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bookmark_borderIssue 04 – It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s CEDIA

Posted on August 9, 2019August 25, 2021 by Ashley Kimsey

Smart Home Pro – Tech: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Cedia

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Hey, Smart Home Professionals!

Control4 and SnapAV are now one amazing company. We will continue to provide the same great content, just a lot more of it. There’s so much going on in the next few weeks with CEDIA just around the corner, we’re all gearing up for a busy month ahead. Check out what’s going on in support, education, drivers and more. Remember to click the survey link at the bottom to tell us what you want more of.

-Ashley Kimsey
Education Operations Specialist
SnapAV

Don’t experience FOMO—Come see us at CEDIA

CEDIA 2019 is coming up fast! Make sure you are registered to attend, so you can visit us at the expo and meet with our combined team.

The exhibit hall will be open September 12-14. Here’s where to find us:

  • Control4, Pakedge, and Triad will be in Booth 3013.
  • SnapAV will be just a few feet away in Booth 3707.
  • Triad Speakers, Trinnov Audio, and Home Theater are co-sponsoring an immersive home theater experience in Sound Room 19 (SR-19). The demo also features Control4 automation and runs on Pakedge networking equipment.
  • See the Control4 Tiny Smart Home inside the Design Connection Pavilion (Booth 1960) where we’ll be demonstrating OS 3 and networking with professionals in the home design industry.

Use our unique code EXIV296856 to receive free entry to the Expo.

How’s the new Tech Community page treating you?

In the last newsletter, we announced the Tech Community page. It’s the new support site in the Dealer Portal. Make sure to check out the featured topics section. Click one to view the latest questions and knowledge articles for the topic. You’ll always see three topics displayed:

  1. Support Top Solutions contains all articles that Technical Support has marked as a top solution in solving everyday calls. This topic is always a feature.
  2. OS 3 (or the current OS) highlights the current major OS release.
  3. Trending Topic features a topic that is currently in high demand for Control4 Support.

New in Knowledge

Here are some noteworthy articles recently added or updated in the Support Knowledgebase.

  • Device Image Updater v2 (OS2.9.0+)
  • Significant changes to Google Nest Integration
  • DS2 Driver (231+) User Code Programming
  • Audio Volume Issues Before or After an Announcement

3.0 Audio Streamer Patch

This patch addresses multiple OS 3 bugs, which are listed below. We recommend that you run this patch on any customer site that is currently on OS 3.

This patch addresses the following issues:

  • AV-4850: Shairbridge audio is choppy, experiences increase/decrease in audio playing speed, or skipping.
  • AV-4851: Director crash due to FATAL: Handling SIGSEGV(11) error.
  • AV-4869: Director crash if all sessions are turned off after volume adjusted.

Download Patch

Check out our classes at CEDIA!

Are you joining us at CEDIA this year? If so, make sure to take our classes Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. We discuss everything from Composer Under the Hood: What’s New in OS3 to High-Resolution Streaming Audio with the New Distributed Audio Speaker Series. These sessions are packed with ways to save you time and make your clients extremely happy.

CEDIA Continuing Education credits (CEU) for SnapAV

  • Networks 100 (1CEU)- fundamental information for those new to networking
  • Networks 200 (1CEU)- How to install and set up a reliable, scalable and modular network
  • Networks 300 (2CEUs)- How to bulletproof your network as it grows
  • OvrC 100 (1CEU)- An orientation for OvrC, our proprietary, award-winning remote management system
  • The Connected World (1CEU)- Explores the connected environment in which you’ll work in

Give your technicians the training they need to succeed with Snap University, our exclusive online training program. It’s a great way to reduce your technician’s time in the field. Learn more

New in the Education Portal

Here are some noteworthy new Smart Skills.

  • Programming Lighting Scenes to Work on a Schedule
  • Adding and Resetting Experience Menu Icons Using Composer Pro
  • Applying WA-2200 Configuration Settings to Multiple Access Points Through BakPak

Qobuz

Qobuz, pronounced Ko-buz, delivers full, uncompressed high-resolution audio (up to 192 kHz/24bit), taking advantage of the high-performance audio capabilities of Control4 and Triad electronics and speakers.

Each copy of the driver supports a single login, so if you have multiple accounts you want to use in a project, add one copy of the driver for each account.

Each driver supports an unlimited number of streams.

Qobuz counts all the streams from one Control4 system as one location and does not impose a limit on how many independent streams that the system can run.

