“I’m a huge fan of Control4, even more so now than when I originally learned about its capabilities. I’m a “techy” who likes to tinker and do as much of the work as possible. Having said that, I didn’t do anything related to the install of my project, Streamline did everything timely and to my satisfaction. That was a year and a half ago, now I’m doing all the programming and having a blast tweaking it to my own personl preferences. That is just one of the benefits of the Control4 system. The programming part of it is pretty simple to learn and the capabilities are endless. Regardless of how much or little you wnat to be involved, the product offers solutions at every level. And the fact that I can give them access remotely allows for simple timely tweaks if need be.
I’ll tell you a little about my project because these are some of the things I inquired about when I was considering Control4 as a solution: I have two cameras that monitor the perimeter of my house and one camera in our infants room. I can sit in my office and look in on my dughter during the day and have emails with pictures sent to me every time someone rings my doorbell or triggers my cameras. Yes, that’s complete overkill, but it gives you an idea of its capabilities. In my theater area, I have a single button to dim the lights and play a Blu-Ray DVD. When I pause the DVD, my lights ramp back up until I press play again. When I’m finished in the Theater I hit off, and it powers down my A/V equipment and gives me 2 minutes before all the lights completely shut off. If someone rings my door bell while watching TV, my camera takes a picture of them and sends it to the TV I’m viewing so I can decide whether I want to answer the door. My wife loves how simple it s to run all the equipment… that was critical when selecting a solution. I also have an iPAD and iPhone that gives my complete control f everything wirelessly. Lastly, I have a “Vacation” button that turns specified lights on and off at certain times to make it appear as if someone is home. I can log into my system remotely and adjust the temperature, lights or view my cameras. I could go on and on about the capabilities but hopefully I’ve given you a good idea of is possiblities. The only “con” I can think of is there isn’t a Panasonic camera that is infrared, yet. I’m sure there will be soon though. But you can always trigger a light to turn on when its night time…so there’s a way around that too.
Streamline was great to work with and I’ve been recommending them to friends and anyone else who needs assistance. Their programmers and installers have always been professional, timely and experts at what they do.
Jeff Clark