Frustrated with home automation software

[pete_c]

Thank-you Dean; I was curious.

 

[jdk972003]

Dean,
 
I am assuming SIP can then be used for some form of intercom system between devices?  Thats one of the reasons I never went through the work of installing mulitple touchscreens in past houses.  Did not seem worth it without the intercom.
 
Man I would love to do house wide intercom independent of the WHA system.

 

[wkearney99]

Given the 'instantaneous' nature of intercoms I've largely given up on bothering.  
 
It's still easiest to just SHOUT from across the house.  That way you don't have to boot anything up, configure it, or maintain it's firmware.  
 
I'd still like to find some cordless phones with intercom support.  But most I've sampled just miss the mark in all kinds of little ways.  There really is a gap in the market between office phones and residential expectations/requirements.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Dean,
 
I am assuming SIP can then be used for some form of intercom system between devices?  Thats one of the reasons I never went through the work of installing mulitple touchscreens in past houses.  Did not seem worth it without the intercom.
 
Man I would love to do house wide intercom independent of the WHA system.

 
Yeh, that's the plan. Presumably each IV client would be set up to listen on some port for incoming sessions and would either auto-answer or reject (if the user has pressed some do not disturb button on that particular client.) At least within the home, and within the CQC IV machines, going all the way to SIP isn't required. Just RTP/RTCP and we can set up the session ourselves using our already existing ORB based networking. It would leave out calling in from SIP phones, but it's something we could get going a lot sooner and it would be lighter weight and more integrated.
 
Of course later when we support SIP that will require a server anyway, and it could provide a gateway into our IV based intercom system, assuming we didn't just switch over to using SIP for session setup/teardown.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Given the 'instantaneous' nature of intercoms I've largely given up on bothering.  
 
It's still easiest to just SHOUT from across the house.  That way you don't have to boot anything up, configure it, or maintain it's firmware.  

 
That's why I always argue that, despite modern thinking that only phones matter, there's nothing wrong with fixed position, always on touch screens, because they can serve multiple duties in addition to being a touch screen client, e.g. a fixed zone music streamer and an intercom end point.
 
To me, an intercom system that requires waiting for the other person to answer only is useful for one to one scenarios. It's not useful for one to many broadcast because you can't control when they will all pick up.