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Privacy Restrictions  

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  1. 1. Which functions would you like to hide, by touchscreen

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I have requested this feature multiple times from our various Control4 Reps, over the course of an extended period. This has been an ongoing request since it first came up in February of 2014.  After many conversations with Control4 and no word on any of these features being implemented. I will be posting in hopes to shine a light on an area that is lacking major updates. 

Let me preface the current problem with the situation. We are a Residential and Light Commercial, AV Integrator. A couple of our commercial projects are in Amenities spaces for multi-unit apartment complexes. Think an open floor plan, shared spaces, with multiple zones of audio and video, on multiple floors. The zones are shared between a few touchscreens on each floor. The end users are both the occupants and the management office. 

The current problem we're running into is the end users have access to all parts of the Control4 system from any touchscreen. This is frustrating to their management as the end users cannot be restricted to certain zones on the touchscreens. We have tried Access Agent only to find big holes in it's lock out capability. We also tried the avenue of Start Here pages that seemed promising, only to find out it was abandoned with Adobe Flash. 

In closing I pose my wishlist item, which is more of a requirement for Control4, if they want to keep expanding their use elsewhere. Hear me on this; the ability to lock the control of various functions based on the touchscreen location. For example, if you have a Guest Suite with multiple zones and only one touchscreen, we can limit their zones and they wont be controlling the heat, or music in the rest of the home. This would be helpful in the same way as our situation.

The other Automation companies have been quick to adapt this feature in. Since this hasn't really been addressed with Control4, It should be in a category of it's own. I'm temporarily calling it "Privacy Restrictions" for this conversation or until a better label can be designated. 

My top four choices of privacy have been added to a poll, please vote for your favorites as well. Thank you for participating!

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I couldn't agree more.  Even in my residential use case there are features I don't want in a covered patio interface (ie access to the security system, inside of home), a child's room or guest room (access to master bedroom AV).  The lack of these features has shown me how much C4 has struggled to grow its software while maintaining current in the automation space.  

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On 5/11/2016 at 1:42 PM, digitaltrader said:

I couldn't agree more.  Even in my residential use case there are features I don't want in a covered patio interface (ie access to the security system, inside of home), a child's room or guest room (access to master bedroom AV).  The lack of these features has shown me how much C4 has struggled to grow its software while maintaining current in the automation space.  

Even if we were required to use Control4 touchscreens in each space, so we could limit or restrict access to certain areas of the system. This would be a huge step forward in the flexibility of their software. Still not current, but a big step forward for Control4. Before I get ahead of myself and start talking about the Control4 app and user access. We will start here in what I would consider a first step in the post above.   

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On May 11, 2016 at 7:42 PM, digitaltrader said:

I couldn't agree more.  Even in my residential use case there are features I don't want in a covered patio interface (ie access to the security system, inside of home), a child's room or guest room (access to master bedroom AV).  The lack of these features has shown me how much C4 has struggled to grow its software while maintaining current in the automation space.  

You can lock down security for, say an outside room by not connecting the security driver to that room and then locking the room down with the access agent. I have done this for my two outside Touchscreens so if I choose security on one of these all I get is access to my cameras, no access to the security system or locks and sensors.

That said, I agree with OP that the current access agent needs a complete re-write so that it is much more flexible. 

StartHere! would be a good solution for OPs situation... It is really poor that is is not supported on the Android devices although my dealer assures me that is coming (one day)... I hope he is right and not just saying it! 

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You can essentially lock a touchscreen if you want to.  It's a bit tedious but it works.  First create a "security" variable to track whether you want the touchscreen locked or not.  Then you can create an announcement that puts a pop up on that touchscreen ie "touchscreen locked".  If you un-check the show ok button box in the announcement, that pop up will stay there until it times out.  You'll have to create a repeating timer so that when the announcement times out (really before it does) you re-execute the announcement based on if your security variable is true/false.  To gain access you can give yourself a button in a secure room or another touchscreen or wherever to toggle that "security" variable on/off, and fire off a new announcement with the ok check box to immediate clear the security one.

I promise that makes sense in my head :) 

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4 minutes ago, mstafford388 said:

You can essentially lock a touchscreen if you want to.  It's a bit tedious but it works.  First create a "security" variable to track whether you want the touchscreen locked or not.  Then you can create an announcement that puts a pop up on that touchscreen ie "touchscreen locked".  If you un-check the show ok button box in the announcement, that pop up will stay there until it times out.  You'll have to create a repeating timer so that when the announcement times out (really before it does) you re-execute the announcement based on if your security variable is true/false.  To gain access you can give yourself a button in a secure room or another touchscreen or wherever to toggle that "security" variable on/off, and fire off a new announcement with the ok check box to immediate clear the security one.

I promise that makes sense in my head :) 

Wow! The things that go on in your head :wacko:

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