Control4 Selects Zektor as New Switching Supplier

We're proud to announce the biggest thing that has ever to our company. Like the title says, Control4 has selected Zektor as their new switch supplier. Here is the press release. Thanks to all of you for your support.

Jeff

Control4 Selects Zektor as New Switching Supplier

Zektor products reduce workload for A/V companies

Poway, CA – June 21, 2011– Zektor, manufacturer of premium quality, performance-oriented professional matrix switches, proudly announces that Control4®, a leader in affordable IP-based control and entertainment systems, has selected Zektor as their new supplier for CAT5 video matrix switches.

“The Clarity Prowler™ CAT5 distribution matrix will provide Control4 integrators more features than they had previously with faster installation, programming time, and the ability to offer both video and audio. Ultimately, this translates into a better result for the client and more profitability for the integrator, states Jeff Haynes, VP.”

“We are incredibly proud and humbled to be selected as the preferred switch manufacturer by Control4®,” said Zonn Moore, CTO for Zektor. “We’ve enjoyed a great working relationship for many years and the company’s unprecedented growth over the past few years is clearly a testament to their market adoption and innovation added Jeff Haynes”.

“Control4® is excited to offer this quality A/V switch to our dealers. The product is proven and integrates easily into Control4® systems which make it a great fit for our dealers,“ said Gary Hansen, Control4® Product Manager.

“Zektor recently finished IP control in our most recent driver revision. We are also approaching the completion of the driver certification process with Control4®. This was an investment we were anxious to complete for the Control4® integrator base said Zonn Moore”. We have had tremendous success with Control4® system integrators and our Prowler™ CAT5 matrix solution. “With the global reach and market penetration of Control4®, we are excited to introduce our products to a broader audience” said Jeff Haynes.

Zektor will have a full complement of Control4® integrated products on display at CEDIA 2011.

About Zektor

Zektor, a well respected brand in the design and manufacture of premium quality, highly featured professional audio and video matrix switches for the commercial and residential marketplace. Founded in 2002, Zektor proudly manufactures and supports all of their products in the USA. Zektor products are sold through professional integrators in the USA and internationally. For more information please visit their website at www.zektor.com.

About Control4®

Control4®, a leading provider of the operating system for the smart home, delivers intelligent control over consumer electronics products, appliances and networking systems through an easy-to-use and intuitive software interface. Founded in 2003, the company delivers affordable automation of lighting, music, video, thermostat, security, and energy management systems through more than 1,900 custom integrators, retail outlets, and distributors in over 70 countries. With the most intelligent, open and affordable control solution on the market, Control4® is the platform of choice for major consumer electronics companies, residential homes, hotels, businesses and utilities that require an intelligent, open and affordable control solution. For more information visit www.control4.com

Congrats Jeff, look forward to seeing the products and you in Indy this fall.

bet you're having a great day:) congrats!

tum

Have seen street prices for the switch.... $6000 with 8 baluns. Big step up from the sony price.

I've talked to Jeff at CEDIA a few times, stand up guy with awesome products. Congrats.

how is this switch different than some of the others already available like intelix?

Are they offering an HDMI Matrix Switch?

Are they offering an HDMI Matrix Switch?

Soon.

There will be a significantly reduced street price and dealer cost, stay tuned. I can't release any information until C4 does.

We are taking orders on the new Clarity HD 8X8 HDMI switch. Small quantity ship date is early next month. The new order from C4 impacted all the engineering projects. Zektor is also going through UL and FCC testing which is a pretty big effort in itself combined with a monumental software development schedule for HDMI.

Thanks for all the congrats and support. I promise that our company and philosophy will never change. We are in the process of adding some cool new features to our product setup that all of you will like.

A special thanks to all the Control4 dealers that advocated Zektor during the evaluation stage.

Jeff

Congrats Jeff. Maybe now I can upgrade from my 10 year old HDS-4.

Have seen street prices for the switch.... $6000 with 8 baluns. Big step up from the sony price.

Certainly – but the switch does do audio as well (the sony switch only did video), so if you look at wiring, audio switch, and a video switch it’s well worth it trust me

The balums are great. They carry the video and the audio( both analog and digital), as well as the power and it also has an adjustable gain to adjust for distance.

Thanks for all the well wishes, congratulations and endorsements! We're here to support all of you. We left our HDMI survey up on our soon to be refreshed website. If any of you still have input for HDMI products we're always listening.

Best,

Jeff

The balums are great. They carry the video and the audio( both analog and digital)

There is so much I don't know about this stuff.