Starting streaming from a different site (the Qobuz website, mobile apps, another hardware player) will end all Control4 streams on that account.

  • Requires C4 OS 2.10.2 or later
  • Active Qobuz account

Snap! Here they are

Search the online driver database to discover certified drivers for Luma, Visualint, WattBox, Binary, Episode, Autonomic, and Sunbrite. Search available drivers here.

New & updated drivers

By popular request, here is a list of some of the most helpful new drivers in the online database:

  • Sony
  • Samsung
  • LG

Google Nest info

Google announced the discontinuation of the Works with Nest (WWN) program effective August 19, 2019.

All future Nest products will use Google Account Services and new Google Nest APIs.

Customers can no longer create a user account at Nest.com, which is required for the current Control4 integration with Nest.

Feedback

We always want to hear about how to make this newsletter better for you. Even if it’s just to tell us to keep it up, complete the survey.

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Control4 | 11734 S. Election Road | Salt Lake City | UT | 84020

Continue reading “Issue 04 – It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s CEDIA”

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bookmark_borderIssue 02 – Smart Home OS3 has arrived

Posted on May 9, 2019August 25, 2021 by Ashley Kimsey


Hey Smart Home Pros!

Here’s a fun Facebook response from a reader reacting to last month’s edition:
“Great stuff. The trick will be if they sustain them…”
Well, here’s issue #2, pal! Thank you to all those who sent us feedback. You asked for more driver news and more tips and tricks. Below, that’s just what you’ll see! Plus our feature article this month comes to you from Brad Baldwin, Director of User Experience who lead the effort to bring OS 3 to life. Naturally most of this issue focuses on OS 3. Read on!

-Ashley Kimsey
Education Operations Specialist
Control4




Control4 Smart Home OS 3 has hundreds…no, make that thousands of enhancements driven from customer and dealer feedback. It was a blast to work these into the new customer experience. Which are my favorites? Here are just a few.

Favorite Rooms – I love swiping quickly between my family room, master bedroom, kitchen, and office.
Audio Favorites – My one-click Favorites to play Radio Paradise on TuneIn; The Beatles White Album (Super Deluxe) in MQA from Tidal Masters; and my Radiohead playlist.
On Screen interface – I added Favorites for Netflix and Amazon Prime on Roku; Xfinity; Radio Paradise; lighting scenes; and my door locks and garage doors so they are what I see as soon as I press the red Control4 button.
Music distribution – Sending music to rooms is available from the new Media Bar on the Room, Now Playing, or Sessions Screens.
All Rooms + Filter in Lighting – It’s easier than ever to see which lights the kids left on.
Volume tap – on the volume slider, I use the tap-the-slider option to change volume up or down a couple of percentage points.

You can read all the items above and much more in the OS 3 Release Notes.

-Brad Baldwin
Director of User Experience



The Certification Program

Life’s better when everything works together. We want Control4 systems to work seamlessly with all the key components of today’s digital home. This means our customers are happier, our dealers are happier and our partners are happier. We ensure this seamless integration by working with partners in our Connects with Control4 Certification Program.

DS2 Driver Version 236 Now Available

Bugs Addressed
DRIV-1276: The DS2 would send camera image information that was captured before the triggered event. This would manifest in behavior such as doorbell presses showing camera images of the person walking up to the camera instead of standing at the camera.
DRIV-1430: DS2 time zone issues.
DRIV-1452: Time zone changes on the primary controller would not be mirrored by the DS2, resulting in user functionality and user UI issues.
DRIV-1568: Added firmware support for the UK version of the 2N touchscreen Display Module – 01275-001.

Updated Build for OS 2.10.6
To save you time with installs, Control4 has updated OS 2.10.6 to incorporate all of the latest patches built into it.

Bugs addressed in OS 2.10.6.561784-res patch build
Internal profile is missing off controller freeswitch.
Loss of Feedback on Transport bar once upgrading to 2.10.6.558226-res release build.
Intercom non-functional once upgrading to 2.10.6.558226-res release build.
Camera artifacts when calling from T3 touch screen to T3 touch screen.

See KB 908 for details.



