Slashdot Mirror

To be fair, there are some advantages to smarter switches - adjusting light levels automatically based on current demand, keypads for controlling multiple lights to set (potentially different) levels at a time (ex: turn everything off, put lights to a comfortable TV viewing level), and for some setups allowing you to trigger your lights based on time or occupancy (though occupancy/vacancy is built in to switches now too).

For example, I have a switch that does vacancy sensing in my bathroom - now I can leave my fan on to air out the shower when I leave for work in the morning. A friend of mine has an occupancy sensor in his stairwell that turns on (and off) his entryway lights so he doesn't need to walk down and turn them off from their only switch (bad design, but something that happens).


Full disclosure: I work for a company that makes light switches and their control systems.

I would not really prefer IR.

I would prefer it be IR. I can already use my LG smartphone to control every IR capable AV device in my home, including projector screens and lighting setups. It is my one remote already. Works well with XBMC or Linux Media Center Edition.

While everyone else scrambles to figure out who will dominate this space, me and my home cloud will continue streaming all my media to all my devices and controlling it all with an array of USB, Ethernet, RS-232 serial, and IR input AND output (the latter via Linux Infrared Remote Control)

Remotes are a solved problem: My phone is the only remote I need damnit, I can even bounce the signal to the other side of the house via IR -> Ethernet -> IR with LIRC. Bonus: If I lose it, I can geolocate it then give it a ring and listen for the tone. Set top-boxes are solved too: A Linux media center PC. Why? Because a TV with built in computer is too expensive to upgrade as fast as I want for games, Steam is on Linux, all my media, Hulu, Netflix, and my cablecard is too. Why not a proprietary OS? I can't hack new things into a proprietary OS like I can with Linux or BSD, like the aforementioned Ethernet assisted whole home IR signal routing technology. See: XP EoL, that's why.

If someone comes along and packages this shit all up nice and simple like -- Oh, guess what? Someone already did. My cousin does that for a living. He puts in very expensive whole home AV outfits. They use Ethernet as a backbone, and you can control anything from your tablet, phone, or these wanna-be phone/tablet looking touch enabled devices. Look up Crestron. I can do what they do for free with Linux. This Apple/Google/Amazon crap is playing at some mickey-mouse tier featureshit comparatively.

My job is actually programming home and business A/V and environment control systems for a living. While it won't be the cheapest option, if you want the best, go with one of the 2 biggest and most reputable manufacturers out there: Crestron Electronics -or- AMX. These are the systems that the big luxury homes/mansions get. Crestron -> http://www.crestron.com/ AMX -> http://www.amx.com/ Both manufacturers make wide assortment of proprietary touch panels, keypads, and central control processors for every possible scenario. Both are networkable, and can control anything that is IP / Serial / IR / Relay / or Voltage controllable. They are completely customizable, and do just about anything you want them to do. Each program that is written for these are usually unique to the system and clients desires of what they want. The downside to these options, is they don't come pre-programmed, and you can't get your hands on the delevopment suite without being a dealer. The reason is, these are not just setup/configured like other options out there, they are complete embedded platforms that require programming to get them to do things. Same with the touch screen interfaces, you actually have to design/build the GUI front end, and can make it look and work how ever you want. The other advantage, is they can work and control anything you want to throw at them, but they also make lines of audio/video devices that are suited to doing things like whole-home audio distribution, or whole-home video distribution. They make everything from their own pre-amps, surround sound devices, to HD video matrix routers for routing sources around the house. For the best of the best, these two manufacturers are the cream of the crop. (notice: I do not work for either of these two manufacturers, but I have programmed both of them for 14 years, and run my own programming contract business by providing programming for these system. )

I like the idea, but I fear the startup expenses may be a bit cost prohibitive:

From Crestron's training site:

You must be logged in as an Authorized Crestron Dealer or Partner to take these courses.

Something tells me becoming an Authorized Crestron Dealer or Partner is not a cheap process.

ADDENDUM: Here's a list of registration fees for non-Crestron dealers; looks like about a grand per class is the standard.

I like the idea, but I fear the startup expenses may be a bit cost prohibitive:

From Crestron's training site:

You must be logged in as an Authorized Crestron Dealer or Partner to take these courses.

Something tells me becoming an Authorized Crestron Dealer or Partner is not a cheap process.

ADDENDUM: Here's a list of registration fees for non-Crestron dealers; looks like about a grand per class is the standard.

