Tag: technical-newsletter

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.

Manage Your Communications Preferences

You can opt out of receiving Smart Home Pro – Tech or opt to have it sent to your work or home email address from your profile on the portal.

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.

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