What do you guys think of ELAN?

 

^elan is a pretty nice system, i would take it over the C4 anyway

 

We used ELAN for whole-house audio, I liked how it worked.

 

Hi Deep Blue,

My name is Kevin and I work for RESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS, INC. (residentialsystemsinc dot com). We are Control4 dealers (and also dealers for Savant and AMX control systems), and I think we can help you.

We are a 25 year old, Colorado-based electronics and integration firm. We do the majority of our work in Colorado, but also tackle significant projects all over (and outside of) the US. We currently have several Control4 installations going on in Colorado, plus one in Manhattan, NYC and another in Pacific Palisades, CA.

Feel free to contact me via this forum or the phone number on our website if you are interested in discussing your Control4 project with me. In addition to our 25 years of direct integration experience (we are not a retail store), we bring many other things to the table that others can't or don't, including 24/7/365 service, insurance, certifications and professional installation teams.

Best Regards!

 

What sort of cost are we taking for élan? 3-4 zones + lighting?

 

Elan is trying to compete with c4 with the G range. Not sure if they still sell old fashioned standalone audio distribution systems like they did before.

 

Here is an update to my install:

I called a couple other vendors for quotes, one was non responsive, another one came out and gave me two quotes for Savant and Control 4 and RSI AV came out and gave me a quote as well.

I really liked RSI, although they were the most expensive, they were very through and offered some very good products (thanks Kevin!). I wont be using them for this project, but they will get the nod on the next larger and more involved ground start project that will be closer to the Denevr metro area.

I did go with a Control4 setup with ListenUp!, although they were the least expensive, it was more of a decision of local technical support as I will undoubtedly need, they are 5 minutes away, RSI is 90+. I was really interested in Savant but was $20k more than Control4 which is more than I wanted to spend this project.

The entire system is based around Control4 HC800 controller, 8 zone amp, and IO Extender. I am using Furman UPS /Power conditioner and my existing ARCAM 888 processor and 777 amp and B&W in wall speakers and a couple IWS4 subwoofers (1000w amp vs the 250) in the main audio room. I also have 5 other zones of AV and a few other audio only zones.

All zones will have HD monitors and B&W in cieling speakers as well as controllable lights and fans. I also integrated the NEST thermostat, which is amazing by itself.

I thought about integrating some of the security controls, but decided against the single point of failure and left it at AV, lights, fans and thermostat control.

I'll update my Control4 experiences in the near future, I am already frustrated at the lack of online "insider" access and dependance on the vendor for adds, moves and changes. Any one have any cool Control 4 tricks?

 

Control4 tricks... You can do almost anything the possibilities are many..

The 5 video zones are they all 5.1? How do you send the video there? Is there an HD video distribution (HDMI matrix switcher)system also? I would also go for an SR250 remote in every video zone - it is one of the most reliable automation remote and it will offer you a lot of convenience.

I have heard that the Nest people upgraded their firmware and decided to lock out all automation integration for now - i hope this is not true. You can use the C4 thermostat or another C4 compatible thermostat but then you loose the Nest features.

Is there an ipad/iphone (myhome licence)in the system? Make sure the dealer sets it up for remote access - VPN is the best method, use port forwarding if VPN is not possible.

Networking - C4 as all serious automation system requires a reliable network with decent hardware. This is extremely important. What will you be using?

There is much more we can discuss but let's address these first...

 

Thanks, definitely appreciate the input and assistance... I am sure the installers will be doing the basics before moving onto another project and I will be left wanting to do allot more over time.

I have one dedicated 7.2 zone, the rest are stereo although one will eventually be basic 5.1 as well. All video is HDMI over ethernet (baluns?) via HDMI switch.

I ordered 2 extra 250 remotes in addition to the extra free one that C4 will send you with purchase but also have dedicated ipad 3 for my audio room control, btw, Kindle Fire has a downloadable app as well. Yep, there is a mysight license for the ipad and it seems the most intuitive.

Network and Security: I sent them a grocery list of required settings from Cisco (Gb eth) device setup and hardening, SSID, VPN, password requirements, mac addresses filtering etc...I aslo put all C4 network related on a "guest" network that is vlan/firewalled from my normal network.

Yep, its true about NEST, they *just* pulled the drivers on this, annoying.

They are researching the fan/light controls as we speak.

I would be very interested to learn as much as I can about this, especially from the installation/programming aspect.