I’ve argued before that Elaborate control systems that we sell won’t ever go away. That there will always be a market for them in the upper end clientele that want the best and always hire people to do everything for them. I’ve also argued that hard button remotes will always be preferred by people to watch tv because they are faster than apps and they can be used without looking.

But today, I had to accept the fact that I’m wrong. I went into my 15 y/o daughter’s room and interrupted her watching Netflix. The Elan remote was in arms reach. But she switched to the Apple TV app on her phone to pause the show. This brought up a conversation about what I witnessed and she told me she prefers the individual device apps. I have pretty much everything in the house on the Elan system and have a lot of automation built in between devices and subsystems. But she would rather use all the individual apps.

I always thought people would prefer a control system when given the experience and choice. But now I’m thinking this may be wrong. That kids who have been raised on smartphones and tablets find separate apps natural and their preference. And it won’t be immediate, or probably anytime in the next few years. But the life of control systems is coming to an end.

Can't gauge the market on a 15 year old girl

I don’t know, I think a lot of insight can be gained from the demographic that will one day be future home owners. The fact that given the choice, she opted for apps is telling.

Not in a totally dead sense but he’s right in a trending way. I’m finding that even clients in my age group (upper 40’s, not teens) really don’t care if they use 3 apps to make things happen. I still don’t know how someone would try to control a 250 zone lighting system on a large estate without a control system though - I do agree that many systems I used to automatically think had to be on a control system don’t. The jobs that require major engineering and a crew to put it together will probably still need that level of control. The $100,000 and under jobs that used to get some level of automation might get nothing now, and when they do I’ve seen the same thing - a client playing with the separate apps even though the Control4 app is working perfectly. Just seems to be a movement in use.

This is no different than the coffee table with 5 remotes laying on it. People just have to be educated. This is all common knowledge to us but many other people just don't understand the benefits of a control system. They have to experience it to understand it.

And some people just will never get it. Back when the youngest daughter was 15 (this was 10 years ago), she use to listen to music by way of YouTube videos. I showed her & explained Pandora, Spotify, etc. and using the home NAS.
But she continued to just want to use the crappy YouTube for music (with sound from her laptop speakers - she had an audio system in her room). Mind you at that time (about 2010), YouTube audio was pretty crappy by itself.

So I agree. A 15 year old girls opinion means squat. lol

Not gone but the market is definitely getting tighter. Seems like I will always have the clientele that want me to automate everything and don't care what it costs versus the DIYers that will nickle and dime you and everything you do. It's all about finding the right clientele.

I have had 3 new clients this week tell me they will never use a large control system after having one (none that I had anything to do with). the ongoing expense and maintenance was just not worth the perceived convenience. The just wanted a cable remote and alexa for lights. the challenge will be more integrators fighting over the .1% thus driving down the cost and value.

Young people are happy to adapt and learn - especially as they don't have the money to buy into a control system.


The industry is quite damaging to itself, from poor installs to brands who make their products obsolete every 5 years or so. If an installer does a good job selling the correct system, putting the product in, training the customer, offering backup service and the control company have done their bit... then people will most likely invest again.
If any of these things fall down, well, people will do what they do and avoid purchasing again.

So basically, the industry doesn't have the checks and balances in place to avoid these issues.

A lighting system would be its own control system. Be it Crestron, Vantage, Lutron, etc, it’s an independent system and would have its own app. Although, if customers become comfortable with separate apps for everything, I could see something like smart bulbs becoming their own lighting system. Then having a plug in controller or even cloud system that handles the processing.

Before I didn’t think everything we handle could be replaced with apps and cloud services, but, I’m rethinking that now

There is a big difference in apps and a bunch of remotes on a coffee table because the systems themselves have gotten less complicated. Now with HDMI Control, a factory remote (or app) can control multiple pieces of equipment in a system. And Alexa, google Home, and Apple Home Pod can Bridge some of this gap that our control systems have filled.

I think this is still a long ways off, but I now think it’s an eventual reality.

I think there will always be a market for those of us in the industry right now. But what about in 40 years when the kids in high school right now start reaching the age that most of our clients start at? Especially with advances in technology that will happen too.

This has been our main type of client for about a decade. Can't begin to tell the amount of control system horror stories we've heard.

Agreed, if it a sprawling estate a proper control system might be necessary for seamless automation. But in our experience lotsa folks were oversold on poorly implemented McMansion control systems in the 90s and early 2000s, and when they building the new house they have no desire to get involved with another control system. They don't mind app hopping to make things happen... they seem to have a weird fascination with apps and running they whole f'ing life on a phone.

Why wasn't she watching netflix on her phone? I've worked in high end production for my whole career (with the Emmy to prove it) and that's all my teen watches on. Sigh.

TV oriented stuff (netflix, Hulu, etc) she usually watches on TV. But she also will watch YouTube for hours at a time and does that on her phone or iPad, even though her Apple TV has YouTube on it. What kills me is she listens to a lot of music and insists on doing so on her Apple home pod, or with earbuds instead of sonos and the ceiling speakers I installed

Can you adjust volume on in-wall/in/ceiling speakers from the Apple TV app? If not that wouldn’t fly even in my house, to have to jump to a specific app to adjust volume then back.