To quote Janet Jackson (Ms. Jackson if you're nasty), "This is a story about control." And whether your lifestyle is Joe Schmo, Average Joe, or Joe Millionaire, control is something we can all use a little more of in our lives. Fortunately, achieving some level of control over our A/V systems is easily done. Replacing that pile of remotes with a universal model that makes movie watching or music listening a single-button affair is the first step, and it doesn't have to cost a fortune. But what about controlling your lights, the thermostat, or the blinds covering the windows? Whole-house automation systems that also perform these tasks are pricey, on the order of $20,000 to more than $50,000 for a typical installation. Should it cost so much more to turn on a light remotely than it does to open your garage door the same way?
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What We Think
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| A well-conceived modular system that offers music and DVD management, automation, and more at a price nearly anyone can afford. |
A basic Control 4 system provides remote control of entertainment and other devices scattered throughout the house as well as multizone audio distribution. The heart of the system is the Media Controller, a component that contains the brains and connections for the system as well as inputs for your primary music sources. Digital audio signals are transmitted via a conventional wired or wireless home network.
The Media Controller ($1,495, above, on bottom) can be operated either via the supplied handheld remote (below) and onscreen menus or a sexy, 10.5-inch Wireless Touch Screen ($1,995, above, on top). The touchpanel plugs into a wall adapter or easel-style table dock but can also run on battery power and be carried from room to room.
Remote rooms can be fed in a variety of ways. If running new wiring isn't possible, one of the company’s Speaker Point boxes ($399 Ethernet, $449 Wi-Fi) can stream audio directly off the network and drive a pair of speakers with its built-in amp. Or go with the wall-mountable or tabletop Mini Touch Screen interface (page 4, $699 Ethernet, $799 Wi-Fi). The latter has a 4-inch touchscreen keypad, can stream audio off the network, and includes a stereo RCA output to feed a local amp and speakers. I used both of these, and Control 4 also makes a more traditional eight-zone distribution amplifier ($1,995) that streams audio off the network and routes speaker-level signals to selected rooms. Each zone can be controlled by either of the touchpanels or the remote handset.
Control 4 also offers a variety of add-ons, including an AM/FM/XM tuner ($799), which can stream AM and FM stations as well as XM satellite radio channels to different rooms simultaneously. Also available are controllable light switches/dimmers ($99 to $129) and a thermostat ($199), or the system can be programmed to operate any third-party control device for drapes, motorized lifts, security, etc. Other components include a 16-zone audio matrix switch ($1,295) to enable an extensive distributed-audio system plus contact/relay and serial/IR (infrared) remote extender boxes ($179 each) for expanding the system to additional rooms and devices. As both a consumer and an installer, I was really impressed by how many options the system offers and how flexible it is.
SETUP Just programming an advanced automation system by Crestron or AMX might take days, which can cost thousands of dollars in installation fees. In contrast, even a complex Control 4 system can be up and running in a matter of hours. Even so, Control 4 isn’t meant for installation by users, and dealers must go through training before being allowed to sell the system. Control 4 sent a certified installer named Ed to help with my setup.
We installed the Media Controller in my main system. It features an 80-gigabyte hard drive for storing MP3 files and a CD drive for ripping discs. The box has a multitude of connections to hook up almost any component imaginable, including three analog stereo inputs and one optical digital audio port for easy multizone/multisource listening around the house. Component-, composite-, and S-video as well as VGA outputs are on hand to route the controller’s display interface to your TV. An Ethernet jack connects to the home network, and there's a trio of USB ports for plugging in iPods and such. Installers will find RS-232, IR, contact-closure, relay, and video-sensing control connections.
If all this is overkill for you, or your budget is tight, Control 4's $599 Home Theater Controller functions identically to the Media Controller but without the CD or hard drive and with fewer connection options. It also includes a remote handset. Once the Media Controller was installed, adding music to my master bedroom was as simple as connecting a compact Speaker Point box to my home network and using its 50-watt-per-channel digital stereo amp to power a pair of small speakers. My guest bedroom, the farthest in the house from my home theater system, got its own audio feed from a wired Mini Touch Screen.
Ed brought along some lighting dimmer switches ($99 each) as well. They installed like regular light switches — in fact, we just replaced three of my existing switches (of course, after taking the usual precautions for working with electricity).
Programming the system is done via a PC using Control 4's Composer software. Though Composer is primarily an installer's tool, a very basic version is supplied that allows you to scan files or edit media file information. A more flexible version that lets you change lighting "scenes" and so on is also available ($199).
Since audio signals are routed from room to room over your home network, and all the components except the controllers are available in both wired and Wi-Fi versions, it's relatively easy to retrofit a full-blown system. Control and status signals travel wirelessly to and from the interfaces using a relatively new communication standard called ZigBee that creates a "mesh network," meaning that it actually gets stronger as more devices are connected.
LOADING MEDIA While the controller has a CD drive, loading audio this way is s-l-o-w. Ripping is done at only 3.5x speed and only into MP3 format at a fixed rate of 192 kilobits per second (kbps), though the hard drive will play MP3s from 32 to 320 kbps. No other format is supported.
