Jeff W

@Gary Leeds UK let us know how it turns out. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

Regarding speed. If you transfer large files between computers then wifi 6 can be beneficial. If your primary target is the internet, then wifi 5 / wave 2 APs will be just fine for the time being. Regarding interference. That depends on numerous factors outside interference, building materials, house layout. etc etc. One method to test, is to setup both APs at opposite ends of the house. Turn off one AP. While your connected to the one AP that is on. Roam around the house and see where the edge of the RF signal is. Then turn off the first unit, turn on the second unit that was off and see where the signal falls off for the second unit. You want the other AP's signal to just over lap where the first signal is dying. If need be, you can adjust the power on the ruckus to accomplish this. This can help you dial in your wifi. Outside interference. With Ruckus the system scans the RF environment and the AP's can automatically change the frequency and what channels they can use. 1,6,11 for 2.4Ghz is non over lapping channels. If there is no interference, IE you live on a farm/rural area. You could even lock one AP to channel 1 and the other AP to channel 6. But if you're in a higher destiny area, you can just select 1,6 and 11 and let the system pick for it self. On 5Ghz there is a lot more channels available, so it's usually not as big of a concern. Ruckus has two different types of back ground scanning. Channel Fly and Background scanning. These will build a map basically of what other APs throughput and channel is happening on neighboring AP's. Over a short period of time based on other wifi, your Ruckus will know when to change the frequency, what channel to use etc etc. With lesser quality AP's (other brands) you often need more. With Ruckus they have always had a bigger, wider RF coverage and you need less. I have countless success stories of ripping out multiple competitor brands APs and boosters and replacing with just one Ruckus. One option is to install one AP on the top floor. Opposite side of the house install the second unit on the main floor. This will help give separation. What you want to avoid doing, is stacking the AP's on top of each other on different floors. It really depends how your house is laid out. I have several clients with ~4,000 sq ft home and just one Ruckus R610 installed at the center top floor of the home and it gets awesome coverage through the entire home. But again, these are 2x4 constructed homes that have a square footprint.

100% !!!

2. Yes there is technically too much wifi is bad type of scenarios. If you have access points that are over lapping their coverage with strong signal, this can create a problem. Second, if you're APs are using overlapping frequncies because their is too many in a small space, then this is also bad. 3. It depends on how long you'd like to keep the 610s for. Wifi6 is more expensive at the moment, but it does have it's advantages. Those advantages are improved air time handling capability and the increased speeds. See down below. Ruckus 610's can in real world applications hit around 400+ Mbs for their speed. This all depends on the interference from neighbors etc etc etc. Ruckus 650's can easily hit 800+ Mbs for their speeds. Again, depends on interference and several other factors. I have seen a noticeable difference with the 650s. Primarily because it's a 4:4:4 radio compared to 3:3:3 for the 610s. Wifi 6 drastically increases the AP's ability to maximize the data/throughput per device based on it's time needs. Wifi 6 is also faster in sending that information. But you need wifi6 wireless clients (phones, tablets, computers etc etc etc) to have those wifi 6 chipsets. In order to take full advantage of a wifi 6 access point. You need three things 1) Your ISP needs to offer true internet speeds over 1Gig*. 2) you need to buy new networking gear. The PoE port on the back of the Ruckus 650 is a 2.5Gbs port. It is backwards compatible with 1gig switches. 3) you need wifi6 devices. *One of our local ISP providers is offering 1.5Gbps internet. However, if you read the small print, it's not on one connection. They are splitting that speed over simultaneous 500mbs connections.

