ChzBurger

You mean just like every other control and automation system? Competition is great!

Too much marketing smoke in the CEPro article. "Savant’s AI technology can be triggered through Siri Shortcuts allowing for additional hands-free automations" is not a full integration. C4 can do that with 3rd party drivers as can lots of other DIY systems. Full integration would be passing the voice to Savant for Savant to do its thing. "Or ask Siri on an Apple HomePod to dim the living room lights, turn on the Apple TV and launch Disney+." requires zero Savant or other control system to work.

A few points Microcenter is great, but I'd suggest purchasing directly from Ubiquiti. Ubiquiti forces users to go through the retailer for warranty service. You most likely want the UDM-SE. The marginal price difference vs. UDM-Pro is not worth worrying about. If nothing else it has 2.5Gb WAN, which should be a minimum spec by now. If you are expecting to take advantage of high capacity of newer Wifi 6E and later (most people won't) you'll need an Enterprise switch with 2.5Gb ports. Ubiquiti uses 2 chipset manufacturers for their WiFi access points, MicroTek and Qualcomm. Some say mixing the 2 brands can cause issues. Qualcomm chipsets are newer and better supported by the chipset manufacturer. The ceiling APs with Qualcomm chipsets are U6-Pro and U6-Enterprise. The company seems to be on a better track with reliability of firmware. It's not hard to get the system working reliably. But it is also not hard to get it to be unstable if you make a configuration mistake. McCann Tech has a lot of info on Ubiquiti equipment: https://evanmccann.net

I imagine that new and expanded voice capabilities will emerge sooner than later. Voice is in the early stage of commoditization path. See: Home Assistant's new voice assistant. https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2023/07/20/year-of-the-voice-chapter-3/. I'd personally like to see more Apple integration, but realize that Apple is not an easy company to partner with and at some levels may also be a competitor.

My #1 gripe with C4 as a company is the reliance on 3rd party developers for core functionality. This is not a criticism of 3rd party developers - they're great! The vast majority of lighting control systems in 2023 have some form of groups. Why does C4 rely on a 3rd party for groups? Imagine if Apple or Microsoft didn't incorporate the good ideas of 3rd party developers into their operating systems? Relying on 3rd parties for core functionality is a) risky, b) gives control away, c) shields the company from knowledge of how customers use the system, d) can be frustrating for users - I've paid thousands of dollars for this system and now I need to spend hundreds more for what should be included in the core.

Home Assistant and Hubitat are probably more capable automation systems than C4 for non-AV devices. Both are pretty reliable as long as you don't apply every upgrade the day it comes out. C4's AV automation and control interfaces/management are better than either. Apple Home is better for control of non-AV devices but its automation capabilities are not very good. That's easy. SR-260. Much better keypad design than Halo, almost as good as the Harmony Companion.

The firmware is now in release candidate status. Here are the release notes with changes from previous release (as opposed to from previous EA). There are DFS changes: https://community.ui.com/releases/UniFi-Access-Point-6-5-54/cf7e8c75-1737-4625-88fa-aca2ed0ece39

I think that is absolutely the right way to go these days. I inherited my C4 system and replaced C4 lighting with RadioRA 2. I've still got some C4 audio, but Sonos just blows it away from a user and Apple Music perspective. C4 SR-260 is the best remote for anyone with cable, better than the new Halo with keys. Having said all that, other than the TV stuff, using Apple Home is a better experience than the C4 app for control That's not a bad idea. And probably what they should do with the new Core Lite+ Halo bundle. Some issues: 1) C4 OS 3 is a functional legacy system in the stereotypical bad ways. There's lots of chewing gum and baling wire. Which makes the system tricky to learn and easy to mess up, 2) there are too many paid 3rd party integrations and functionality. Having some is absolutely great, but there are several that really should be built into the system in 2023, 3) proprietary Zigbee is a significant issue limiting device choice. Finally, if one looks at the better existing DIY systems they mostly surpass C4 from a non-AV automation (not control) ability.

If you don't mind a single stream playing then add a Sonos Port. It will work well with Apple Music and Spotify. C4 UI will import favorites/playlists. The Sonos app is great for browsing music.

New firmware (1.1.1) auto updated somewhere in the last 24 hours. No obvious user interaction changes. BUT appears to make a significant battery life improvement. Yay!

All you lose with Sonos is browsing music within the C4 interface. Sonos playlists and favorites are supported in C4. C4 volume works and what's playing shows in the C4 apps.

I think you've gotten some good advice here. UniFi is fine. A couple of other points: Really think about how many touch screens you need. It's easy to go overboard and they're expensive. The number required depends on how you use the system. My house came with none and I don't think I really miss having them. Maybe I'd change my mind if I had some? On the audio side make sure your music sources work well with the system. C4 plays mediocrely with both Apple Music and Spotify. There are some services that do play well with C4. You say your are not an audiophile, so if you expect to use either Apple or Spotify you should at least consider Sonos which works great with both services. Sonos also works well with C4 except browsing music requires use of Sonos/Spotify/Apple apps (so not on C4 touch screens). Sonos may not save money depending on number of zones.