Or do you just have a dedicated tablet that never leaves the viewing area? What about multiple TVs? Gets expensive really quick.

Uhm, this has already happened in some high dollar home theatre installs. Crestron and other whole home media solutions have touch screen tablets that dock into the wall near the TV, have a lock mechanism so kids can't take it off the wall, and allow you to control the volume and TV channel / music & lighting in every room of the house already. They have had iPad and iPhone apps for this too that lets you administer the system remotely and even view security cams via Internet for at least the past 2 years anyhow.

For other rooms you can get touch screen interfaces about the size of a light switch that detach, and use customisable flash based interfaces, which allow you to control the home AV gear in any room as well. When docked into the wall it's "screen saver" returns it to the "light switch" state so it just acts as your light switch.

These things will get cheaper... but this article is very old news, that or someone is severely out of touch with the state of the art in home theatre systems.

Called CaptureLive HD. It is a combination of room hardware and server software.
http://www.crestron.com/resources/product_and_programming_resources/catalogs_and_brochures/online_catalog/default.asp?cat=1058&subcat=1505&id=2321

By far the easiest solution I've seen is the Crestron Capture HD (link below). It is a dedicated hardware solution that will capture directly to a USB memory stick if you don't have a network connection. If you do have a network connection it will automagically upload the video to the server of your choice. The server software (soon to come) made by Crestron will automatically (re)encode it in your chosen format and publish it. All you need to do it hit the record button once its setup. Plus, it integrates nicely with classrooms installed with Crestron controls already.

Crestron Capture HD

Nope, I have a mail slot the mailman puts it in the slot and I dont have to leave the house. And again, it is only a problem with ADD and ADHD people... normal people can click buy on amazon.com and do other things until the DVD shows up in the mail... Only the people that have severe mental disabilities have a problem with the "gotta watch it now.... gotta gotta gotta.... gimmie.... gotta watch it now....." mentality.

Normal people will go, "Hey that looks neat, click buy and when it arrives watch it. I rip them to get rid of the wasted 5 minutes of ad's and "you are a stinky thief" propaganda that is forced on DVD and Bluray owners when they play a disc. That way I can crash on the couch, select the movie from my XBMC interface and press play. So convenient that most rich people do this... but they use a commercial product called http://www.kaleidescape.com/ There is a multi million dollar industry built around ripping a DVD into a private VOD server... even Crestron, the uber-rich-man's automation system as one... http://www.crestron.com/resources/product_and_programming_resources/catalogs_and_brochures/online_catalog/default.asp?jump=1&model=ADMS

And as for that use, $599 seems a tad much for a home theater remote control.

If that's the case, then you haven't yet met Crestron.

(Nope, I'm not a shill, though I did ostensibly have a job programming Crestron gear a decade or so ago, mostly for private home theater use. I'm just trying to convey the concept that a $599 for a control system isn't really so far-fetched, if the featureset is right. In fact, $599 might be cheap.)

Make it easy to use and work every time.

Crestron DigitalMedia for switching
Crestron DVPHD-PRO (or DVPHD-CUSTOM-GB for annotation) for windowing/scaling
(Extron has equivalents for both of these but I can't vouch for their ease of use)
Runco WindowWall to maybe fake some windows and keep sanity. Others have mentioned plants and other creature comforts - if you don't feel like you're in a cave you'll be a little more comfortable for a longer period of time.
Baswaphon or some other acoustic apsorption to keep the chatter and clicking from being heard all over the place
Light light light. 6500K light might be 100% neutral depending on who you ask, but never looks natural. Go for a warmer color if possible.

Make it easy to use and work every time.

Crestron DigitalMedia for switching
Crestron DVPHD-PRO (or DVPHD-CUSTOM-GB for annotation) for windowing/scaling
(Extron has equivalents for both of these but I can't vouch for their ease of use)
Runco WindowWall to maybe fake some windows and keep sanity. Others have mentioned plants and other creature comforts - if you don't feel like you're in a cave you'll be a little more comfortable for a longer period of time.
Baswaphon or some other acoustic apsorption to keep the chatter and clicking from being heard all over the place
Light light light. 6500K light might be 100% neutral depending on who you ask, but never looks natural. Go for a warmer color if possible.

Make it easy to use and work every time.

