Hi Chris,

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I certainly see your point of view, but the old resi market has been invaded by server-based solutions ever since Amazon Alexa, Smart TVs, Phillips, Samsung Hubs, etc. entered the picture.? What I’m proposing is we as an industry explore that same model instead of remaining embedded in the same old excuses.? I feel we passed “change for change sake” many years ago and now sit on the front porch mumbling “I remember when…”.

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I do understand though.? I’m in commercial now because of so many years working on the bleeding edge of resi AV.? I’ve spent way too many Friday and Saturday nights at client’s homes because the lighting system or theater (or Jandy pool control)? decided to stop working.? I began to eliminate those trips in 2006 by installing computers in the equipment rack with remote access.? The client would call and I would connect to pull logs and reset their system.?

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I’ve successfully deployed this model in global corporate environments with great success.? Lee was actually a huge part of that effort.?

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VC-4 gives us these same abilities and creates opportunity for residual revenue, which in my mind is a win-win.? Well… almost.? As I noted before, they need to fix some things first.?

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Someone with more knowledge please weigh in.? With a headless Linux server there is not much difference in maintenance as its essentially the same OS and code running on a CP4.? Just different hardware.? Right??

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-Noah

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"What I’m reading here seems to be mostly fear of change.?"
Not really fear of change, except for changes that render financial and/or time losses and client dissatisfaction...
We have been in a world for 10+ years now (the proverbial Digital age) that although has many wonderful things to offer, also has a zeitgeist for some based on 'change for change's sake, new and shiny is better', often marketing/sales driven that creates changes faster than humans can keep up with.?

I actually like the idea of VC4, but I think there's a potential for a learning curve (death by 1000 cuts) that will be expensive from a time, project deployment and client satisfaction prospective.
Project goals and requirements have not really changed much in the last 20-30 years, at least in the Resi space, just the way we're required to deploy them...

Concerning Internet connection:
In the Resi space, 99.9% of all projects I've been involved with have continuous connectivity (or a Net admin that can manage this). Obviously not so simple in the Commercial space...
I really don't love the whole license thing (though I understand it completely) for any feature, cause if you have to replace a processor or Dell PC on a Saturday morning, this can be a total pain...
Does anyone know if VC4 using the hardware ID for the license, like most/all if the other processor licensing schemes seem to? or is it just within the program/config that would be 'Transferable??

And +1:
Anyone on my side with a petition for free developer VC4-licenses???