The Unleashed R550 is a great choice! Everything from the R5x0 has a second network jack that can be used for connecting a switch/additional equipment. The recommended/ideal place is on a ceiling due to the antenna patterns. The access points create a donut shaped coverage pattern, there is less signal behind the access point because there is a metal plate there (at least there used to be a metal plate). Technically speaking, you will probably get less coverage if you mount it vertically/on a wall. If you place it on an interior wall and want coverage behind that interior wall, it will be less. If it's your only choice then as a last resort its ok. If you really want to install it on the ceiling and are looking for alternative methods to fishing a wire inside a wall, you could look into "Plastic race way / wiremolds". Examples of plastic race ways or wiremolds Before mounting it, you could place it temporarily vertically and see how the performance is for a week or two. Tip: When you create a new wifi, it will automatically create it using 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz radios. If you have sonos or older equipment that only has a 2.4Ghz radio, you can create a second SSID just for that equipment. You can have a total of 32 SSIDs, yes, 32 SSIDs.

Just a quick tip Ruckus 300, 500, 600, 700 are wifi5. Ruckus 310, 510, 610, 710 are wave 2 Ruckus 350, 550, 650, 750 are wifi 6 Ruckus makes the models above for two different platforms. The standalone models will require a controller (IE. Zone Director) if you have more than one access point. You'll need an annual service contract for firmware upgrades using the Zone Director. The other platform is Unleashed. This platform takes the 'brain's of the zone director and puts them into the firmware for the Unleashed platform. You can run multiple access points with unleashed and no service contract is required for firmware upgrades. The higher the model, the more MIMOs, speed, antenna, radio patterns the units can do.

If it wasn't a complete pain in the butt to travel internationally with tools, I'd fly down there and fix them. We do a lot of take overs and the clients absolutely love the results!

I know this response is late, but wanted to share my experience/feedback. My opinion, if it's a small network, no automation, no AV rack. The client just wants a professional network installation there is two options. Install the switch into a wall mounted shelving system. Wiring everything directly into the switch with a service loop bundled behind the equipment. We're talking approx 10-12 outlets, maybe some POE for access points is ok. Ideal for rear facing network equipment. Or if you have front facing network equipment, you can install a patch panel. I prefer non punch down panels and individual jacks because it's easier to troubleshoot. it's troublesome to re-configure wire in large bundles on punch down panels. You don't want to pop 1 conductor of a random wire on a punch down panel. However, if you're doing a small - large home automation system, have an AV rack, and plan on using automation long term, I HIGHLY recommend going with a patch panel. During the course of time (18 years for my personal home) equipment changes. If you installed something at the bottom of the rack, re-wire and install a replacement item at the top of the rack you're now creating additional work and more places where things go wrong. It sucks to have to make jumpers or extend wires inside the AV rack. After a while it just gets messy. After time, it's hard to keep track of what's what. I had to change my system out numerous times. Prior to going with a patch panel it always sucked changing stuff out and I dreaded having to make large changes. Now, it's much, much easier. We wire from the patch panels into the AV racks for a super clean look. Changing out or adding wires is much easier this way. A large part of our business is doing what we call 'take over jobs' in our industry. I present exhibit A, B, C and D. A= A small wall mounted shelf with rear facing network equipment. @RyanE will probably approve of the network switches. B = Our standard Patch panels for our clients. We make every connection live for customer ease. C = Take over job and completed patch panel. D = Not our work, this is what can happen when things get out of control. PS. I hope it uploads in the correct order heh. I'm not taking credit for the messy work. EDIT: First time uploading to these forums... I was hoping it would upload thumbnails, but nope. Super big pictures.. sorry everyone

In multiple access point setups I would highly recommend always be able to hardwire each access point. It will save a ton of headaches on the mesh side. Unless the brand has a dedicated 5 Ghz bandwidth for mesh traffic, each hop slows down the traffic. In low cost consumer mesh devices, it can be up to 50% speed reduction per hop. I know that can be difficult in some parts of the world based on housing construction, including in the UK with a lot of brick homes, but it is a better to hard wire each unit. Orbi has been reported with network issues / Control4. It does have some challenges with SDDP, STP, Airplay, Bonjour and multicast traffic. Netgear has two articles about it. This was identified late last year. Orbi may have resoled it, but wouldn't recommend it. I know other companies have had some challenges with Orbi in multi access point setups, there was no Control4 product. They had to get a hold of Orbi Tech support. Orbi tech support was able to resolve the issues, but it took a couple of days to get everything sorted out. I was trying to find a list to confirm the official stance but can't recall it's URL. We've used Ruckus Wireless Access Points for almost a decade with great success. In almost 10 years of use and hundreds of clients, I only had to remotely VPN into two different sites and power cycle the units. Not bad for a run time of almost 6 years! It does come with a price tag, but it will outlast any consumer grade wifi/access point, has really nice features and has never let us down.

