Are AMX VIP programmers valued like the competition.
ajish.raju
Posts: 185
I was just reading about another manufacturer which have an annual conference in US and Europe where their masters come to network, learn new skills and get pampered. Do we have something similar.
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We usually get to meet with several of the key players/department heads of the various engineering and sales entities. For example we get to spend time with the firmware engineers who design the hardware/firmware for netlinx processors. we also get to spend time with the guy who writes Netlinx Studio and so forth.
It tends to be a pretty enlightening gathering. We don't spend much (if any) time talking about coding theory or whatnot.
And lastly, Ill say that there was some discussion about opening it up to all AMXers or at least some part(s) of it.
So, yes - AMX does indeed have the thing you ask.
I've yet to make it to the annual conference for the other guys because a trip to New Jersey is just too expensive..
Yes - we consider members of AMX VIP to be an extension of the AMX Technical Resource team and have invited them to Richardson, TX for the last few years to participate in training and round table discussion events. The Developer Conference event has been previously only been open to members of AMX VIP, but we are expanding the event this year to include individuals who have earned the AMX Solutions Master rating by completing the current 6 AMX certifications. At some point in the future, we may consider opening it up to the entire global certified community, but not at this time.
RMS has been an odd animal for me. My first act of office was to ditch the AMX SDK as fast as I could. I wrote my own and my deployment time went from days to hours. This has helped me in a lot of ways. But, I'm not sure if it has helped on the client side. My clients who are interested in RMS tend to not be overly familiar with control systems oddly enough. They tend to be IT/Networking people who've sorta bumped into it and are already familiar with asset management.
I'm probably an oddball, but although I do Craptron, I almost get no calls for it. And the one's I do seem to be scary problem-children projects that I'm walking in the door to angry integrators and angry clients who are both just looking for a way out of the woods. These projects are almost always poorly engineered, over budget and the AV Integrators are panic-stricken "just trying to make cash flow" trunk slammers. I've tried a few of these and they always end in tears.
Does my ACSM helop? I dunno. I have never had any business ask me if I am one - or no deal. But, I have had some say they called because they saw I was certified in such-and-so. The one thing I can say is a lot of the higher-end contracts for enterprise level gigs usually require that the programmer/engineer have at least certain creds (In my case ACE Programmer and/or AMX Designer) I do worry that some of these longer range contracts might get balled up if Harmon changes everything up too much.
And I will say too that I have a deep seated hatred of the BSS DSP. I will definitely have some major issues to overcome if they demand that I be certified on it. I already do a lot of Biamp and they are present in projects (at least in my case) around 50 to 1.
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Spire: Not really. SpireJeff is still on here and occasionally checks in. Spire is pretty much a Savant and C4 place now. This is strictly my opinion but I feel pretty strongly that in the case of Spire leaving AMX - it had much to do with the rather odd relationship with the AMX Sales department in that territory. I'm not naming names simply because I do not remember who that was/is. What I can say is they were oddly hostile to a company that was still selling a ton of AMX. The issue was that Spire was really trying to migrate into commercial work. But apparently that kind of sales were handled by a different bunch at AMX (Resi vs. Commercial) Spire was not trying to ditch Resi, just add commercial.
But, the Resi side seemed to take a rather hostile attitude about it and really pissed Spire off in the process. I was frankly dumbfounded sitting in on the meetings on the phone. I didn't speak but wished I could have made the point that nobody was wanting to ditch AMX REsi. In fact we had a good many projects that were very successful due in no small part to Jeff's very cool "No Programming Solution" I had taken that part of the gig over and Jeff was working with Navot on the new commercial startup.
It was this and several other interactiions I've seen around that time that seem to be the hallmark of what went wrong. yes, the Resi market was drying up. But AMX was doing itself no favors with how they treated dealers. I'm not a dealer and try my best to stay a programming wonk. it's hard not to notice, however.
To point out my major take-away from this example and the three or four of a similar nature: I've never really understood why AMX made such a distinction between Resi and Commercial. I do understand that the two verticals are radically different. But, gear is gear and expertise is expertise. The way AMX set up its interface with the dealers, technical folks (like us here) and it's end users (here again In my humble opinion) fostered an environment of "Camps" and "Tribes" There was and still is obvious in-fighting and territorial pissing matches between departments and territories that becomes toxic over time.
In my little world I can say I've never dealt with any other equipment manufacturer that handles it's dealers and clients this way. It was totally unique to AMX. (this is not to say that OEMs don't have a brimming raft of crap they delve out liberally) In a lot of ways AMX does quite a lot better than most. But, folks! Your dealer base makes or breaks you. The last group you want to piss off is them.
sorry Vining... I get to blathering on. I know you didn't want to slog through all this...
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John,
I think the hubris of AMX over the last 8 years has done irreparable damage to all involved, customers, dealers, programmers, reps and the future of AMX itself and what I find so annoying is that they won't even admit it, own it or maybe still don't realize what a serious problem they're facing as programmers go elsewhere. I can't imagine CineTouch is doing all that well since most resi guys moved on. I would think those were your bread and butter clients. Might even be wishing you guys took AMX up on that buy out offer while the value was at its peak.
I think these are valid points and I am certainly blowing right over a lot of the nuances between Resi and Commercial. I think in the specific case under discussion, Spire was one in which one could argue that they would have been a fine Resi and Commercial dealer. Their sales on either side were well above the lower limits most manufacturers/reps require for entry. What I felt was we were dealing with an internal turf war in the AMX world. There was no logical reason (being careful here - IMHO) for the Resi side to try and shut down the Commercial side. It seemed to be a case where neither side would lose.
But I agree you have to set a line somewhere. RE: Resi crossing the line to do commercial: I've personally been hired to do Resi systems for CEO's of companies hiring me for their commercial systems. I can say from personal experience on both sides of the fence that the two types of integration are very different and it is not easy for one to quickly retool and move over to the other. They are completely different disciplines.