You’ve got most likely seen a Control4 system someplace. Perhaps on a documentary that confirmed off the within of a footballer/rapper/NBA star’s home. Perhaps in a swanky resort you stayed in.
You most likely did not realise it was Control4 as a result of it isn’t a model you may see marketed within the mainstream media. And also you actually will not discover any Control4 equipment on the cabinets at Greatest Purchase, or listed on Amazon.
Complete verdict: Control4 smart home assessment
Control4 has been within the home automation because the early 2000s, approach earlier than the present smart home growth took maintain, and when the one echo at Amazon was the one you’d hear when you shouted one thing in one in all its massive warehouses.
Nonetheless, whereas Control4 is ready to management lighting, multi-room audio, HVAC methods, safety platforms, smart locks and extra â working by way of the likes of Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth â and is suitable with over 35,000 units, it is an unique membership reserved for individuals with the money to undergo an authorised Control4 vendor.
Need in? Here is all the things it is advisable know in an effort to get began.
Control4: Set up and sellers
The very first thing it is advisable know is that Control4 is something however plug and play. You may need to find an authorised Control4 vendor after which prepare for them to pay you a go to.
Control4 truly recommends getting a couple of quotes from a variety of sellers earlier than you determine on precisely what system you need put in, however place to begin is its Product Planner portal, the place you may reply a sequence of questions and be emailed steered tools lists and setup concepts.
Your vendor is not simply there to put in the {hardware} although. They’ll configure all the things in your system from the software program to make connected units suitable to particular machine settings and scenes.
In contrast to the likes of Alexa, HomeKit and devoted smart home hubs corresponding to SmartThings or Wink, the person does not actually get entry to configure something on their system. Every part must be achieved by way of the vendor.
Certain, there are some companies corresponding to When>>Then (Control4’s reply to IFTTT) that allow you to add layers of automations to preset ones, however it’s very a lot a system that is designed for those who need another person to take care (and management) of their smart home upgrades.
Control4: Controllers
The one core element you may want in an effort to become involved within the Control4 social gathering is a controller. A Control4 controller â basically the brains of the operation, a smart home hub of types â connects to your home community and, in flip, hooks as much as any suitable tech.
Probably the most fundamental Control4 controller, the CA-1, is slightly white field that gives Zigbee and Wi-Fi connectivity (you may add in a further module for Z-Wave) so you may management issues like smart lights, electrical blinds and related locks.
Improve to the EA-series controllers â the EA-1, EA-3 or EA-5 â and also you get streaming audio thrown in (the quantity of streams correlates with the quantity within the mannequin quantity, so three on the EA-3, for instance) in addition to HDMI out, for whole management over your TV, digital media and suitable set-top packing containers.
The CA-10, the latest addition, is the top-end controller. It boasts 4 instances the processing energy and reminiscence of the EA-5 and is absolutely designed for huge smart home methods, with lots of – and even 1000’s – of related units.
Control4: Person interface
Controlling your Control4 system, and the entire tech you’ve arrange inside it, is completed in quite a few methods.
Should you’ve acquired a EA controller going into your TV’s HDMI enter, you may see the Control4 UI on that TV. And the simplest method to navigate that’s with a devoted ‘common’ distant management that not solely controls your audio and video feeds, however may also management any related lights, thermostats, safety methods and so forth. You’ve gotten the selection between the usual, SR-260 distant or the brand new Neeo Distant for Control4.
A greater approach of taking a extra in-depth and intuitive method to controlling your Control4 system is thru a devoted touchscreen panel â Control4 supply 7-inch and 10-inch fashions that both go in a wall, or sit on a desk.
These devoted touchscreen panels could be replicated â with some limitations â on smartphones or tablets; there are variations out there on each iOS and Android.
Apart from touchscreens, Control4 additionally gives keypads that wire into your common mild switches. These could be configured to not solely flip lights on and off, clearly, however can be the triggers for Control4 scenes. Scenes, as you most likely guessed, are routines that automate smart home actions. So you might have a ‘good morning’ scene that activates your favorite radio station, turns off the alarm and switches the kettle on.
Lastly â we are saying lastly as a result of it is the least helpful approach of utilizing Control4 â there’s Alexa compatibility. It isn’t the smoothest Alexa integration, with scenes, settings and units all pulled over when you add the Control4 ability to your Alexa setup. It takes a heck of a variety of sorting earlier than it is wherever close to useable.
In August 2019, Control4 additionally added Google Assistant to the combo as properly.