A great resource for your customers
We recently released a new help page for customers that provides light troubleshooting, user guides and videos. This is a great resource to send to your customers for quick help so you can continue growing your business. Customer Help Page

New in Knowledge
Here are some noteworthy articles recently added or updated in the Support Knowledgebase.
Below are some KB articles worth checking out for Smart Home OS 3

Smart Home OS 3 – Everything You Need to Know (Index)
Products, Drivers, Agents, etc. – Not Supported in OS3
Setting favorite rooms up for Smart Home OS3
Creating favorite items for Smart Home OS3
How to favorite locks and sensors, where no locks or sensors exist in the room.


By popular request, here is a list of some of the most helpful new drivers in the online database.

Denon & Marantz – D&M has started shipping their entry level 2019 receivers. The drivers are live day one!
GJD – These drivers had a reset in their version number to 122.
Sony, LG and Panasonic have all released drivers for new models.
Elk – Bypassed zones now track the state in our UI, after the system is armed.





New in-class curriculum for OS 3
With the arrival of Smart Home OS 3 comes a new in-class curriculum for certifying your technicians. Control4 Education has re-written the Automation Programmer certification to make it even better: more hands-on, more interactive activities, more active learning, and more focus on designing and delivering Smart Home systems that customers love.

Every Control4 Education Center around the globe–Shanghai, Melbourne, Bengaluru, Frankfurt, York, Charlotte, Chicago and Salt Lake City–are now teaching OS 3. Your existing certificate endures, of course, but we always welcome returnees looking for a refresher. Sessions are published on the Education page.

Customer-facing How-To Videos for OS 3
Click here to learn more and sign up!

Customer Videos
Control4 Partner One Firefly has created an entirely new library of UI University HD Videos designed to help you navigate and learn all the new features of OS 3. They will also help you show your customers what they can do with OS 3. Contact One Firefly to find out how you can have these videos included on your own website. Sign up today!

New in the Education Portal
New OS 3 Smart SkillsTwelve new Smart Skills for OS 3 await you on the learning portal. They average about 3 mins each and show mostly the Composer side of OS 3. Rather than link to each one of them, we created a learning path for you at this link: Watch Now

Tips & Tricks

A New Way to Say Goodbye…
You know the drill. Turning off a house typically includes turning off all the lights, turning off all media, and maybe a few other pickup items, like locking doors and such. Here’s a new approach for it using three ingredients: a lighting scene, the Room Control driver, and a macro. We’ll give you one way to arrange these, then you can remix them as you need.

The pattern goes like this:
The “House Off” lighting scene’s Is Invoked event, calls a “House Off” macro.
The “House Off” macro calls the Room Control driver’s Room Off action and turns off media in every room.
The macro finishes doing any other tasks, such as locking doors, closing shades, or setting the thermostat to Away.

You probably already understand steps 1 & 3, so here are the clues to put together for what lies behind step 2.
1. Add a Room Control driver and name it something like “Whole Home Control.”
2. Set the driver to control all rooms that have A/V end-points to control.
3. From your “House Off” macro, call the “Whole Home Control” driver’s Room Off action.

All right, now it’s your turn. Is this enough detail that you can put it into action, or did we leave too much out? Is this the kind of thing you want more of from us? I’m especially asking all you who requested more tips and tricks. Let us know by completing this month’s Feedback Survey.
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bookmark_borderIssue 01 – Super Technical Newsletter

Posted on April 9, 2019August 25, 2021 by Ashley Kimsey

Super Technical Newsletter from Control4: “Smart Home Pro – Tech”

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Hey, Smart Home Professionals:

You want more technical news from Control4? This is it! Welcome to the first edition of Smart Home Pro – Tech, the monthly newsletter for individual technical professionals who specialize at integrating Smart Home technology into their customers’ homes and lifestyles. In each edition, you get news about Control4 Support, Education, Drivers and more.

This is our first crack at it, so it’s important we get your feedback! Is it worth your time? Does it help you do your job better, faster and smarter? After you finish reading through, tell us what you think from the feedback link below. Let us know you like it and what you want more of, and we will keep it going.

-Ashley Kimsey
Education Operations Specialist
Control4

New Technical Doc: “Control4 Zigbee Pro Design Guide and Best Practices”

What’s the best way to design Zigbee for success? Last year, our lead engineers over Zigbee met with Support and Technical Field Managers to document the formula that results in the most reliable Zigbee networks. We now teach this formula in the classroom, and now you can learn it, too. The new “Zigbee Design Guide and Best Practices” completely replaces the previous “Zigbee Best Practices” document. It overturns some of the old recommendations, and clarifies others. Best of all, it breaks down mesh design into simple, easy-to-remember principles for use in every project. It will increase your success rate with Zigbee, so read it today.

