CEDIA Reviews??
- Thread starter fleetz
- Start date
No reviews... It has been unusually quiet.
I just arrived in Denver so if I see something interesting, I will post (although my speciality is mostly AV as opposed to control).
Here is a decent site with most of the announcements: http://www.hometoys.com/show_news.php?show=cedia08
Amir
WayneW
Senior Member
I don't have time to make them pretty, so here is the raw link to yesterdays photos. Most are self expanatory... new version of ElkRM, show overview, people (Bill & Tucker from Ranger Digital, Martin, Scott (opie) & Larry)
http://www.sysbyd.com/CEDIA2008/
I will try and get pics of the Schlage z-wave deadbolt. Black & Decker (Baldwin, Kwikset, Weiser) is also working on RF deadbolts, aimed for summer 2009. They use a modular design and can put whatever RF technology they want, they are currently planning on Z-wave and Zigbee.
http://www.bdhhi.com/accesscontrol
http://www.sysbyd.com/CEDIA2008/
I will try and get pics of the Schlage z-wave deadbolt. Black & Decker (Baldwin, Kwikset, Weiser) is also working on RF deadbolts, aimed for summer 2009. They use a modular design and can put whatever RF technology they want, they are currently planning on Z-wave and Zigbee.
http://www.bdhhi.com/accesscontrol
upstatemike
Senior Member
Cool pics but I doubt if I would choose a Russound SMS3 as my primary music server. Any word on future support for other music server platforms? Particularly Logitech Squeezecenter?
WayneW
Senior Member
Get in line :blink: We are still waiting for Elk to supply NuVo support like they indicated would be next after Russound. Unfortunately, I hear that Proficient is next in line, and I have no idea who has been asking for that or what their market share is. :blink: And even the Russound has no interaction with ElkRM or any rules... I want the music to start when I disarm, etc.
AnthonyZ
Active Member
Copy/Paste from my post at RC...
A few items to report on. 1. Speakercraft gets lamer and lamer. You couldn't pay me to work with those fruitcakes. Blah product paired with over the top image. I was embarrassed for them this year. 2. Totem Acoustic's new in wall Tribe did not disappoint. Easily the best sounding in wall I've ever had the opportunity to listen to. It images like a beast and is stunningly beautiful to listen to. 3. HAI has finally decided to create a decent GUI in their new 10" wireless. It's actually something I might consider selling to a client. 4. Macintosh's demo (in particular the 2 channel) was great. 5. Met with Dean and Mark of Charmed Quark fame and the system is really quite amazing and the guys are great. I'll be playing with the software over the next few weeks as we ramp up and I'll certainly post on my experience.
A few items to report on. 1. Speakercraft gets lamer and lamer. You couldn't pay me to work with those fruitcakes. Blah product paired with over the top image. I was embarrassed for them this year. 2. Totem Acoustic's new in wall Tribe did not disappoint. Easily the best sounding in wall I've ever had the opportunity to listen to. It images like a beast and is stunningly beautiful to listen to. 3. HAI has finally decided to create a decent GUI in their new 10" wireless. It's actually something I might consider selling to a client. 4. Macintosh's demo (in particular the 2 channel) was great. 5. Met with Dean and Mark of Charmed Quark fame and the system is really quite amazing and the guys are great. I'll be playing with the software over the next few weeks as we ramp up and I'll certainly post on my experience.
Hi WayneW,
Thanks for the shots. Be nice to hear exactly what improvements have been made. Spanky stated the ELKRMS is ELKRM on steriods!! From the screen shots it looks like a just a different GUI I didn't see anything that would suggest there are major functionality improvements......maybe the GUI is actually configurable by the user which would be a major step forward. Maybe Spanky can expand on the form factor and features set.
Regards,
Fleetz
WayneW
Senior Member
Chris is still working on the Designer (configuration) software, so he wasn't demoing it yet, but supposedly everything is now totally configurable. So for example, you could now create "rooms" under the lighting area so you don't have to scroll through the long list or you could put an output (possibly a relay controlling a light) on the lighting page (to make it more logical). Per Chris, this is a free version upgrade, not a new product.
Thanks Wayne.....now that is what I wanted to hear!
