drvnbysound
Senior Member
I do not own any HAI hardware as of yet and will be the first to admit that I havent read much of the HAI literature. However, I am looking to purchase a OmniPro II in the fairly near future. My question is how robust is the software that HAI advertises on its website?
My main reason of my concern is the recent posts regarding the upcoming change in the CQC pricing strucuture. I am not sure that I want to fork out the money for it now and may never NEED it, or wait to realize that I do want to make the CQC purchase and it cost me 2x as much as the current price.
I know it's hard for anyone to say that what HAI offers will or wont work without knowing some or all of the details of the system and may not be able to tell me anyway. Nevertheless, I will try to capture that briefly below and hope to get some direction out of those of you who are more knowledgeable than I:
CCTV System - I currently plan on this running on its own PC/Server (#1). Most likely a GeoVision combo card which has a composite video out to be displayed on various TVs throughout the house.
UPB Lighting - Most likely throughout the entire home (~28 switches - a combination of dimmers, relays, and auxiliary switches). I would like some of them programmed for scenes, but would like to be able to get status of all lights and be able to turn them all on/off via some control mechanism - mainly a Goodnight type OFF.
Sprinkler - I would also like to add a WGL Rain8 controller. I only have 4 zones, but would definitely like a better control interface that I have now (which is the standard garage mounted controller).
Whole Home Audio - I currently use the 2nd zone of my Pioneer AVR to get a faux whole-home audio system through a 6-zone speaker selector. I intend to scrap the current setup and get a Nuvo system in place. This will likely be something else that I wouldnt mind having as a separate system as there will likely be native controls in every room/zone anyway. I may like this integrated somehow as I know Nuvo is one of of the compatibly partners with HAI, but I am not sure that I see where the interface would really be beneficial to me.
Media - I am all but set on a SageTV (already have 2 HDHomeruns stashed away) setup with a second PC/Server dedicated for media. I plan on distributing via HD Extenders at each of 3 TVs. Another system that I can really see as being stand alone, as long as I can natively control and access media at each TV (which I see being as simple as having a remote in each room - whether standard Extender remote, universal, or multiple Prontos).
HVAC - I would like to add a controllable thermostat at some point. I have a simple single zone unit with a heat pump. I would simply like to be able to view the current temp at the thermostat (possibly add one of the DIY boards to monitor temp in other rooms - but not a big deal) and adjust it if desired.
Control - I dont have a great idea what I want to do here yet, but I am pretty sure that I want to use a Philips Pronto TSU9400 remote, which I know the HAI system will interface with pretty well. I really dont have any desire to have a touchpanel setup. I have a fairly standard sized home at ~1500sq ft. I know I am not going to want to do a two-handed pickup and use a touchscreen panel and dont care to walk over to a wall mounted display. Thus, the selection of the Pronto remote. I know the remote has WiFi capability, and I feel that I should be able to add in pages for Lighting and HVAC as described above along with the univeral features to control other IR devices.
I think the biggest event based things I would like to see are lights turning on at specific times (possibly like a morning wake-up ramp) or flashing when in an alarm state or turning off after x amount of time of a room being unoccupied (given that the room has occupancy sensor - obviously). Other than those, I am really not sure just yet.
My Pioneer AVR as well as 2 of my 3 TVs have RS-232 ports and all have openly published protocols. I may like to see these integrated somehow, but I really dont see myself using this much. Potentially another ALL OFF type selection - but not necessarily a requirement.
All of this said, do those of you who have the knowledge seem to think that I would still really benefit from the purchase of CQC. If so, can you describe any of those aspects?
My main reason of my concern is the recent posts regarding the upcoming change in the CQC pricing strucuture. I am not sure that I want to fork out the money for it now and may never NEED it, or wait to realize that I do want to make the CQC purchase and it cost me 2x as much as the current price.
I know it's hard for anyone to say that what HAI offers will or wont work without knowing some or all of the details of the system and may not be able to tell me anyway. Nevertheless, I will try to capture that briefly below and hope to get some direction out of those of you who are more knowledgeable than I:
CCTV System - I currently plan on this running on its own PC/Server (#1). Most likely a GeoVision combo card which has a composite video out to be displayed on various TVs throughout the house.
UPB Lighting - Most likely throughout the entire home (~28 switches - a combination of dimmers, relays, and auxiliary switches). I would like some of them programmed for scenes, but would like to be able to get status of all lights and be able to turn them all on/off via some control mechanism - mainly a Goodnight type OFF.
Sprinkler - I would also like to add a WGL Rain8 controller. I only have 4 zones, but would definitely like a better control interface that I have now (which is the standard garage mounted controller).
Whole Home Audio - I currently use the 2nd zone of my Pioneer AVR to get a faux whole-home audio system through a 6-zone speaker selector. I intend to scrap the current setup and get a Nuvo system in place. This will likely be something else that I wouldnt mind having as a separate system as there will likely be native controls in every room/zone anyway. I may like this integrated somehow as I know Nuvo is one of of the compatibly partners with HAI, but I am not sure that I see where the interface would really be beneficial to me.
Media - I am all but set on a SageTV (already have 2 HDHomeruns stashed away) setup with a second PC/Server dedicated for media. I plan on distributing via HD Extenders at each of 3 TVs. Another system that I can really see as being stand alone, as long as I can natively control and access media at each TV (which I see being as simple as having a remote in each room - whether standard Extender remote, universal, or multiple Prontos).
HVAC - I would like to add a controllable thermostat at some point. I have a simple single zone unit with a heat pump. I would simply like to be able to view the current temp at the thermostat (possibly add one of the DIY boards to monitor temp in other rooms - but not a big deal) and adjust it if desired.
Control - I dont have a great idea what I want to do here yet, but I am pretty sure that I want to use a Philips Pronto TSU9400 remote, which I know the HAI system will interface with pretty well. I really dont have any desire to have a touchpanel setup. I have a fairly standard sized home at ~1500sq ft. I know I am not going to want to do a two-handed pickup and use a touchscreen panel and dont care to walk over to a wall mounted display. Thus, the selection of the Pronto remote. I know the remote has WiFi capability, and I feel that I should be able to add in pages for Lighting and HVAC as described above along with the univeral features to control other IR devices.
I think the biggest event based things I would like to see are lights turning on at specific times (possibly like a morning wake-up ramp) or flashing when in an alarm state or turning off after x amount of time of a room being unoccupied (given that the room has occupancy sensor - obviously). Other than those, I am really not sure just yet.
My Pioneer AVR as well as 2 of my 3 TVs have RS-232 ports and all have openly published protocols. I may like to see these integrated somehow, but I really dont see myself using this much. Potentially another ALL OFF type selection - but not necessarily a requirement.
All of this said, do those of you who have the knowledge seem to think that I would still really benefit from the purchase of CQC. If so, can you describe any of those aspects?