@Yang I liked to clarify my earlier post so everyone is on the same page. I was trying to say that if a room has a home theater amplifier powering the speakers, we remove that room from the matrix and just run that room as separate sources. (Sorry if that wasn't clear the first time.) If you have multiple TV's and would like to watch the same source across any of the TV's then you can connect the other TVs to the matrix. This is a great option. We still do a lot of HDMI Matrix, we typically will connect 1-3 cables boxes, 1-3 AppleTVs (or other media streamer) and our NVR's to our HDMI matrix. For streaming content, just keep in mind it's heavily compressed. One option, is to try connect everything up to the existing HDMI matrix and run it for a bit and see if you notice the 4K/30Hz. I wouldn't stress too much about 'missing out'.

If you're going to get security cameras, IP is the only way to go. If you buy analog cameras, you're throwing away your money in my opinion. Analog cons Need two wires video and power. You need a separate device to power the cameras. The DVRs have limited amount of recording capabilities both for cameras and storage. It's an old technology that isn't supported any more. It has a MUCH lower resolution. IP Pros The complete opposite of everything above heh. Only needs one wire. Easier to wire, easier to manage. Just need one device to connect/power. The Lilin NVRs for example come standard with 16 channels (cameras). You can get 32 or even 108 channels. IP is new, it's only going to get better. you can get 4MP resolution (2688 × 1520) You can get facial recognition, vehicle recognition, abandoned packages notifications IP is the best way to go.

One advantage of using a media player on a home theater amplifier and a second unit on the matrix. You create consistent UI on all the TVs. If you use a netflix mini app on samsung, sony, LG. And then use a roku / appleTV. You could end up with different interfaces and it's not as smooth / easy as a unified experience. Just more ideas for you to consider.

There is no right/wrong answers to this. Just difference in preferences for dealers. My preference is if you're having surround sound to leave out of a matrix situation so you can get best audio/video experience for that TV. It will also save headaches with EDID problems. Connect a media player (AppleTV, Roku, Nvidia Shield), cable box, Blu-Ray (or whatever sources you want) to a home theater amplifier in the AV rack/closet Connect 5 speakers to the home theater amplifier Use the output of the home theater amplifier and hdmi balun to back of the TV (RJ jack 1) Select a IP controllable TV ie. Sony XBR-65X950H connect the TV to network (RJ jack 2) The network jack for the TV is most likely used to control the TV via IP commands from Control4. Ie, the Sony XBR series is very reliable and great way of having to control the TVs without IR. Doing it this way, you wouldn't use any streaming functions of the TV because they'd all be coming from the sources into the home theater amplifier. Like I said, there are other ways of doing it. You could use an audio balun back to the AV rack but this presents different equipment scenarios etc etc. I would recommend avoid using ARC. For 1) it's not officially supported in Control4 2) may introduce additional headaches. In our designs, I want the most reliable, rock solid solution. I find that the way listed above has been very reliable for all our installs.

Super cool automation idea, love it!

CrazyFire, I believe AMR was referring to why my DS2 always disconnected. But since updating it's not happened to me. I would not advise installing a 2-wire PoE. Check your PM's.

Nice tip David!

