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Control 4 home automation pairs up with Z-Wave

Sep 10, 2009
2 Min Read

control4 Control 4 one of the top home automation control systems that allow you to control virtually any device in your home theater, to your window blinds, to your thermostat to even your security system has announced their OS 2.0. The Control 4 OS 2.0 allows custom integrators to design their own gui, create custom home screens, and pick and choose which control options as well as what icons they want on their home screens. Prior to this release Control 4 only had a single home screen that remained static and un-changeable.

Control 4 is also releasing what they call their “app-store”. The new app-store allows custom integrators to share and or sell the customized applications that they have developed for the Control 4 system over the years. Most of these apps will be drivers for controlling given devices, which are basically RS-232 commands for controlling say an AV receiver, but for custom installers this might just be what they need to expand their install base and go for the lesser known devices that they might not normally install due to lack of control/app support on their end. They can know install equipment, purchase the application from the app-store and integrate it into their customers home. There are even applications customers can download and install on their own, such as Tetris and other simple games. There is now also a Rhaposody application that customers can install.

z-wave Recently the Z-wave alliance has developed their application that integrates the Z-Wave bridging module into Control 4 allow custom integrators to take advance of other wireless technologies. Before Control 4 was solely using ZigBee based wireless devices, now that Z-Wave is controllable from Control 4 you can now integrate Z-wave based lighting, thermostats, window blinds, garage door openers, the list goes on. I currently have a small Z-wave as well as insteon system in my home. I am using Z-Wave light control modules in my home theater as well as insteon modules for lights in the rest of my home. Seeing other vendors add support for Z-Wave just makes this whole market that much more exiting. Now I just wish I could afford to install an automation system like Control 4 into my home.

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  • Control 4 home automation pairs up with Z-Wave

    Five+ year veteran media center user. Over the years I have built over 20 media center pc's whether it has been to upgrade an existing system in my setup, or to build a media center pc (HTPC) for friends or family. My other passion besides HTPC's and Media Center is Home Theater. After purchasing my first home with a blank slate in the basement, I completely finished it off, building a home theater with a 120" front projection setup and 7.1 surround sound system. So between Media Center and Home theater that is what you'll find me talking about here. Like Adam Thursby, between the two of us are probably the only Zune users you'll find. I started out with an iPod nano but eventually found my way to the Zune and the Zune software and never looked back. Also like Josh Pollard I too am a mobile phone/smart phone gadget nerd. In my "day job" one of my job responsibilities is to test out new phones, specifically windows mobile phones, and test them out with our exchange server and trouble shoot end user issues. I am also a Blackberry convert as I recently got a Blackberry Storm for personal use and absolutely love it! I am a huge forum troll, you can find me on AVSforums, TGB, Missingremote, Hardforums, and even the AU media center forums. I like to help out where I can when it comes to HTPC's and media center in general, so if there are questions to be had, I try to answer them the best I can.

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Josh Shenkle

Five+ year veteran media center user. Over the years I have built over 20 media center pc's whether it has been to upgrade an existing system in my setup, or to build a media center pc (HTPC) for friends or family. My other passion besides HTPC's and Media Center is Home Theater. After purchasing my first home with a blank slate in the basement, I completely finished it off, building a home theater with a 120" front projection setup and 7.1 surround sound system. So between Media Center and Home theater that is what you'll find me talking about here. Like Adam Thursby, between the two of us are probably the only Zune users you'll find. I started out with an iPod nano but eventually found my way to the Zune and the Zune software and never looked back. Also like Josh Pollard I too am a mobile phone/smart phone gadget nerd. In my "day job" one of my job responsibilities is to test out new phones, specifically windows mobile phones, and test them out with our exchange server and trouble shoot end user issues. I am also a Blackberry convert as I recently got a Blackberry Storm for personal use and absolutely love it! I am a huge forum troll, you can find me on AVSforums, TGB, Missingremote, Hardforums, and even the AU media center forums. I like to help out where I can when it comes to HTPC's and media center in general, so if there are questions to be had, I try to answer them the best I can.

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