Complete Your Profile: Verify Your Contact Info

Your success with Control4 technology drives our support team. To serve you even better, we have made it so that you can add and verify your mobile number and home email address on your profile. Support will soon begin using mobile numbers to identify callers more quickly. And you can opt to receive content like this newsletter at your home email address instead of, or in addition to, your work email address.

Complete your profile on the portal >

A Faster Way to RMA

Sometimes electronics fail or arrive to you flawed. When it happens, you send it back with a “Return Merchandise Authorization” or RMA. If your company is in a country that Control4 serves directly (not through a distribution partner), here’s a tip for how to avoid waiting in the call queue.

Premier Dealers – If your dealership has premier status (Gold, Platinum or Diamond), use Online RMA. A quick web form escorts you through the process…shipping label and all.

Online RMA Form >

Authorized Dealers – Use chat. Control4 Support’s chat agents can process an RMA quickly for you with a much shorter wait time than the phones offer.

Chat with Support >

New in Knowledge

Here are some noteworthy articles recently added or updated in the Support Knowledgebase.

  • Selecting & Positioning Height Speakers For Dolby Atmos
  • Composer Express: Resolving login issues & error codes
  • Keypad Backlight LED – How to achieve a white backlight
  • 2.10.X Centralized Lighting v2 Firmware Patch (Select OS then patch)
  • Drivers That Should Be In Every Control4 Project

Centralized Lighting…the 2019 update

Along with recent updates to the Centralized Lighting product line comes a big update to its online certification, too. The new version has shorter modules, better audio and a structured approach that makes the concepts much easier to learn. In order to purchase from the Centralized Lighting product line, your dealership must have at least one full-time employee who has this certification. (The 2012 edition of this certification still qualifies through March of 2020.) Up your career value and your skill set by getting CL certified.

Add it to your learning plan today >

New in the Education Portal

Here are some noteworthy new Smart Skills on 4K Video Matrix Switches. Learn how to plan and implement video distribution systems from the Smart Skills 4K series. These Smart Skills are a bit longer because they get in fairly deep, so we recommend them in this sequence.

  • Designing a 4K Video Distribution System
  • Choosing and Installing Cables for a 4K Video Distribution System
  • Configuring a Control4 4K Audio Video Matrix Switch in Composer Pro
  • Calibrating a 4K Audio Video Matrix Switch to Correctly Display Video Sources
  • Ensuring the Best Video Resolution Using Group and Zone Locking on a 4K Video Matrix Switch

Making your job easier with the Room Control Driver!

At a class at ISE we asked the 25 dealers in attendance if they knew about the “Room Control” driver. No one did. You need to check it out right now.

Here are three amazing use cases it can do that used to require programming:

  • Volume – Room Control has connections for VOLUME UP and VOLUME DOWN. No more complex programming. Just connect a keypad button to the driver.
  • House Off – Add an instance of the Room Control driver and configure it with multiple rooms. Now you can connect a keypad button to its ROOM OFF connection, or call it from a single line in programming.
  • Play a Station – Programming a keypad button to play a station has always been complex. Room Control simplifies this, too. Just select a station in one of the five Preset Source fields and then connect the button to a PRESET 1 through 5.

Room Control is in the online drivers. Search for it by name, then read the documentation. You’ll get back the time you spend learning it on the very next job you do.

New & Updated Drivers

By popular request, here is a list of some of the most helpful new drivers in the online database.

  • Qmotion qConnect Roller Shade – This driver replaces the older-style Qmotion qConnect driver, providing support for the new Shades experience in Navigator that debuted with OS 2.10.
  • Weather Station – Updated to use Control4’s weather service rather than Weather Undergrounds API.
  • DSC IT-100 – This new driver for DSC security panels uses the new Security user interface in Navigator. It replaces the older driver which was included in Composer Pro.
  • KNX ETS Import Wizard – updated to support importing of select 3rd-party KNX keypads.
  • Pakedge PE series PDU – various enhancements for integrating power control into a Control4 project.

Pro Tip: You can use Composer Pro’s driver search interface, with the sort order “Modified New->Old” to see which drivers have recently been made available.

Feedback

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Control4 | 11734 S. Election Road | Salt Lake City | UT | 84020

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