. I think heading this way will give ELK more flexibity in the future to bring other ELK and 3rd party products into RM. Did Chris indicate the reality of a release date? I think Spanky was indicating October a while back.Regards,
Fleetz
WayneW
Senior Member
I think Chris indicated October also. Chris sounded like it was fairly mature, so I probably could have asked him to demonstrate, but the show floor was pretty busy. David wasn't at the show, they left him at home so he could do some "real work".Thanks Wayne.....now that is what I wanted to hear!
twilo123
Active Member
sharp and hitachi had some 1.5" thick or should i say thin televisions.
speakercraft was a joke. didn't really have any product, just support was their theme this time with some kind of halloween haystack setup. corny.
sony was trying to audio/video shifting with hdna and homeshare system. their oled t.v. was crystal clear.
lutron was packed but didn't see anything really new here. they were showing off the regular stuff for lighting and shade control + http://www.trendir.com/archives/lutron-vierti-dimmer.jpg
control4 was packed. they are doing the door locks like zwave albeit via zigbee. they both use batteries. they also have a sonos type of wireless audio streaming to local amp boxes. they have an iphone client which will be free on the store and up to integrators to charge for setup. they are using a new model for sony's discontinued dvd changer which does not have rs232 anymore. they are working around getting the data off it for visuals/metadata but i don't think it was ready at this time. they partnered with sony to develop some premade racks in some standard configs. they ranged somewhere between $5,000-17,500 depending on hardware. they have 2 new handheld remotes which are actually pretty nice and much needed. the more expensive one handles feedback and metadata. it is oled on that one with yellow writing. the remote is solid in your hand. their designer software was really easy to use and updates on the fly, no need to hit save or refresh. it is windows based only (which is weird since they are linux based). version 2.0 is coming out soon and will include a flash sdk. they are coming out with a 4 zone audio system for smaller setups. i have to admit the product line looked pretty solid and the signup dealer price (used towards 1st purchase like most of them do) was affordable.
russound did not have much new except the sphere.
zwave was showing off locks from schlage and black & decker. both regular door locks and deadbolts. they support encryption and currently only their zwave/ip bridge/gateways could control the locks. difference between the 2 from what i saw was that on schlage even after you unlocked the deadbolt via zwave, you still had to manually open the handle on the lock to open it. on black and decker once the lock was unlocked, the deadbolt was open. i also saw O2 sensor which ran on batteries and acted as a binary switch (on for water sensed, off is nothing sensed and would report back like a door sensor/PIR, etc.). also, there was a remote temperature sensor which was independent of any hvac unit. it would just report temperature wherever it was located. also ran on batteries.
did't get to amx but they had a s*load of panels - wall panels, touchpanels, etc.
dean rodney was there from cqc supporting vidabox. nice guy, extremely intelligent. some of their higher end software is cqc with their own templates. they had a small box about 4"x3" running embedded xp for local computing on a hdtv. they were velcroing it to the back of an hdtv. it had ethernet and vga i believe. don't know the specs offhand. they'll do custom images if there is something you want embedded on it along with xp.
didn't get too far into elk but i think they had some new software and/or touchscreen. looked somewhat similar to HAI's software if i remember correctly.
HAI had some new panel to show off. i believe the rest was the usual from them.
pronto came out with the godfather of touchpanel remotes. next gen for the 9600 and much bigger although not much heavier. they also showed off v. 2.0 of prontedit prof. which streamlines all products into 1 software (one to rule them all so to speak). downside is you have to convert your existing files to the xcf format (i believe it is the same as the existing newer xcf format) and cannot go back. just copy your old files and store them seperately if you want to revert back though. they were controlling led lighting also via the remotes. i think it was via a relay though for just on/off.
pmc had draw dropping bass. i couldn't breathe half the time it was so strong. kept dropping, dropping, lower and lower for about 15 minutes. good demo.
leviton showing off viziarf+ zwave dimmers/switches. utterly horrible IMO. turns out they didn't pay lutron for the patent like everyone else and were stuck having to redesign the switches. led is across the top along with the dim toggle now buttons right below with +-. they should have paid the patent and worked on some decent designs.
a couple of car racing simulators one of which you could setup to function via home theater chairs. not only for sound effects but everything the car model would do the chairs would do also. up/down/left/right/angles, etc. with no lag between any of them. used via a 3 dlp screen setup and a dell xps laptop running the game.
ge had the usual along with smartcom.
speakercraft was a joke. didn't really have any product, just support was their theme this time with some kind of halloween haystack setup. corny.
sony was trying to audio/video shifting with hdna and homeshare system. their oled t.v. was crystal clear.
