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Control4, Savant, Crestron

I wonder about people's experience using these companies to integrate their systems.

I have a complicated high end system with home theater, theater bypass to the 2 channel system, thus 2 preamps, 4 amps, 13 speakers, a NAS server, 4 voltage regulators, a UPS, Kaleidescape, madVR Envy, etc.  It all works and I have done a lot of integration myself to make it all work together.  

However full integration with just one app supplemented by Alexa voice control is beyond my capabilities.  Theoretically, I could do it with Home Assistant.  In reality i cannot.

The alternative are to leave it alone or use one of the commercial companies.  So far, only I can babysit the system and handle the multiple changes I frequently make.  I am also pretty capable of trouble shooting problems.  The problem with the commercial systems is that you turn over much of the control to them, which I am not about to do.  I also think that a complicated home entertainment system like mine is not the sweet spot for any of these companies.

I will be interested in what others think about this issue.

Meanwhile, off to watch football in my home theater ...

 

billsw
jperry
2,538 posts
 

I don't have anything that complex, but we just refreshed the home theatre setup including a Control 4 remote setup. It does all we want and appears capable of doing much more. A professional installer did the refresh including the Control 4

billsw OP
28 posts
 

Thank you for the response jperry.  I have further considered this.  I think my setup including frequent changes is too complicated for any of these commercial integration companies.  As my system will continue to evolve,  I cannot put myself into a situation of having to involve a third party with each change/update.  

So, I will gradually increase the degree of integration, accepting some limits. The perfect is the enemy of the good.

For some Control4 or their competition may be fine.

As in everything with high end home theater/audio be careful and have fun.

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