Hi,

?

i was approached by a potential customer to provide a proposal for an upgrade of an existing Crestron environment.

The system was installed in 2007 and additions have been made over time.

There are mainly TPMC-V15 installed (about 10) with some TPMC-8x using legacy GUI.

There are three control unit, one original MC2E and two CP3 which have replaced two CP2E some time ago.

?

The customer provided me the SIMPL code and VTP-Files and i?m currently reviewing them.

?

My question is how would you approach this project?

I?m trying to cut the whole thing into smaller pieces and start with changing the GUIs to SmartGraphics based on a standard template.

As a first work package, I plan to propose a code and GUI review to understand the programming in total.

Then start with small work packages for the GUI changes and hardware touchpanel changes , leaving the programming mostly as it is. Although the V15 can do SG, I suspect they are to slow. Can anybody confirm?

?

After this has been done and proven to be stable, i?d start doing additional changes on the system like integrating new cameras (customer is moving from analog to digial cameras) and potentially code optimization.

?

I?m planning to do this with SIMPL/ SIMPL+ and not propose Crestron Home since I think the system is too complex for that.

?

I?m aware that it?s not possible to give concrete advise for my case but how would you approach such a proposal / project?

?

Any input appreciated.

?

Regards,

Thorsten

There were two flavors of “V” panel – the “straight V” with no prefix (e.g. V12, V15) – these required a DGE-1 or DGE-2 (or bodge of a DVPHD with DM-TX) to function as they were just a touch-sensitive display with DM classic connectivity. Neither the DGE-1 nor the DVPHD supported SG.

?

There were also the TPMC-V panels (e.g. TPMC-V12 and TPMC-V15) which looked virtually identical externally (except for the connectivity) to the straight V panels but didn’t require (in fact, cannot use) an external DGE – with something along the lines of a DGE1.5 built in (adding SG support to the composite video support of the DGE-1 but not much else)

?

This was a blurry line for “V15” and “V12” frequently being used as shorthand for the TPMC-V-equivalents

?

--

Lincoln King-Cliby, CTS, DMC-E-4K/T/D
Commercial Market Director
Sr. Systems Architect | Crestron Certified Master Programmer (Platinum)
ControlWorks Consulting, LLC |
D: (+1)440.771.4807 | O: (+1)440.449.1100? | F: (+1)440.449.1106
Crestron Services Provider | Biamp Authorized Independent Programmers | Extron Qualified Independent Programmer

?

Correct, it?s actually just three TPMC-V15 installted in the system, the rest are “non-TPMC”-panels which don?t support SG.

Thanks for pointing this out.

?

However, I need some more advice on the business side, how to design the proposal for such a project.

The customer had a look at the Lamina theme from Ultamation and loves it.

I had a great chat with the guys from Ultamation (thanks for the great support so far) who gave me a runthrough about how to integrate the theme.

In the first place, the customer just wanted a bit more modern look of the GUI, but with basically the same (old fashioned) logic behind it – e.g. all panels are more or less room-centric.

A lot of stuff is based on just page-flips. So majority of work would be just working with VTPro, no need to touch the control unit (there are three) programming.

Plus, if sth wasn?t working with the old GUI, it wouldn?t work with the new one which would be detectable pretty easily.

?

With the Lamina theme, I?d need to change a lot in the programming – change a lot of stuff to XPoint-routing, dynamic lists, etc.

Basically, a complete rework of the panel logic in addition to changing the GUI itself. Plus adding new GUI functionality that wasn?t possible with the old GUI.

?

How would you handle such a project?

Any advice much appreciated!

?

Regards, Thorsten

?

?

There were two flavors of “V” panel – the “straight V” with no prefix (e.g. V12, V15) – these required a DGE-1 or DGE-2 (or bodge of a DVPHD with DM-TX) to function as they were just a touch-sensitive display with DM classic connectivity. Neither the DGE-1 nor the DVPHD supported SG.

?

There were also the TPMC-V panels (e.g. TPMC-V12 and TPMC-V15) which looked virtually identical externally (except for the connectivity) to the straight V panels but didn’t require (in fact, cannot use) an external DGE – with something along the lines of a DGE1.5 built in (adding SG support to the composite video support of the DGE-1 but not much else)

?

This was a blurry line for “V15” and “V12” frequently being used as shorthand for the TPMC-V-equivalents

?

--

Lincoln King-Cliby, CTS, DMC-E-4K/T/D
Commercial Market Director
Sr. Systems Architect | Crestron Certified Master Programmer (Platinum)
ControlWorks Consulting, LLC |
D: (+1)440.771.4807 | O: (+1)440.449.1100? | F: (+1)440.449.1106
Crestron Services Provider | Biamp Authorized Independent Programmers | Extron Qualified Independent Programmer

?

Hi Dillon,

?

yes, i have indeed purchased it a couple of weeks ago and i?ll use it in the project I outlined earlier in the thread first time.

For testing, I started to implement it in my own living room, then sucked up into another project and family is now suffering from a half finished GUI… But that?s not a problem of the Lamina theme ;-)

?

Using it, you can come up with a really nice GUI in a short period of time.

However, if you?re not experienced in these kind of panel GUI concept (as I am), then you should consider ordering the sliding panels module together with the theme. These modules take care about the whole panel logic.

Starting with my living room, I pretty quickly ended up with a bunch of interlocks and ors and ands and buffers but the panels still didn?t do 100% want I wanted. So I reached out to the guys from Ultamation for help and they told me they?ve already a complete solution for it. J

?

So If you?re fluent in programming panel logic then you might want to skip the additional modules, for me it was a really good additional investment.

Documentation and support is excellent, too.

?

HTH

?

Cheers,

Thorsten

?

Von: [email protected] <[email protected]> Im Auftrag von Dillon Costanza
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 20. August 2020 14:24
An: [email protected]
Betreff: Re: [crestron] Upgrading an existing residential Crestron system

?

Thorsten,

I am curious if you ever ended up purchasing the lamina theme and how you liked it??

Hi,

i suggest contacting Ultamation directly.

They are very supportive. I got a walkthrough through the theme via Zoom video conference on short notice and all of my questions were answered before the purchase.

Oliver Hall is on the list.

?

Regards, Thorsten

?

Von: [email protected] <[email protected]> Im Auftrag von Dillon Costanza
Gesendet: Freitag, 21. August 2020 00:12
An: [email protected]
Betreff: Re: [crestron] Upgrading an existing residential Crestron system

?

?