Control Systems have begun to change in this new era.  Not in what they do, or need, but in how they are designed and manufactured.   Lets look at some of the traditional systems that have been installed in residential applications for the past decade or so.

You have the very high-end high dollar systems.  Manufactured by companies such as CRESTRON Electronics, and AMX Corp (PHAST, Panja,) that have dominated the high-end residential scene.  These systems have similar topologies.  Which consist of a centrally located (usually rack mounted) central processor.  They contain resources, such as infrared, serial, analog and digital voltage inputs and outputs, contact closures.

These systems have a variety of user interfaces, such as wall mounted button keypads, IR and RF hand held remotes, and wall mounted, desktop, and hand held touch screens.  Expansion of resources can be accomplished at both the head end, utilizing additional plug in cards, and / or with the use of additional black boxes that would connect to the central processor through a low speed bus.  This proprietary bus is also how the wired user interfaces would communicate with the central controller typically using a modified RS485 protocol at speeds of 9600 to 31000 Baud.

These types of systems have been the workhorses of traditional high end home automation, and have worked well for simple commands that need to be sent to and from the central control processor.  “Turn on dimming load 103”, or “change the station from preset 1 to preset 6”.  These are examples of typical commands that need to be processed.  Even very large homes with many users could be efficiently served using these controllers.

Big trouble in little china…

Those system did a great job when all you wanted to send around were a few bytes of data.  However those same systems have started to exhibit problems once residential integrators started to push the systems to new limits, and expose the weak link in the chain, which is the limited bus speeds and bandwidth for their networks.

New audio source devices such as the hard drive based digital audio juke boxes started appearing on the scene.  Integrators who are always asked by their wealthy and sometimes eccentric clients to push the envelope and deliver to them the very latest in technology, or the “bleeding edge” of technology, are the first to encounter problems of this nature with the current crop of control system topologies.  While clients such as these are a gold mine to the agile and gifted integrator, often this game of “keep up with the Jones” devastates smaller and less capitalized AV firms whom do not have the R & D dollars or personnel to devote and tackle many of the issues that arise while trying to maintain the bleeding edge, all the while not being cut up by it.

 Sources from companies like ARRAKIS, AUDIO REQUEST, LANSONIC, IMERGE, and the like exposed a very real problem with current topologies.  These source devices wanted to send more and more data to the user interfaces, data such as album name, track name, band name, time left on track, next song, play-lists, cover art, etc.

“It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years.”- John Von Neumann 1949

I sold it, now what?

The truth was out, these slower bus networked systems could not handle multiple users, and multiple sources with lots of data streaming all over the house.  You can not solve this by increasing your processor speed and adding memory.  The real answer is to increase the bus speed to your extra black boxes, and user interfaces.  If you think that simple sources like hard drive based jukeboxes are difficult to work with, just wait until the Digital Rights Management (RDM) issues get solved, and with the looming Video On Demand (VOD) products, we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.  The control products will need to switch over to faster networks for user interfaces, such as TCP/IP.  Many of the control companies are working very hard to switch over to TCP/IP based networks.  I applaud companies such as CRESTRON and AMX for moving in this direction.  I give a resounding thumbs down to all the other AV companies working in the CEDIA space for not moving quickly enough to integrate the audio video systems they manufacture and get those products on the Cat5.

If you are specifying any equipment that does not communicate to the network, or able to receive content from the network, and upgrade or repair itself over the network, then you are doing yourself and or your client a huge disservice.  How can you spec an audio distribution system that can not receive content over the net, or can not deliver 96/24Bit audio streams in real time to multiple users, or 5.1 Dolby Digital to every room in the house?  How can you spec a video system that has no way of delivering video on demand in HDTV?  Your clients come to you and pay you the money because you are supposed to be the experts remember???