Nice try. All product decisions involve trade-offs. A $700 enterprise AP should work pretty well. That doesn't mean it is anything close to needed for the vast majority of residential settings. That's why so many C4 customers happily use Unifi and probably even Omada even as they are not enterprise grade. The Halo engineering involved trade-offs too. My Apple Watch Ultra has about the same network traffic per day (~50MB) and lasts 2.5 days, not 0.75 days without screwing around with every WiFi setting possible. Why didn't C4 use whatever technology Apple uses?

I've had the same thing happen a couple of times. After whatever network anomaly passes the WiFi signal shows 2-3 bars but the Halo network connection error won't clear itself. The only fix is to reset/re-pair as per below:

I think that was my point. Dealers can and should add value. The main selling points of a dealer system is dealer knowledge and support. C4 offers a reasonable mix of capabilities. Low-mid range complexity AV control is its major selling point for me. If you look at non-AV automation there's no magic in any dealer system today C4, Savant, whatever. There are $100-$200 options that will do about whatever automations that dealer systems can do, no $250 add-on drivers required. The best dealers will know the competitive system marketplace, how to segment customer markets, and sell their value.

The screen on the button remote is not touch. The touch version (no number pad) is coming out 'Q1'. And is $900. As a dealer you are the first line in customer discussion/education. $500 isn't free. There is one reason to move from an SR-260. That is voice. Right now there is functionality on the SR-260 that is missing from the Halo (Comfort, Security, 'Custom Button' agent buttons). And you may need to have some good WiFi troubleshooting skills. I agree with this. There are so many well laid out remotes out there, including the SR-260. How they got to this layout is a head scratcher. Must have been someone with 'make almost every button the same size in 3 columns' OCD. (IMO the best laid out remote was the Harmony Companion.) I'm willing to cut C4 some slack. Hopefully they will make software/firmware improvements to improve battery life. There are a fair number of opportunities for improvement in some of the menu functionality (including not limiting favorites to the touch). One of my worries is about the durability of the case. If I look at the bottom edge of the case I can see places with no texture. Does that mean the texture is going to quickly wear off or get shiny? (My used-every-day SR-260 is barely showing texture wear where the back contacts a counter after 5 years of use.)

I'm hopeful that there will be meaningful (not overwhelming) battery life improvements via firmware updates. The current state isn't good. The Halo 24 hour network activity (90% local) was 67 MB. My Apple Watch Ultra, which will run for 2.5 days, did 86 MB (80% local) over the last 24 hours.

Did you try restarting your APs? How many APs do you have? You might want to try locking the remote to the closest. Is all your firmware up to date on the Release channel? (I sometimes live on the bleeding edge; my APs are currently on EA 6.5.30.)

I believe this is making a difference for me. I'm using UniFi APs. I've had both of these happen to me too.

Any possibility of a future 2 way integration so that C4 could know and display what's on TV? That would be cool

It will be interesting to see how well the texture holds up over time. Overall the Halo feels less durable than the SR-260, which can take a lot of abuse. In the mean time, there's always this https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Protective-Dustproof-Waterproof-Condition/dp/B083PRXCLL

Depending on one's climate, multi-stage, variable speed systems are great for both old drafty houses and new tightly insulated houses. I think it's silly that so much of the "smarts" are built into the thermostat. But that's the way it goes.

Sometimes the "special" thermostat is worth it as some HVAC systems require them to get higher-end functionality especially around variable speeds and multiple stages and/or modulating furnaces. Trane is listed as a C4 partner https://www.control4.com/for/connects-with-control4

IMO right on. Logitech Harmony hub software basically sucked to get set up and any new owner would want to re-engineer the code/process. But the hardware was great. The Harmony Companion still reigns as the best laid out hard button remote. And the remote with hub worked great for home control if a) there was an official integration - integration was cloud based, and b) there wasn't distributed AV involved. For whatever reason the market hasn't backfilled for them. C4 is about as close as it gets and can be done somewhat economically with eBay and used EA1/SR-260 combos. I'd say that the SR-260 would be my #2 hardware design. After a day with the Halo it will be interesting to see how the software evolves. Right now there are still holes even compared to SR-260. I miss the circular layout of the playback controls. The Apple TV integration works well. I'm waiting for Xfinity now. IMO voice is the reason to upgrade from SR-260.

Yes, it does. Once upon a time, say 5 ish years ago, that was an infrequent requirement. If you don't have a lot on the Home app, then maybe a reset isn't a big deal. Before resetting, make sure all iOS/iPadOS/tvOS and HomePod devices are up to date on 16.3. And restart all the devices working/potentially working as a home hub. The C4 driver update to version 50 appeared to break Apple TV control functionality in my system. Restarting the home hub devices appears to have gotten the integration working again.