Crestron DigitalMedia for switching
Crestron DVPHD-PRO (or DVPHD-CUSTOM-GB for annotation) for windowing/scaling
(Extron has equivalents for both of these but I can't vouch for their ease of use)
Runco WindowWall to maybe fake some windows and keep sanity. Others have mentioned plants and other creature comforts - if you don't feel like you're in a cave you'll be a little more comfortable for a longer period of time.
Baswaphon or some other acoustic apsorption to keep the chatter and clicking from being heard all over the place
Light light light. 6500K light might be 100% neutral depending on who you ask, but never looks natural. Go for a warmer color if possible.

Er. Telnet has nothing to do with serial ports in these modern times.

Serial ports are fairly common on quality AV gear. They really are used for remote control in home automation and other settings, where infrared is generally less reliable and harder to work with. For example, gear from companies like Crestron can deal with these serial ports natively.

Agreed.

http://www.crestron.com/solutions/integration_with_apple_mac_iphone/

*sigh* - It's the application Crestron has been promising for the past few months, even going so far as displaying it at CES 2009 even though it is still trying to pass Apple's inspection for the app store. We won several awards at CES '09, but here's the thing: we are also an Apple dealer, so we sell iPhones and this app lets us integrate what we now sell with the high-dollar Crestron home theater infrastructures we've been setting up for years.

Again, jailbreaking is not an option, as Apple would get a tad pissed at us hacking their products, even more so since we sell them based on a huge contract we had to sign in order to do so. These solutions are anything but "turnkey", by the way, as we've done contracting work for several owners of Forbes list companies. Not to take a dig, but your sig is starting to make sense...

X10 is a joke. Our company is one of the largest home automation/lighting control integrators in the state, and we wouldn't use X10 if they gave it to us.

These are the big guys, the ones the pros (us) use.

http://www.control4.com/
http://www.lutron.com/
http://www.crestron.com/
http://www.homeauto.com/

They're quality. X10 is... not.

Crestron Electronics, makers of home automation equipment, recently changed the name of their CEN-IPOD interface dock to the CEN-IDOC.

Network Operations Centers use these kinds of setups all the time (except for the audio). This is going to seem like a plug, but I've been researching this for work. One that I've found so far is the MediaWall 2000. You can control it via serial or Ethernet, so the presumption is that you might have a customzed/handheld interface developed. They also have other, related products.

You say that you want an on-screen display with remote, but most configurations this complex aren't being built for you, they are going to emergency response centers and such where there is a person in the hot seat watching various view points. It needs to be quick, easy, and customized (label the inputs for example and put the most used at the front of the list). This quickly points to an embedded solution. Talk to a sales rep and find out what your choices are. I'm going to end up doing the same in a few weeks.

I'm quite sure this isn't the only vendor for this type of product, but I did search for a while and came up somewhat cold. Talk to a local audio/video specialist for help, although they probably will want a piece of the action.

As for the audio - you and I both know you need a mixing board, even a simplistic 16-channel version. You said that you want picture within a picture, but these really complex solutions might mean you want four pictures on screen and to have each feed come from one of four speakers, presumably in pseudo-surround mode. A mixer could work in two modes - aux1-aux4 feed amps that drive four speakers around you. The main setup could also just drive your fronts, although you'll lose and 6.1 sound you might be running.

In the end, I think you're overdoing it. You probably can't process more than two pictures at a time, much less 16, unless you're watching sports. You want to avoid a "bunch of VCRs" but yet you want 16 channels of individually tunable inputs ala tuners. I don't get it. You won't be able to maintain surround sound at 6.1 and still have multiple audio feeds. Since you want so much versatility, I assume you're one of those rich boys that will gladly plunk out US$3000 every couple of years for a new display. Then it may also be safe to assume you would pay someone US$1000 to design such a system to your specifications. People do this for a living so as the yellow pages in your area for help with Audio-Visual-Consultants.

Other interesting finds:

• Zektor audio/video switches. 4 channels, but HD and digital audio supported
• Crestron the maker of RS-232 control units.
• AMX - a competitor to Crestron.
• Tekron Communication Systems - okay, these guys are for broadcasters, but maybe you really want to get weird.
• AVR 8000 - a security video switcher
• Barebones for the cheapskate in all of us

I'm not sure why it needs to be "clickers" - in a large classroom environment, I'm assuming auditorium style fixed seating, which suggests that keypad for each seat would be the best solution. There are readily available keypad solutions (i.e. crestron) which would support 250+ keypads on a single bus, all individually addressed, and would be far less maintenance intensive than any wireless solution. From 2 to 12 buttons could be done "off the shelf". And no replacement cost for "clickers" walking out the door every class period.

