) is that Apple TV fairly constantly flashes up a notice/alert in upper right corner of screen saying "Control4 Remote Connected" then "Control4 Remote Disconnected" every couple of minutes. I'm thinking maybe the internally "mapping" between drivers and physical Apple TV boxes is messed up and Control 4 has multiple "virtual" remote control connections to the Apple TV and each one is sending (duplicate) commands? Each TV in house has access to two Apple TVs: one dedicated to that TV and a "shared" Apple TV using video distribution. Sometimes (in same room on same TV with same remote) one Apple TV control works normally and the other does the duplicated commands thing. Another clue? Native silver Apple TV remote control and using native Apple TV remote "applet" on iPhone always works fine, so this is not an Apple problem. Any ideas?

The HVAC system is Mitsubishi City Multi--- its a multi-zone "VRF" system, so the zones each have their own inside air handler (either self-contained "cartridge" or a small concealed unit with short duct runs). AFAIK, the zones are "real" zones without any shared air paths. So each room has its one input air, heat exchange and output air. The shared components are the outside units, each of which can feed 1-8 inside zones via refrigerant loops. So I don't think I have any mechanically operated dampers anywhere. Hope that makes sense. That said, the CoolMasterNet box seems pretty Swiss Army Knife-y so i'd bet it would be able to talk to and control such a system.

In context of new build, a major advantage of using C4 as that I don't have "thermostats" at all. Just temp probes buried in wall. I have lots of zones so just running around to each wall-wart thermostat to adjust them would be annoying. I use CoolMaster Net box to bridge between HVAC hardware and C4.

I have a similar plan, but haven't implemented beyond test case. How have you done this? I just use the built-in tracking feature, but force "most recent" by sending a "button release" command to whatever I want to be "most recent." So if music is playing and you walk in and hit light button, the light button becomes most recent automatically and I start a timer. When timer expires, if there is an active session, I send a release command to the music button in the room. That makes the up/down control volume (via tracking button programming). Curious if you have a better way or tips for any edge cases, etc., that I can incorporate into my plans.

Seems like that should work. Did you try manually executing it to rule out possibility that the voice command is not working? Or have it also blink a light or something so you know it heard you.

Yeah, honestly, if I could get TV factory remotes (or, even better for me, Apple TV remote) to control in-ceiling speaker volume, that would be a great 80/20 solution for me. I'm sure there's a way. I should prob try to figure that out.

I have a hybrid video set up: local sources (mostly just an AppleTV) behind each TV, and then a single "shared" Apple TV that is constantly multicasting a stream to receiver dongles also behind each TV. Good for having multiple TVs all in sync, and I've never really had a use case where I needed to have, say, three TVs watching one source and a different four TV's watching another. My NVR has an Apple TV app, so that's how I deal with that (although I do wish I could programmatically launch the Apple TV app and have it show a specific camera or grid of set of cameras).

Hmm. Video distribution via big matrix might be dying as a default solution, but I'm curious what you would spec instead of a 32x32 digital/analog audio matrix. Is there a better way to serve "bread and butter" audio zones (not audiophile or multi channel zones)?

I also have a Sonos box. Like your C4 controller, it would be the stream "receiver" and you would control with Sonos app on your phone (or start playlists / favorites via C4 app or remotes). An advantage of Sonos is that it can deal with multiple streaming services in one box (like C4, but it talks natively to Apple Music whereas C4 does not). But the use case metaphor is more like "Phone is remote control" versus "I am playing music on my phone and now want to play it on my speakers." So you'd be browsing on your phone in the *Sonos* app and NOT in the Apple Music App. If that makes sense. Many ways to skin the cat. To be clear, like with Spotify Connect, music is not going through your phone at all. A lot of what goes into "what's best for you" comes down to what you're used to.

I believe Spotify Connect is "casting" and not "streaming," meaning that you should be able to turn off your phone after starting a session and music will still play since your phone is only used for control and the media itself is not going through your phone. Another thought: We also mostly use Apple Music, and our typical use case is to use iPhone to control a "Music App" session on Apple TV. Might be a better solution if you don't mind having a TV on and your TV audio is backhauled to matrix. You could also set things up with a spare Apple TV to feed audio directly to matrix so a TV would not need to be on. I think what Tidal gets you, as you mentioned, is integrated song selection which may be easier for guests / non-tech people to use. The integration is really good.

That's good. I've tried multiple times to force firmware update, but not working for me. I'm going to ask my dealer to try. Hopefully new firmware will fix for me, too.