Control4: Suitable manufacturers, units and drivers
As we talked about up high, Control4 is suitable with over 35,000 units from an enormous variety of manufacturers. Nonetheless, not like the mainstream smart home ecosystems, it is not only a case of scanning your home community in an effort to see what’s out there to sync up.
You may have to get devoted drivers put in for non-native tech; i.e. something Control4 does not immediately make itself. And you may have to get your vendor to put in these drivers. Typically â properly, more often than not â these drivers will value you cash.
It is a bit of a trouble, it is costly and it is hardly embracing the openness of the ‘works with’ smart home motion. Nonetheless, as we mentioned already, Control4 isn’t a smart home system for individuals who like configuring their very own units; it is designed for those who need another person to maintain all the things.
If that is you you then’ll be happy to know that a complete host of main smart home units, together with a lot of the mainstream digital audio and video companies, play properly with Control4, together with Philips Hue, Nest, Sonos, Apple TV, Yale, Netflix, Amazon Music, Lutron and extra.
Control4: Native units
Control4 additionally gives purpose-built merchandise â and that is actually the place the corporate excels. The tech it makes is severely high-end and, when you’re trying to splash some money on an outstanding multi-room media setup, otherwise you desire a skilled grade home community, you then actually ought to think about Control4 above a few of its higher identified rivals.
Beginning with digital media, these EA controllers we talked about earlier work alongside a variety of audio switches, amps and audio system â some branded Control4, some branded Triad (an audio firm it acquired in 2017). You’ll be able to add third-party audio elements to the combo â corresponding to Sonos â though you may get a significantly better, and pure, expertise when you hold all of it in-house.
There’s an enormous array of audio and video options from Control4, from one-zone methods designed to take a seat underneath your TV, to vastly highly effective matrix methods that may reside in a rack and energy the audio and video for the most important of mansions. There are even outside speaker methods just like the awesome-looking (and sounding) Triad Backyard Array outside system pictured above.
One other massive Control4 acquisition, Pakedge (bought again in 2016), leads to a home community that can blow even the most effective consumer-grade mesh system out of the water. You do not want a Pakedge router for a Control4 system however all the things simply works significantly better when you do. Particularly when you add in a Pakedge NK-1 wi-fi controller that fixes glitches in your community with out you even figuring out they’ve occurred, and likewise permits your vendor to entry your system remotely to make adjustments with out paying you a go to.
Once more, as with the audio aspect of issues, there is a huge vary of switches, entry factors and community equipment which are out there to create a world-class community in your home.
Control4 additionally has its personal smart doorbell answer. The Door Station DS2, syncs up with the Utah-based firm’s SmartOS 3 app (no want for the separate Intercom Wherever app these days) to will let you remotely talk with whoever is knocking at your door.
There’s additionally a brand new Chime Doorbell, launched in 2020, which is a bit sleeker than the Door Station vary.
Ding dong: Control4 Chime assessment
Smart video doorbell model DoorBird was formally licensed to be used inside a Control4 system in 2021.
Which means that, moderately than utilizing premium third-party drivers, DoorBird IP door stations can now be built-in immediately into Control4 methods, utilizing an official – and crucially, free – driver.
That is not it although. Control4 additionally gives smart shops, safety cameras, thermostats, centralised lightning panels, movement sensors, KNX units and lots, lot extra.
Control4: What it prices
Control4 doesn’t come low-cost. Even for essentially the most fundamental of setups â as an example simplifying your AV controls â you may need to fork out, say, $1,000 for an EA-3 controller and $300 for the distant management; and you then’ll need to pay for the go to of an authorised Control4 vendor on high to set all of it up.
From that fundamental setup, the sky is just about the restrict when compiling your Control4 home system. In order for you contact panels in each room, multi-room audio, knowledgeable grade home community, a cinema room â you get the concept â then you may simply run up a five-figure invoice. Heck, go for a home like this and also you’d most likely be taking a look at six figures.
The price of some particular person objects offers you an thought of the price-brackets we’re coping with right here. A ten-inch in-wall contact panel is $1,200. The Pakedge router Control4 recommends is $750. A single load mild swap prices from $500. A 2.1 system with a Triad Soundbar, an amp and a subwoofer can be round $4,000.
Even the Door Station video doorbell is dear. That is $1,050 by itself, with a $99 subscription on high.
You get the concept. It is costly.
Control4: The place can you purchase
As talked about, you will not have the ability to stroll into a store and stroll out with a load of Control4 equipment. You may want to go to an authorised vendor â or, higher nonetheless, have them go to you â and have them configure your system.
To get began merely discover a vendor situated close to you.