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What control system do you recommend? Control4 vs Savant or Creston?

20hertz

Well-known member
I am exploring control system for my theater. Which one would you recommend? Control4 or Savant or Creston?

Is one better over the other? Which one has support for more devices and good remotes?
 
It’s my opinion as I saw the three

1. Crestron.
2. Control4
3.savant

The reason u will found a lot of support driver in the first 2 that will support all ur equipment not just K my first enter to the automation was with savant but in the finale stage change all to Lutron/crestron and I am happy for that move


Crestron is a the best


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I don't recall what my thoughts were on Savant, but chose Control4 because it seemed to have the easiest & most expansive connectivity options without feeding the 800-pound gorilla that is Crestron's pro line (and Crestron's DIY offering had some limits to scaling that could be a problem down the line, in addition to many less than glowing reviews.)
 
For a single room system I've been mostly pleased with my Savant system.

The only real complaint has more to do with the mediocre programming than anything else. I am capable of doing this myself, but Savant only allows authorized dealers to do the work and the dealer near me had never done much with Kaleidescape or automatic masking screens. They got it working, but not with all the little tweaks I'd prefer.
 
Thanks for all your inputs. Please keep them coming.

With control4, can we do the programming if we so desire? Also, does the system “phone home”, to indicate the components, their state etc? In other words, can anyone else besides me know / see state, components, camera feeds etc?
 
Thanks for all your inputs. Please keep them coming.

With control4, can we do the programming if we so desire? Also, does the system “phone home”, to indicate the components, their state etc? In other words, can anyone else besides me know / see state, components, camera feeds etc?

Control 4 has a home edition of the programming software where you can change a lot of the programming and add more. They also have the cloud based when-then that does a pretty good amount of programming if you pay the yearly $99 4Sight (which also adds plenty of other features)

Keep in mind neither of these ways allow you to add or delete components or change how they are connected in the system. It's more programming of actions from triggers. Ie, you can change what light or device starts when you hit a keypad button, but you can't add a light or keypad button.

The system does maintain a connection for remote service and backups of the programming (and any cloud based functions), but you can enable/disable the ability for your dealer to log in as needed. Only your dealer has the ability to remote in to your system and then only when you allow it. Also the programming software does not allow testing the camera feeds while connected remotely.

They've made great strides with the user tweakability, but choose your dealer wisely. A Control 4 system will require a relationship with them.

Kevin D.
 
Control 4 has a home edition of the programming software where you can change a lot of the programming and add more. They also have the cloud based when-then that does a pretty good amount of programming if you pay the yearly $99 4Sight (which also adds plenty of other features)

Keep in mind neither of these ways allow you to add or delete components or change how they are connected in the system. It's more programming of actions from triggers. Ie, you can change what light or device starts when you hit a keypad button, but you can't add a light or keypad button.

The system does maintain a connection for remote service and backups of the programming (and any cloud based functions), but you can enable/disable the ability for your dealer to log in as needed. Only your dealer has the ability to remote in to your system and then only when you allow it. Also the programming software does not allow testing the camera feeds while connected remotely.

They've made great strides with the user tweakability, but choose your dealer wisely. A Control 4 system will require a relationship with them.

Kevin D.
Thanks for the detailed reply.

So does it mean that I will need to work with a dealer every time I add a new device? Should the system be always connected to Internet or only when I need to connect?
 
Thanks for the detailed reply.

So does it mean that I will need to work with a dealer every time I add a new device? Should the system be always connected to Internet or only when I need to connect?
Yes, your system should always be connected to the internet. Some drivers need to get updates and other communications. Your system is secure. I do know some network security guys with control4 that put some extra security in place. He has to allow us each time we want to remotely access it. And yes, when you need a new TV or AV receiver or any other device, you need a dealer to do a quick add since only the pro version of the software allows this. He can sell you The home edition that will do everything including all of the programming to you. Its $149 and includes 1 year of remote access
 
I was in the market last year for this. Control4 and Savant have their own GUI and you place your commands on this GUI. Crestron and URC can have any GUI you create. For this, they are more customizable but more complex in programming (also time consuming = $$$). Like others suggested, the integrator is more important than the platform unless you have all common equipment that drivers are easily found.

I have two Lumagen Radiance video processors in my system. Most integrators backed off when they heard I wanted both to stay in my system. I gave up. I bough a harmony and programmed it myself. I had a similar issue about 10 years ago. I ended up buying URC components and programming them myself. Now that everything is cloud based, finding access to the programming tool is near impossible.
 
Crestron is definitely the Cadillac of the bunch. I used to do my own custom Crestron programming in Simpl and Simpl+. I have switched to Crestron Home which is much more configuration, building scenes, actions base in events and triggers. You can write extensions in C#. You will need to work with your dealer to give you admin access.

Very happy with Home OS. It is regularly updated every 6-8 weeks.

Please feel free to PM me if you want to talk!

Bryan


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It would be easier to answer a question like this if you could elaborate why you (think) you need a control system. What do you wish to accomplish? Is it just one room or the whole house? Only video, or audio and/or lighting as well? Etc.
 
Thanks for the responses everyone. Very much appreciated.

So it looks like many folks recommend Control4 and Creston followed by URI and Savant. With control4, other than adding device, we can do programming along with dealer and on Creston, we can do it if we get access from dealer. cOntrol4 is more confit and could be rigid while Creston is more flexible.

I was thinking of starting with my media room first and then maybe follow up on other areas for automation. Let’s see how it goes.
 
Things may have changed, but my first home was a Crestron system. Expensive, locked down, poor UI not very customizable after install. Second home got Control 4 and while there are obviously issues with any system, it's light years ahead of Crestron in my personal satisfaction.
 
I would vote for Savant which is what controls my system - definitely look at the respective companies remotes and user interface as that is going to be your day to day interaction with the system. Their 4K video distribution system is 10GB and looks fantastic distributing my K video around the house BTW.

Good luck
 
I would vote for Savant which is what controls my system - definitely look at the respective companies remotes and user interface as that is going to be your day to day interaction with the system. Their 4K video distribution system is 10GB and looks fantastic distributing my K video around the house BTW.

Good luck
I'm planning on a Savant 4k video IP system for my home and would like to distribute kscape throughout the home - the dealer I am working with mentioned dedicating a kscape player in our home theater room, but I prefer to just distribute 2 players over the Savant system. Is there any difference in video quality when distributed over Savant, I don't believe there would be?

Curious if you have regrets in your system design or things you would do differently? Good to hear you like it so well.
 
+1 on the Crestron home. It’s a clean system that is being consistently update. New drivers and software. Rock solid. Integrates with my Lutron light and Josh.ai. Somewhat user friendly on the programming side if you want to make changes or add components. Uses an iPad app.
 
We have recently installed the Savant AV over IP 4k system in our home. We distribute 2 AppleTVs and 2 costarred KScape premiere/Strato players. The system works well. The fast switching is awesome but will not work with HDR so you must choose HDR or fast switching. The normal switching is not that slow though, a few seconds. The video and audio quality is excellent. The biggest problem we have faced, is one that others on this forum have faced, is getting all the components, extenders, and cables to play nice together to transmit the large signal needed. If they don't there are drop outs. For the price, we may have been better off just buying a Strato and AppleTV for each zone (we only use 4 zones). That would have save complexity and made things easier. But overall we are happy with it.
 
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