As an experiment I setup two Echo's in my personal house. I setup one Echo in the kitchen and then installed an echo dot in the audio/video rack. Using the Alexa app, I named the Echo Dot in the AV rack as "The Party Dot". I wired the 1/8th stereo connector from the Echo Dot into one of the AMS inputs. When I want to use Alexa for Music, I just have to say "Alexa play alternative music on The Party Dot". The Echo in the kitchen then replies, "Ok playing a station you might like, Alternative Music on Amazon Music". You can use the Alexa app to do the same thing. If you install the Alexa Widget on iOS, you don't need to open the Alexa App. I don't use Spotify so I can't comment on that, but setting up the Alexa's mentioned above works pretty good. I've created some pretty funny voice scenes that are a hit during parties. You can program Alexa to say sentences from the dot in the AV then play songs immediately after. You can get pretty creative with the routines.

The DS2 is a re-branded 2N doorbell. But the DS2 runs custom firmware that's different from the official 2N unit. If you install the opposite firmware on the units, you may not get official support from either company. There is a 2N driver for the 2n unit, and a DS2 driver for the DS2 driver I was never able to track down why my DS2 would get knocked offline. I am using a 2 wire PoE adapter and couldn't verify if that was doing it. I suspected so because none of my clients that have the DS2 ever complained it was knocked off line. Once I started to update the DS2 driver and maintain the latest the release it's happened a lot less.

Are you using Composer HE or Pro?

Being a public forum (and relatively new here), I am not sure what I can and can't say about Composer Pro. There are two settings you can do to 'refresh' the DS2. My DS2 would get knocked offline quite a bit. Since upgrading the DS2 driver, it's happened MUCH, MUCH less. Do you know what version of the DS2 you are running? If you aren't using any special VOIP settings/2N settings, call groups, etc. etc. you may want to consider upgrading the latest version. Disclaimer, the newer driver will force you to change the default password. You may need a dealer to re-align the default username/password in Composer Pro. Edit: When my DS2 would stop communicating with Control4, I found my DS2 webserver / GUI would always be active/working. I always found it was on the Control4 processor side that needed a quick refresh.

The data sheet doesn't mention one.

The battery driver does have an icon that can be made visible on any touch screen. When the battery level is low for a device, it can send a push notification and the icon on the touch screen has a little warning icon over top of it. You can program the icon for single, double taps. By default, a single press will just sound the notification of the current battery levels. You'll need to subscribe to Control4 4Sight to get remote notifications fyi. There is an annex4 voice driver. You could program the the voice driver for an announcement on the touch screens. We've never tried the voice announcements on the touch screens. We typically use them on the over head speakers that are connected to a Triad AMS/ amp setup.

Chime has better video resolution than the DS2. Chime has two options traditional doorbell power supply or PoE (Note: Control4 has two different models. You will need to make sure you order the right one). DS2 has more advanced programming options if you get the number keypad with it. DS2 has interior space for the network wire. This can be important for some installs if you don't have any space 'inside' the exterior wall. The weather proof connector can 1" in diameter. If you can't put the weather proof connector inside the wall, the DS2 may be a good option. Technically speaking the DS2 is not IP67. Just something things to consider.

There is a Cinegration "Battery Agent" that might work for you. You'll need a dealer to install/configure. It does come with a trial period if you want to test it. Battery Agent

I would recommend a control4 audio streamer, EA3, HC800, Triad One etc etc etc and connect it to the Russound input. I recently tried testing a Xsource + Russound through Control4 and found that it wasn't as good as a user experience as connecting a Control4 device directly to the Russound input. When I tried using the Xsource/Russound through Control4 it took a while for the icons to load, it seemed to freeze after selecting sources on the Russound Streamer. Connecting the Control4 EA5 to the Russound amp, installing the same online streaming services was much more responsive and gave a better experience for the client. Russound Streamer + Russound Amp + Russound app is a good solution.. but trying to control the Xsource streamer through Control4 didn't impress me much. I don't know if it's the same experience with the MBX Pre but thought I'd share my experience.