I'm looking for a way to have a sexy theater control system without breaking the bank.

I assume that you would have a Lutron Grafik Eye or similar product to control the lights.

Is there any way to get a substantial discount on either Crestron or AMX products? I'm a programmer by trade and figure that I can do the interface myself on a Crestron or AMX system. I believe that in addition to the basic components, you would need a Lutron interface, a video sync interface, and so on, each of which is fairly expensive.

What will Crestron and AMX do that a Pronto Pro will not?

I would love to hear from anyone who has duplicated the functionality of a full Crestron-type system for a pittance.

Craig

Take a look at the Niles Intellicontrol ($ 1200.00 ) It's not a touch screen but it has status inputs to sync all of your componets. You can send IR out to a Lutron Grafik Eye. It's not real cool to look at but it works all the time!

Art

Part of the appeal to dealers to carry AMX and Crestron is that they are not sold directly to the public and that prices points can be maintained. We've occasionally sold a system without programming, but have inevitably gone back in to fix it.

I don't care for the Niles Intellicontrol, but maybe that's because I like the ability of AMX equipment. There's no easy answer to what it can do that the Pronto can't, but I'll try and give you a quick list:

-2 way communication
-RS-232
-much higher resolution
-much more memory
-networkability
-internet access
-conditional logic
-and the list goes on

I agree with GregH1 the intellicontrol is a outdated piece of crap(in my opinion)....for what your probably doing a pronto pro would do just fine....generally in a typical theater setup the advantages of the crestron is the current sensor (st-cs) for those components without discrete on and off...i do know pronto's can now be intergrated with crestron systems though.....robert..also has anyone notice the pronto pro screens look almost identical to creston ct-1000 in wall touch panel screens.

I think the color/lighting on the Crestron is a little more consistent then the Pronto which seems pretty to streak quite a bit.

You can usually find pretty good deals on used Crestron (and AMX) gear on Ebay.

The STS package, Crestron's least expensive and most popular, consists of a wireless RF touchscreen and control unit/receiver. It sells new for between $2250 and $3000 (plus programming), depending on where you buy it, and whether you get color or black and white. I've seen them sell on Ebay for $800 (b&w) to $1200 (color).

Tony Golden