And, if you still needed some # of wireless devices, they could be easily tied into the same system.

http://www.crestron.com/
http://www.humaneinterface.com/

You will increase the worth of your house if you use a standard, Don't make a bunch of stuff yourself.

http://www.crestron.com/

I would highly reccomened using crestron. as much as it will be cheaper to do it yourself. other people have said it, its going to make people not want to buy your house later on if you do need to move.

I see a lot of people out there discounting the capabilites of Sonos because they really don't understand what exactly the system does versus alternate setups. To be fair, Sonos competes directly with high-end multi-room, multi-source systems such as http://www.elanhomesystems.com/, http://www.crestron.com/, and http://www.amx.com/. All of these systems can cost tens of thousands of dollars for product/install and require that you hardwire your whole house.

Sonos
=-=-=
*multi-room capability (control up to 32 rooms on one controller)
*multi-source capability (play different songs in different rooms)
*synchronization capability (play the same in different rooms, or in groups of different rooms)
*built-in amplifier (not everyone has a speaker amp in each room)
*line-out to existing amplifier (for those beefy existing home theatre setups)
*line-in on each zoneplayer that can be streamed to any other zoneplayer (connect any legacy device like cd/dvd/tape/sat radio/etc.)
*integration with music services (rhapsody)
*integration with internet radio streams
*wireless controller w/ lcd (huge benefit on getting the wife/gf to use it)
*ease of use (anyone can use that scrollwheel interface)
*ease of setup (not everyone is a tech)

Now let's look at the other talked about solutions and compare their capabilities:

Airport Express
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*line-out to existing amplifier
*can play one audio source at a time (so can either play on my computer, or my airport express)
*walk back to computer each time you want to change anything

Cheapo Dell ($500 - I have yet to actually see anyone get a computer for $299)
=-=-=-=-=-=
*computer functionality at each room [benefit, assuming you have a montior, keyboard, and mouse to take advantage of it]
*no sychronization (might was well have a indepent cdplayers in each room and burn cds)
*need powered speakers at each location (more $$$)
*walk up to computer and change tracks on it

Besides all the extra functionality (link/separting rooms of audio, rhapsody integration, ease of use/setup,...) everyone is missing the most important thing [and what makes the iPod so successful]. THE INTERFACE! Why do people buy iPods in droves instead of getting a regular flash/hard drive based player. It's because the iPod has blended simple but powerful functionality with elegant design. Sonos wireless lcd controller gives that same beautiful abstraction and gives *anyone* control of the audio in their house seamlessly.

If you try to home-spin your own applications, or get your CEO to use Netmeeting (a BAD application at best) your clueless CEO's will manage to screw it up. That's not a slam against CEO's, but it's a fact of line. End users don't understand 99% of what the Slashdot crowd takes for granted.

A *good* high end installer will make a rock solid installation for you. A good high-end programmer will make the system sing. On the converse, a bad installer will make things nightmarish and unreliable. A bad programmer will make your system wacked out. It's a matter of doing your homework and finding out what dealers are good and what programmers are good. Many of the top end control manufacturers - like http://www.crestron.com/Crestron - have fairly easy to use programming languages and libraries of files for common equipment that makes it easier to program. Things are geared for quicker A/V programming and installs. I'm not saying use them, I'm only bringing them up becuase I am familiar with them and have programmed their stuff.

If your end users are tinkering with the equipment and pressing buttons on the AV Gear - LOCK the cabinet. Build the cabinet in another room. It's possible, and it's doable. And there are tons of successful boardrooms, conference rooms, classrooms, homes and facilities that use this technology on a daily basis. You don't typically read about it on here becuase it is not cheap, and it's not a home spun open source solution. But you know what? It works. Your company will be glad if you do it right. Get a budget and do it!

The same kind of people who go to AMX for wired home solutions.

There are only 2 main players in the millionare home and lecture theatre/boardroom setup - AMX and Crestron . Both charge an arm and a leg for solutions.

AMX even have their own unique programming language which means lucrative engineer visits every time you add a new piece of kit. It is very Visual Basic like but the only way to learn the language and acquire the compilier is spend a fortune on an AMX programming course. A user programmable remote control for $700 is easily a better solution for homes and small offices.

This could be Sony's attempt to break into the market, there is a huge gap between the millionare home theatre system, and the consumer level home theatre setup, Sony could well be planning to target this untapped market.

