What's up with Cinemar?

pete_c

Guru
Noticed an email from Cinemar relating to Allonis. (reinvention?)
 
Allonis is a new name, but we have been doing this for a long time.
 
Together, we have 30 years of experience developing automation solutions for homes and businesses. We pride ourselves on working to design the most innovative new software and hardware products to meet the needs of anyone looking to control their home or business with style, efficiency and ease.

David and Dave first met and worked together 15 years ago, sharing an interest in home theater control. They both pursued their own interests with David creating Tallus LLC which developed bridges between SageTV personal video recorder software and MainLobby, CQC and Homeseer automation systems, and Dave developing the MLServer3 and MLServer4 software under the Cinemar brand name.

David and Dave decided to reunite to develop and market the Allonis myServer product line. After many late nights of work, Allonis proudly launched myServer in 2016. We believe it is the most advanced automation and media control system on the market.

 
Here purchased the software way back when first introduced.
 
Personally met David and Dave sometime around 15 years ago at a suggested post Orlando EHExpo automated folks get together on Merritt Island, FL. 
 
My personal interest in the get together was automation; well and Unisys. 
 
My mind went mostly to Unisys that evening with an a la carte dose of home automation.
 
My question's response was to read the book.
 
I am still waiting for the book.
 
Nothing on the Cinemar forum.
 
Nothing from Cinemar in the mail.
 
Perhaps this is a way to try to get some cash - they are asking $240 for an "upgrade".
 
I think they should have provided a fuller explanation of what has transpired.
 
Just my two cents.
 
Frederick
 
Reviving this thread from a year ago…  I’ve used MainLobby in the past to produce some really nice touchscreens with my older HomeSeer 1.7 version automation system.  This required running MLServer on the HomeSeer computer and the “MainLobby” client on the remote computer.  I really liked how easy this software provided some really nice looking screens and gave my automation system that ‘wow’ factor!  Though the software is still for sale on Cinemar’s website, their main developer left and went to Allonis (who is resurrecting this software somewhat).  I'm sure we are all curious as to the 'why's' and 'how's' that caused this all to transpire, but that's most likely another story...
 
It appears that Allonis is offering license holders of MainLobby Server 3 & 4 a discount of $130 for their myServer software.  A few other tidbits:
 
The software doesn’t use flash anymore and is web based (this would make it more compatible with mobile phones which was one of MainLobby’s downfall).
 
There ‘appears’ to be a maintenance fee of $100 per year!  I’m not sure if this is mandatory (in other words a user will just not get upgrades without cost).
 
As far as I can tell their designer (required for creating screens) comes with the myServer license.
 
Now that I’m getting back into home automation (due to my recent purchase of a HomeTroller Zee S2 from HomeSeer and some Z-Wave switches) I was curious to see what options were out there for phone interfaces (iPhone and Andriod).  HomeSeer offers their HSTouch, but their designer is $200 and the learning curve is steep.  One advantage is you don’t need to load any additional software on your HomeSeer device and the client is free (so this $200 appears to be a one-time fee).
 
Allonis on the other hand will require running their myServer on ‘a’ device (not sure if this needs to be a windows-based PC or a Linux system).  Since I’m running HomeSeer on a RaspberryPi, I’m curious if the myServer software will co-exist with this software on this platform.  Also, I’m curious if their designer is as easy as MainLobby’s was to create screens.
 
A couple of disadvantages that MainLobby had with my older HomeSeer system:
 
I didn't like Cinemar's pricing structure.  For instance, they would come out with some really cool ‘icons’ that you could use in your scenes, but they required you purchase a separate package.  I’ve spent a lot of money on their software packages and now can’t use any of it (I know, this is life in the software world).  This begs me to ask the question, how long will Allonis last?
 
For my older setup, a plugin was required to interface MainLobby with HomeSeer.  This was a solid plugin that was well written and had absolutely no problem interfacing all of my HomeSeer devices with MainLobby.  This did require a separate fee and it appears that this is true for the Allonis package.
 
Blade (HomeSeer third party developer) offers a HomeSeer to MainLobby plugin ($30) and this is compatible with the Allonis myServer package. (Examples of screens created by him via Allonis).
 
I searched on the Allonis forums for “HomeSeer” and obtained an error (that search string word is not valid with their forum software, a bad sign?).  They do offer a 'trial request' link for a 30-day license.
 
Anyway, I’m curious if any of our forum members are using this new product as I know we had a few MainLobby users in that past.  It looks like a very nice package that can produce some beautiful screens (for both your touchscreen and phone).
 
I’m probably not going to venture down this path as I’m trying to keep this new system as frugal as I can, and HSTouch does offer a ‘standard’ interface that will most likely suffice for mobile phone interface needs.  Plus, with Alexa, most of my human interface with HomeSeer is via voice these days!
 
Hi BSR!  Long time!
 
myServer5 now has a driver written by Allonis to bidirectionally integrate with Homeseer3.  We also have assisted Blade with his plugin.  And Krumpy with Homeseer 2 integration.
 
myServer is now HTML5 (web) user interface.  Gone is Flash.  It is easier today to develop a custom, polished user interface using myServer's myDesigner design software.
 
Current pricing is buy the core myServer software license, add optional device "families" (like Lighting Family) to control an unlimited number of lighting controllers and devices (like ZWave, Zigbee, X10, ELK managed lighting devices etc).
You can also optionally purchase the $100 annual software update service that provides real time access to the latest updates for all software products.  One year of updates comes as part of the initial software purchase.
 
In the bigger picture, the pricing of all of the software is WAY less expensive than traditional hardware automation controllers for similar capability (myServer far exceeds most all automation controller capabilities).
 
Because it's HTML5 based, any of your modern devices can be the user interface.  This save $thousands of not requiring to purchase proprietary and dated hardware.
 
Most all of the MainLobby customers have upgraded to myServer5 in the last four years.  We do not have ANY people that have upgraded that have wished they hadn't.
The 30 day free trial works for all the software components to test drive.  There is auto import for MainLobby / MLServer4 installations to minimize the upgrade path effort.  The old MainLobby flash scenes will still work with myServer5, but that is going to soon be eliminated as there are very few left using MainLobby.  Most all use one of the two included user interfaces as is.  Then folks modify those for their particulars.  Some advanced users just go hog wild using myDesigner to custom design their own from scratch.
 
Send me a PM as I haven't been online with Cocoontech daily in a few years.
Good to hear you are still actively engaged in HA hobby!
 
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