HAI Launches Hi-Fi by HAI Whole Home Audio System

[mbreeden]

I never had any issues w/HAI and DIY. I installed a Omni II w/o issue and I am not the sharpest tool in the shed

 

[upstatemike]

You may also wish to consider if you are doing this yourself, UpstateMike. HAI never seemed to be DIY friendly (if that is what you were planning). Not sure if that has changed.

That is why I keep pushing for Elk to match the HAI feature set. HAI has some things that are attractive to my situation (but may not be of value to anyone else).

Things like:

-Surface and tabletop options for their touch screens... My 1885 walls do not work well with flush mount products designed for the sheetrock era.

-The ability to control touch screen views programmatically... Especially camera views.

-Tight integration with HAL for voice recognition. HAL only supports security features on the M1 while supporting just about everything on the OmniPro II. (I also recently discovered HAL support for Stargate no longer works right even though they still list it as a supported interface).

-An access control keypad as an alternative to using proximity sensors.

I need to see a narrowing of the feature gap before I can factor in DIY friendliness.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Mike, you bring up some very valid points and hopefully we'll continue to see a closing of the gap you mentioned. there are pros and cons with both systems but there are also some Elk advantages as well.

As far as the HAL interface to the Elk - You're right and in addition to that, HAL requires that you use the main serial interface on the Elk so you wouldn't be able add an Elk web interface....

-An access control keypad as an alternative to using proximity sensors.

The Elk does allow for access control keypads. We have several of them. The key is for it to be Weigand compatible. Look at the Rosslare ones.

 

[MCCOOL - HAI]

Please have faith in the fact that HAI is hard at work to release many more products in the months to come. I think we have a clear understanding of what the customer's would like next and should be delivering these items over the next year.

I'd share more, but can't...

I think the HIFI system will be huge for us. It does a great job of filling the "ABus GAP" (having multizone/multisource functionality at an ABUS price point.) We're not done though... more to come.

 

[DavidL]

The Cinemar MLHAI plugin has now been released and includes support for the HiFi HAI system. Not full support yet as the protocol has not been completely released by HAI. We also have not been able to test this as there isn't hardware available yet, but the information we have gotten from HAI is very straightforward execution so we expect good results.
www.cinemaronline.com/mlserver.mlhai.html

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

The Cinemar MLHAI plugin has now been released and includes support for the HiFi HAI system. Not full support yet as the protocol has not been completely released by HAI. We also have not been able to test this as there isn't hardware available yet, but the information we have gotten from HAI is very straightforward execution so we expect good results.
www.cinemaronline.com/mlserver.mlhai.html

davidl;

Am I understanding this correctly, Cinemar formally released a plugin without ANY hardware testing?

 

[DavidL]

No, BSR, the MLHAI plugin has been in development for almost a year and in beta for a few months with fairly extensive hardware testing. It is a fully multithreaded application that our beta testers were happy with. We added the control protocol to it to control the HiFI addon to the HAI line. That portion cannot be tested as the new hardware is not available yet. But because it is very straightforward, we don't expect issues once hardware is available. Of course once hardware is made available, those command extensions will be tested as well, as do ALL products that Cinemar produces (and every other software hardware interface company I can think of)

The primary purpose of the plugin is to support the security panel, not the HiFi addon.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Ah I see, your previous post was a little confusing. So it seems that Cinemar has "cracked the code" then on interfacing with an HAI system. I was curious because at least in their security/automation systems their serial protocol (if my memory is correct) uses some type of polling that can be a challenge to interface to.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Of course once hardware is made available, those command extensions will be tested as well, as do ALL products that Cinemar produces (and every other software hardware interface company I can think of)

The primary purpose of the plugin is to support the security panel, not the HiFi addon.

DavidL;

I understand what you are saying. Please remember that this is a discussion forum. Clarification to questions is of course welcomed here but this sort of "lecture" is not appreciated.

Please also realize that part of my responsibility here on CocoonTech is to clarify statements and a product’s performance and interface. If I see a question or need further clarification I will ask. I'm very happy that Cinemar has a product representative on this board who can answer these questions quickly and with accuracy. This is certainly a benefit that I'm sure our board members appreciate.

Also realize though that the last thing I would want is for someone to read a response here, run out and purchase a system, then not have it perform as they "perceived" based on CocoonTech posts.

Thanks again for Cinemar's, and all other vendors for that matter, continued contribution to our forum!

Regards,

BSR