Don’t spec in obsolescence, ignorance is no excuse in audio video systems design.  Stand up, ask questions.  Ask why the audio distribution system being installed cannot receive streaming content?  Ask if the speakers adjust themselves automatically to source content?  Do the Speakers and amps protect themselves under any circumstance, or will the “Dumb” speakers and amps that you are installing just keep playing even into adverse conditions, and just blown up?  How many speakers do you know that can protect themselves, for that matter how many amps are intelligent enough to stop the current from continuing to flow into a speaker.  You are installing a (supposedly) high tech state of the art system aren’t you? If you can not communicate with the speakers and the amps in your system how state of the art can it be?  Speakers and amplifiers have been around for more than a hundred years, but Network speakers and amps are brand new to the scene, so make sure you check them out and research them before you start to specify them into your designs and proposals.  Remember to specify the new composite wires, and pull them all the way to the speakers.  Do not stop at the keypad.  These new cables have both a high strand speaker wire like 14/4 and a data grade cable like cat5e in one wire.  If you are truly trying to “future-proof” someone’s new house, don’t pull speaker wire alone to the speakers, get the cat5 up there!

Remember when computers first came out?  They would let you play games, keep track of your accounts, and let you calculate spreadsheets.  Once you started networking the computers, they became much more than a fancy calculator.  They became a new communication tool, they became a new medium.  Try to buy a new computer today without a network card.  In fact most people who buy computers today use them exclusively for networking applications period, emails, instant messaging, internet games.  Installing an audio system that has no network connectivity today is like buying a computer today and never hooking up to the Internet.

“All technology should be assumed guilty until proven innocent. “- David Brower

Universal Remote in a Touch-Panels clothing

There is as new trend in control systems.  User interfaces without any programming.  Hmm, this sounds great, but what am I missing?  Oh yeah the control part, well lets spell this out.  For those dealers who have clients who want the cool look of having a touch panel in the wall of their fancy new theater, yet they do not have any programmers on staff to really do it.  Ok how do we do this?  Take the brains from a universal remote control and put them with a small television screen with a video input ... add a touch sensitive overlay, and mount it in the wall.  Next lets create some templates with some buttons and allow for a video image to be seen, after all it is a TV we are putting in the wall.   Now we can set up this panel just like a universal remote with what DVD, VCR, & TV that I have in my system, and some macros for on and off sequences, and VOILA – instant control system right?  Wrong!  Just because a universal remote has a touch sensitive membrane on it, and it mounts in the wall does not make it a control system.  Look in the catalogs of these companies and they talk about adding additional modules for communication with other devices such as RS232.  Now try to program it with the universal remote interface.  Two scenarios tragically crop up out of these system, dealers who end up short changing their customers, or disappointed end users who find out a little too late that they just spend $2,000.00 or more on a glorified universal remote, neither of which will create many referrals.

Ask your new potential control company how the system will communicate with the interactive IP based devices?  Ask them how they will integrate with lighting systems, or your new IP based security module?  Or a simple SOMFY drape controller?   I understand how you may want to offer cool solutions for your clients, however do some research and investigate the systems BEFORE you sell them.  One last thing to keep in mind, if the system you are selling is so simple and easy to install, what does your client need you for?

Michael Braithwaite, Senior Product Manager,  Audio Video Products GE SMART

 With more than fourteen years of experience in the design and integration of Audio Video distribution and high-end residential control systems. Mike is currently working on the very latest in technology for distributing high quality audio and video throughout a home.  With the vast amount of technical resources available from SMART partners Microsoft and General Electric, and with his vision on user centric designs, there is little doubt that we will see some incredible audio video devices in the very near future.

Mike was the head of Crestron’s Residential Systems Group.  Under Mike’s direction, the Group created a new line of products and worked very closely with Crestron Home™ dealers and industry consultants to design and integrate residential control systems, develop new product solutions, and demonstrate the latest technologies in home automation.  Mike has also written numerous articles for trade publications in the field of home automation and Audio Video distribution, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences.  Mike Braithwaite can be reached at GE SMART in Las Cruces, NM, 1-505-521-6000 or email at mbraithwaite@GE-SMART.com