lutron was packed but didn't see anything really new here. they were showing off the regular stuff for lighting and shade control + http://www.trendir.com/archives/lutron-vierti-dimmer.jpg
control4 was packed. they are doing the door locks like zwave albeit via zigbee. they both use batteries. they also have a sonos type of wireless audio streaming to local amp boxes. they have an iphone client which will be free on the store and up to integrators to charge for setup. they are using a new model for sony's discontinued dvd changer which does not have rs232 anymore. they are working around getting the data off it for visuals/metadata but i don't think it was ready at this time. they partnered with sony to develop some premade racks in some standard configs. they ranged somewhere between $5,000-17,500 depending on hardware. they have 2 new handheld remotes which are actually pretty nice and much needed. the more expensive one handles feedback and metadata. it is oled on that one with yellow writing. the remote is solid in your hand. their designer software was really easy to use and updates on the fly, no need to hit save or refresh. it is windows based only (which is weird since they are linux based). version 2.0 is coming out soon and will include a flash sdk. they are coming out with a 4 zone audio system for smaller setups. i have to admit the product line looked pretty solid and the signup dealer price (used towards 1st purchase like most of them do) was affordable.
russound did not have much new except the sphere.
zwave was showing off locks from schlage and black & decker. both regular door locks and deadbolts. they support encryption and currently only their zwave/ip bridge/gateways could control the locks. difference between the 2 from what i saw was that on schlage even after you unlocked the deadbolt via zwave, you still had to manually open the handle on the lock to open it. on black and decker once the lock was unlocked, the deadbolt was open. i also saw O2 sensor which ran on batteries and acted as a binary switch (on for water sensed, off is nothing sensed and would report back like a door sensor/PIR, etc.). also, there was a remote temperature sensor which was independent of any hvac unit. it would just report temperature wherever it was located. also ran on batteries.
did't get to amx but they had a s*load of panels - wall panels, touchpanels, etc.
dean rodney was there from cqc supporting vidabox. nice guy, extremely intelligent. some of their higher end software is cqc with their own templates. they had a small box about 4"x3" running embedded xp for local computing on a hdtv. they were velcroing it to the back of an hdtv. it had ethernet and vga i believe. don't know the specs offhand. they'll do custom images if there is something you want embedded on it along with xp.
didn't get too far into elk but i think they had some new software and/or touchscreen. looked somewhat similar to HAI's software if i remember correctly.
HAI had some new panel to show off. i believe the rest was the usual from them.
pronto came out with the godfather of touchpanel remotes. next gen for the 9600 and much bigger although not much heavier. they also showed off v. 2.0 of prontedit prof. which streamlines all products into 1 software (one to rule them all so to speak). downside is you have to convert your existing files to the xcf format (i believe it is the same as the existing newer xcf format) and cannot go back. just copy your old files and store them seperately if you want to revert back though. they were controlling led lighting also via the remotes. i think it was via a relay though for just on/off.
pmc had draw dropping bass. i couldn't breathe half the time it was so strong. kept dropping, dropping, lower and lower for about 15 minutes. good demo.
leviton showing off viziarf+ zwave dimmers/switches. utterly horrible IMO. turns out they didn't pay lutron for the patent like everyone else and were stuck having to redesign the switches. led is across the top along with the dim toggle now buttons right below with +-. they should have paid the patent and worked on some decent designs.
a couple of car racing simulators one of which you could setup to function via home theater chairs. not only for sound effects but everything the car model would do the chairs would do also. up/down/left/right/angles, etc. with no lag between any of them. used via a 3 dlp screen setup and a dell xps laptop running the game.
ge had the usual along with smartcom.
ASIHome
Active Member
My understanding of that whole thing was that Leviton did pay Lutron and that is why they have the only "Licensed" 2-Way RF devices.
twilo123
Active Member
i guess there are 2 different understandings flying around. i can't for the life of me figure out why they would have done such a thing of their own volition. maybe they paid for the rf piece but not the physical specs or there was some comprimise involved in the 'licensed' 2-way rf portion. either way i wish they would at the very least go back to the way the regular viziarf line was setup. my opinion only.
quote:
On September 24, 2007, a joint motion between Lutron and Respondent Leviton was filed seeking termination of this investigation based upon a settlement agreement. On October 2, 2007, Lutron moved to terminate the investigation as to respondent Control4 based on withdrawal of the complaint. Control4 did not oppose Lutron's motion.
looks like they settled but i cannot find the terms of the settlement. again, it could be part of the settlement that the physical design had to change. lutron had patents on side sliders for dimmers from what i see which could be why the side dimmer is now +- buttons at the top. not sure on the led but i am sure lutron had a hand in that also.
quote:
On September 24, 2007, a joint motion between Lutron and Respondent Leviton was filed seeking termination of this investigation based upon a settlement agreement. On October 2, 2007, Lutron moved to terminate the investigation as to respondent Control4 based on withdrawal of the complaint. Control4 did not oppose Lutron's motion.
looks like they settled but i cannot find the terms of the settlement. again, it could be part of the settlement that the physical design had to change. lutron had patents on side sliders for dimmers from what i see which could be why the side dimmer is now +- buttons at the top. not sure on the led but i am sure lutron had a hand in that also.
Similar threads
