Hey guys,

Been using RTI ID for years and am really comfortable with it.
Since the release I've been trying to also get comfortable with APEX, but it's not happening yet. Of course it's never easy getting over the learning curve, but I'm coming to the conclusion the platform is no easier for the programmer and in fact takes more time.
Just wondering if others have concluded the same, or have overcome the learning curve and using Apex successfully.
Thanks,
GP

I'm still struggling, however, custom screen layout is much easier. I think that Apex is trying to be object oriented, but it's not quite there yet.

The more I use it, the more I like it.

The good:

• Working with graphics is very easy
• Support for scalable graphics
• The source centric view is logical once you get used it
• The ability integrate Pro24.z into an rti project adds some nice options, especially for those who think the volume/channel controls on rti products are in the wrong place
• Tags and room macros make multi-room/shared source scenarios very simple

The bad:

• Roaming controllers(used in more than one room) are not really practically implementable right now
• Understanding how to use tags and macros properly takes some time
• You can convert ID9 templates into Apex but will take some work to get them all tagged properly and usable
• No recovery yet

At first I noticed mostly the things that were slower but now that I have spent more time with it I feel the good usually outweighs the bad.  I find it generally to be faster in apex.

I agree and this is where I hang out.

UGG ! I have been watching the videos and “practicing” with mock systems. I finally committed and did a simple one room APEX yesterday. I preprogrammed off site as much as I could, added driver and network settings on site. T2X, XP6, ZM24. It went well until I couldn’t get the projector to turn on or off. It would work IR, but not thru the XP6 and the Balun.

I figured I would simply go stand alone for those commands only, until I could figure out the issue. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to send IR from the remote! Wasted a couple hours and almost jumped ship back to ID.

It forced me to figure out the issue sooner than later! Turned out to be the balun (Clare Controls ) was putting stray voltage on the emitter

Overall I think APEX will be good for me as graphics and variables are not my strong suit.

Guys,

Appreciate the positive feedback on APEX. Also proud to announce our new "global controller" and room proxy / room selector feature which makes programming multi-room systems so much easier. We are in Beta now, and you can download the Beta version from the RTI forum or website. We plan on making this a quick transition as soon as we are assured everything works perfectly.

In terms of learning, we are in the process of building a new learning management system that will give our dealers a great learning path. If there are dealers out there having some growing pains, feel free to reach out to me and I would be happy to help you with questions and engage some one-on-one training.

We are extremely excited to offer these new features. You will have the ability to add controllers to the global area, create a single page and use our room selection feature that will dynamically change all the room macros, and a room proxy feature that provides if/then/else logic, macro steps and variables based on the room selection feature. It's all about making systems much easier to program and keep our custom dedicated to custom interfaces.

Vincent Bova
Dealer Experience Manager
Remote Technologies
vincentb AT rticorp.com

Whoa, Vincent! You're wearing a new hat!

Yes, thanks Tom and I hope you are doing great. Things are going great here at RTI and Apex is certainly evolving into a more efficient and organized approach. We plan on putting our refinement on the fast track, and enjoy some of the great features our dealers have been asking for that are simply not possible with our original ID software.

Best to you and much success in 2018.

I don't know how to add drivers to the processor. The library is grayed out.
Just started. But so far, I like the layout.

Is the plan for ID9 to fade out and have APEX take its place? Not really a fan of the APEX just yet, but i haven't really given it a full trial yet either.

I don't seem to see any news any more about RTI training at distributors. I find in class training the most effective in getting me motivated about new programming.

Are there any plans for training in Ontario Canada?

We expect to support ID9 for a very long time as there will always be clients that require modifications to their old control systems, as well as dealers who are fond of ID9.

ID9 has been around for a very long time, is in the CEDIA hall of fame and has been evolving with the industry for many years. It's always been extremely flexible, offering full custom ability and has accommodated all the controllers in RTI's lineup.

We realized that with the way the market was evolving that we needed a new platform to support the features the market was demanding. While we are dedicated to full custom programming, we wanted to simplify some of the more tedious tasks in ID9, and make custom programming and GUI design more powerful and feature-rich.

Currently, APEX development is in full tilt and it is evolving at a high pace. While ID9 will be supported for a very long time, all future enhancement will go into the development of Apex. We are extremely excited about some of the great features that are coming in the next couple of releases, and dealers should be pretty excited.

As for training in Ontario, please PM me and I will get you some information on training dates in your area.

I really think if your comfortable with Id stick with it . I have all the graphics worked out so a quick save as and a few quick tweaks and programming is done. Even on large programs.

Without giving away too much, the next release which will be here soon will have some appealing pivotal features and enhancements that will highlight some of the reasons why Apex exists. Dealers will be able to do things that were not possible before and also allow guys who are happy with ID make a good connection.