Transferring files from a networked computer — wired or via Wi-Fi — is far more efficient. Connecting a player to one of the USB ports or adding a network drive is another way to acquire music. I connected a thumb drive loaded with tunes as well as an iPod. Music can also be streamed from any drive sitting on the network. Unfortunately, new music doesn't appear on the system until it's been "scanned" manually from a computer running the Composer software. It would be far more convenient if the system automatically scanned for media files when a drive is connected, and Control 4 says this is a priority for an upcoming software update.
Once my music files were scanned, the Media Controller correctly identified most of them and automatically retrieved cover art from the Web. Editing the file information for songs that weren't recognized — including adding cover art — was quick and easy, and nearly 300 songs were correctly identified in about half an hour. I was then able to browse my collection by artist, album, genre, or title.
Control 4 touted the system's ability to look up DVDs and CDs from a connected Sony 400-disc changer. Since this is a feature normally reserved for multithousand-dollar devices from Escient and ReQuest, I was eager to see how a box at a third of the price stacked up. Control 4 uses the AMG (All Movie Guide) online database to ID music and movie info and cover art. It did a great job of identifying nearly all of the discs I threw at it, then sorted them by director, actor, rating, and genre. One minor glitch is that movie synopses frequently weren’t included from automatic lookups, though they did appear when I manually identified the discs. Control 4 is aware of this, too, and promises to correct it in a software revision by the time you read this.
OPERATION A control system can be crippled by a poor interface, and fortunately Control 4's is very easy to use. To greatly reduce the learning curve, the interface is identical regardless of the control device being used — the big Wireless Touch Screen, the Mini Touch Screen, or the handheld remote. Also cool — and unique — is that with the touch of a button, any of these devices can be reconfigured to control any other room in the house.
The remote handset communicates using ZigBee, which frees you from having to point at your gear. The range was great, letting me control my system from anywhere in my home. Pressing the prominent 4 button on the handset powered up my A/V receiver and TV and produced the main interface onscreen, with control options arranged by Radio, Music, TV, Videos, Lights, Comfort, and House. The look is slick — icons become animated as you highlight them, and options not used in a particular room are grayed-out and unavailable for selection.
A small LCD screen on the handset lets you browse your entire media library without being chained to one spot. This made finding the right song a breeze. Unfortunately, only the LCD screen is backlit, so nighttime operation was a challenge.
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The Short Form
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| $4,885 AS REVIEWED / control4.com / 801-523-3100 |
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Plus
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| •Amazing bang for the buck. •Terrific-looking, consistent interface. •Retrieves DVD/CD information from the Web. •Easy installation. |
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Minus
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| •Lack of customization for touchpanels. •Only supports MP3 files. •Manual "scanning" for some music files. •Short battery life for wireless touchpanel.  |
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Key Features
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| •Modular system for whole-house control and distribution of audio files and sources as well as environmental control (lighting, temperature, etc.) •Media Controller ($1,495) includes 80-GB hard drive, CD drive, and wired connections to home network and A/V sources; 17 x 5.25 x 16 in; includes handheld remote control; can control optional Sony 400-disc DVD changer •Wireless Touch Screen ($1,995) control interface with 10.5-in (diagonal) screen and Wi-Fi connectivity •Speaker Point ($399 Ethernet, $449 Wi-Fi) remote receiver/controller to drive two speakers with built-in 50-watt/channel amplifier •Mini Touch Screen ($699 Ethernet, $799 Wi-Fi) remote receiver/controller to feed external stereo amp or powered speakers •Light switches/dimmers ($99 to $129) •SYSTEM PRICE $4,885 (as reviewed) |
Any audio sources connected to the Media Controller — including all analog inputs and USB devices — are available to any room in the house. Think your iPod is cool now? Jack it into the Control 4 system, and you can pull multiple streams from it at once. I had three simultaneous streams going with nary a hitch or stutter. While the Pod's playlists aren't imported, you can create new playlists, browse and select files, and skip tracks using any of the control interfaces. Similarly, I connected my Sirius satellite receiver into the Speaker Point in my bedroom, and it became available to the whole house. This means your gear can be spread to the four corners of your home but still be accessed as if it were all together. Awesome!
Lighting dimmers aren't just remotely adjustable but also report their status back to the interface. At the push of a button you can see, for example, that your landscape lights are on full and your porch lights are dimmed to 50%. The wireless thermostat offers the same kind of control and reporting functions but wasn't available at the time of review.
Space doesn't permit me to delve into the vast array of automation possibilities available from the host of relay outputs and contact-closure inputs. You can control drapery, sprinkler, and security systems from any of the interfaces or use an array of sensors (motion, temperature, audio, etc.) to trigger events. There's even an astronomic clock onboard so you can trigger events based on sunrise and sunset or at specific times throughout the day.
BOTTOM LINE Control 4 promises an easy-to-use and affordable control solution, and it delivers. What the touchpanels lack in customization, the system makes up for elsewhere, not least of all by a real-world price tag and a modular approach that brings sophisticated automation to the masses.
For the first time, you don’t have to be wealthy to browse your media files, dim the lights, or tweak your thermostat from one simple, centralized controller. No matter what you use it for, this system offers a far richer experience than the simple volume knobs or keypads offered by other companies in this price range. Now, that's what I call taking control!
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