Seems I got demoted

vining

I logged in to respond to an IM an I noticed I got demoted to being a "junior" member, whazz up with that? Every once in a while I think I might get kicked off the forums again but never expected I'd get demoted. Isn't it bad enough that I'm depressed about the status of AMX but now I gotta go back to being a dumb newb. . Geez, nothing like kickin' a man when he's down.

GregG

I think you can just change it to whatever you like under the user settings, like I did.

vining

Hmmm, never never noticed that before, is that new to this new forum or did the old forum have that too? Since it doesn't appear on each post anymore I guess it's kinda pointless anyway. Back in the day it was a badge of honor once a member had enough posts to be a senior member but now it seems like everyone is gone and there's only about 5 folks left that have been on the forums over ten years. The way sales are going and lack of newbs flocking to be AMX dealers I don't see another ten years on the horizon.

GregG

"On a long enough timeline" the entire control systems programming industry will start to look more and more like buggy whip designers. So make hay while there's still some sun, and have an exit plan.

vining

The only thing that bugs me is how well C4 seems to be doing in the resi market but alas if I can survive by doing anything for another 10 years I'll simply fade into retirement.

ericmedley

I recently helped out a good family friend (who's husband had just passed away from cancer) install some home automation stuff. It was one of those deals where she didn't feel safe with just her and her daughter there alone. So, she got a security system and I helped her install some cameras and a door bell cam. The security system does some home automation stuff like control the TVs, a media player, etc.. It also does some lighting. She is aware of what I do and asked what I thought of all of it.

I had to be frank and say that for the most part it was fine. Everything showed up super fast on her iPhone and it did what it said it would do. I told her that I could make it a lot more customized and automated. But, to be honest, it was way more than adequate.

To make matters worse, my involvement on installing and configuring the cameras was: Mount them on the wall. Plug them into power. They then went out and found the iPhone and configured themselves. (via a SIMM card built-in I assume) All she had to do was enter her WiFi SSID and password to the cloud account and in less than 60 seconds the whole camera system was configed and ready to go. I, even as a bad installer, installed 4 cameras and a 2-way door bell cam/intercom in about 40 minutes with a cordless drill, a few wall anchors and a level. It was done and tested in less than an hour.

This is what has driven the Resi market to the ground.

vining

I agree that's what's driving the low to mid resi market and has some influence on the upper end but again I have to go back to C4 and how well they do and they're releasing new products all the time similare to some of AMX's speacialized boxes for use in the resi market and I'm sure they'll be taking shares of AMX's commercial market too, maybe eventually the gov/mil which has been AMX's saving grace. C4's model is very similar to the security system plug n play concept you installed and AMX could have had the same plug n play capability bit it seems all their attempts failed so they quit trying.

What keeps AMX out of the competition is current usable modles. If the modules needed for today's systems were available it would still take us longer to deploy a system but it could be done fast enough that the added capability would offset and out weigh the little longer setup cost. The reason I started this thread was because another member contacted me about a Roku app but the one I wrote was for the Soundbridge way before they did video boxes so I told him I'm sure all the other systems probably had one and sure enough he checked and most did. So without modules or divers as the other systems call them we have no chance at competing but with them we could be competetive.

I personally don't think I'll write any more modules since I'll never recoup my costs so I too will go with the systems that create drivers for their dealers and as others have said in other threads even if AMX cganges their ways I fear it will be too little and definitely too late and while the market change did have some affect on this predicament IMHO I think poor policy decisions and AMX leadership has most of the blame. C4 should never had been able take over the resi market like they did but it was handed to them on a silver platter. I wonder how many shares Rashid has.

Jeff

There's more than just that driving things down. I was a full time AMX guy for 9 years but I've had to start programming for the enemy because the business just isn't there. My company had 3 AMX programmers, then 2, then 1, then they didn't have enough work for me to do AMX full time. Plus I'm told by all of the sales folks that Harman is just a pain to do business with and it's not worth the hassle.

It's a damn shame. I'm left pretending I'm an electrical engineer instead of a real programmer, connecting digitals representing ones and zeros all of the place instead of writing code. But I'm keeping the lights on.

>there's only about 5 folks left that have been on the forums over ten year

Yeah . . . I've been here like 9.5 years but there just hasn't been a big reason to be active on here much, honestly.

>maybe eventually the gov/mil which has been AMX's saving grace

Just finished a gigantic install a few months ago at the Pentagon: All Cre$tron. Then again, I just finished a big install for an overseas US Embassy and that was all AMX, so it's not all terrible. But that job was a gigantic pain in the butt because they wanted nice, functional, up to date wireless panels, and AMX doesn't make those anymore. I ended up mixing a MXT-1901 with MXD-430 and two MVP-9000s. I'm working in both TP5 and TP4, and in dramatically different DPI (the 4.3" panel and the 9" panel are both 800x480, wheee). Now I know the fact that I had a 1901 instead of a 1900 is the fault of whatever idiot spec'd the panels for the government and not AMX, but I guarantee you that all of the programming hours I wasted trying to get these vastly different screens to look remotely similar wasn't in the budget, and will be taken into account when the design team chooses a control system for their next project.

MLaletas

Jeff wrote: »

It's a damn shame. I'm left pretending I'm an electrical engineer instead of a real programmer, connecting digitals representing ones and zeros all of the place instead of writing code. But I'm keeping the lights on.

I feel you on that, my new motto for when I run into trouble with those damn symbols is write my own in SIMPL+, ends up saving time and ends up being a better design that what it could of have been. Starting to brush up on SIMPL# so that I dont have to deal with symbols anymore.