A normal HDMI interface carries video and audio, right? Does that comment mean that not all HDMI switches and baluns carry the HDMI audio? Or can I expect all (most) to carry the digital audio stream, just not the analog audio?

MSRP would be nice also.

The balums are great. They carry the video and the audio( both analog and digital)

There is so much I don't know about this stuff.

A normal HDMI interface carries video and audio' date=' right? Does that comment mean that not all HDMI switches and baluns carry the HDMI audio? Or can I expect all (most) to carry the digital audio stream, just not the analog audio?[/quote']

I was refering to there component video w/audio balums.

I would also expect that there HDMI balum would support a variety of audio modes, but Jeff can probably elaborate on this better.

Hey Jeff, Can you tell us more about the HDMI switch plans?

When?

4x4? 8x8? 16x16?

MSRP?

Designed in?

Made in?

Hey still waiting for an answer over here. :/ PM me if you need to.

+1

Thanks for the questions. I apologize for the long delay. I have been traveling around the country with some of our rep groups. Here goes on the responses:

Prowler / SoloCAT CAT5 extender: Designed and built in the USA. The Prowler is our CAT5 matrix switch utilizing our SoloCAT technology where we send audio, video and power over a single CAT cable.

In the recent engagement with C4, we were requested to accomplish a number of tasks prior to our first production shipment to them. We needed to secure UL and FCC approvals as well as completing our new TCP/IP driver. Our staff has been fully engaged working towards the many deadlines leading up to our production shipment. Because of these many tasks all new product releases have been impacted, but we're getting back on track.

HDMI

Clarity HD 8X8 HDMI matrix with local inputs and outputs. Distance transmission with be handled via a short HDMI cable from the output of the switch to the input of our SoloCAT HD, HDMI over HDBaseT extender. Future versions will include 8X16, 16X16 and larger. I know the preferred method is having the CAT5 output built in but that would cause another delay getting to market which I could not accept from engineering. Long term this will be built in. We might release a highly featured 4X4 next year when our "Project X" releases. We will not release a low end piece like Monoprice or Snap. That market is just too eroded and flooded with all the rebranded Chinese crap. Clarity HD is on track to ship prior to CEDIA.

SoloCAT HD HDMI over HDBaseT extenders: expected to ship in the next 3 weeks. They are heading onto the production line next week.

Pricing: Zektor terminated all online resellers about six months ago as the last of the legacy contracts were ending. Moving forward there will be no more published pricing making sure that our integrators were not price shopped on the internet. If you have any pricing requests, I will be happy to provide it to any professional integrator. Please send me an email; jhaynes@zektor.com.

I hope all of your are busy and doing well.

Best,

Jeff

Moving forward there will be no more published pricing making sure that our integrators were not price shopped on the internet.

LOL. Btw monoprice responds to emails immediately and there switches actually work and they have a msrp!

Moving forward there will be no more published pricing making sure that our integrators were not price shopped on the internet.

LOL. Btw monoprice responds to emails immediately and there switches actually work and they have a msrp!

I have used a couple of their cables also and they seemed decent for the money. Every mfr will have fans and detractors. I can state that every integrator I speak with prefers not to have any availability of pricing information on the web. I feel this gives them one more reason to advocate our product in their projects.

Thanks.

Jeff

^ Guess I will wait for the low end piece from China, at least I know what I will pay and get.

Here we go again. I say all consumers (people who will ultimately purchase these products) stay away from manufacturers who refuse to release MSRP. I guess we're suppose to trust A/V companies to be fair when they markup a product huh? It's all about gaining dealer loyalty, to hell with the consumer. I hope Zektor goes under.

Here we go again. I say all consumers (people who will ultimately purchase these products) stay away from manufacturers who refuse to release MSRP. I guess we're suppose to trust A/V companies to be fair when they markup a product huh? It's all about gaining dealer loyalty, to hell with the consumer. I hope Zektor goes under.

+1

I don't usually vent, but all this guy does is bad mouth chinese companies, monoprice, snap etc Believe it or not they have products that are affordable, they work, there actually selling them (there not in the pipeline or getting ready to roll), and there respective companies respond to customers. There also multi-million dollar companies, that I'm sure are a whole of lot busier than this guy. He has been promising these out of world products for the past 6 months. He even said in a previous thread to email him for pricing, guess what, he never did. To top it off he posts here on a consumer forum about how he wants to keep integrator loyalty. I'm all for buying stuff made in the USA but not if this is what I have to expect, sorry but what a crock oh sh**.