The HAVI inter-operability protocol includes what you're talking about regarding state. It's supported by multiple manufacturers, but still questionable whether it will take off...in fact, it looks to be stagnating at the very least.

I'm a professional A/V control systems programmer, and one-way IR-controlled devices are the bane of our existence. If you investigate pro gear intended for permanent installation, even if it's just a VCR, you'll often find a serial port because the manufacturers know it'll be hanging off a control system like Crestron or AMX. But serial protocols are all different, even within the same manufacturer's line. Some are a bitch, some are very, very simple. It's hard to forsee any sort of standardization though, if only because of the wide variety of device functions and the entrenched-ness of manufacturers with their own often long-standing protocols.

So don't look for a common serial protocol. The future of A/V is getting on the network, and efforts are being made on interoperability on this "new" frontier in both corporate and academic worlds.

Humane - not human.

And there are lots of other programmers out there. Here are a few:
http://www.crestron.com/company_info/contacts_and_ links/independent_programmers.asp

One word: Crestron. Programmable touchscreen, wired or wireless, back-end processors and modules to control just about everything and then some. I don't even WANT to know how much some of that stuff costs.

Crestron and AMX are only a few (but the best known) of the many companies that have these solutions already.

They aren't cheap but they are tres cool.

As an aside, they all use wires as wireless tend to be for cheap products that are installed by the homeowner after the fact. Real home automation systems are very complex and are usually installed at build or renovation time by professionals.

Check out Enlightened for more links and info.

X-10 is a child's toy. Real men use AMX or Crestron. Try Lutron Radiora for wireless lighting controls. You can integrate anything with these systems.

We used a PII 400 and got a very reliable 5 output stream box using a multi-output card that isn't manufactured any longer. I tried a number of these cards and most of them worked well. [ As an aside, the MOTU high-end units are excellent if you are going to put the output into high-quality amps and speakers, but they are expensive.]

From the software side, we used a custom, multi-threaded MP3 player compiled using Intel's optimizing compilers (which mad a huge difference on the PII) and used a graphical front end with a screen-per-room display showing the album art (scanned in by the user or installer) along with the tracks, play lists, etc.

We did run into a control problem, even though most of our customers were using systems with centrally located gear, which was that getting a PC to run with multiple distinct (and user-uninterruptable) displays simultaneously was expensive and difficult. To supplement this, we created a serial-based interface which allowed for play lists, random play, and basic start/stop/skip controls for each room and could be combined with the GUI over a commercial home control system (like Crestron or AMX).

Basically, we would watch the serial port for commands and respond to the control system by flipping individual windows that corresponded to the room that was controlling the system at the time. The control system, in turn, would put show the screen output in a kind of touch screen mode and send mouse locations over the serial port back to our controller. This worked, but was expensive and complex to handle, since only one room could have control over the GUI at the time. For things like displaying the playing tracks and album along with the next track and providing basic control of the start/stop/skip/repeat sequences, we could send text to the control system over the serial port and it would be displayed on the screen in text fields (allowing the main display to be required only for play-list management). This helped quite a bit.

The control piece was far and away the most difficult part of the project, but since you only have to satisfy yourself, and not the marketplace, I'd suggest that you might find an 802.11-capable PDA as a controller might be useful (and fun to work on). Of course, then you have to either develop your own control protocol or use some kind of CGI and a web server to do the control, but if you separate the players into individual threads or processes that can be easily located, you should be able to send messages (UNIX signals, perhaps) to them and get the level of control that you need.

From a technical perspective, any OS that has preemptive threading and good interprocess communication should be fine for building this kind of system. We found that by creating our own player (despite the need to license the decode patent from Fraunhofer if we were to sell it commercially), we were able to get a finer control of the playback features (such as pause/skip/repeat) than by using single-shot mp3 play commands that were available at the time. I'd suggest looking for how you can get those useful features if you decide to use existing commands in a Linux environment.

Of course, on a Macintosh, you can do the playback through QuickTime, which is going to be easy and highly-controllable, so you have that oppotunity too.

In the end, we found that the customers who got it loved it, but that the installers we were trying to sell to weren't interested in buying a product that required some set-up.

O

Have they considered using Crestron panels to control everything?

Even better, check out some of Crestron's products.

(Nope, don't work for them. I did, once upon a time, pretend to program them for multi-$k home theater systems. They make, AFAIK, as advanced a remote control system you can find. Period. Flushing toilets via remote DTMF dialin is trivial compared to the things people do with Crestron gear on a daily basis.)

Even better, check out some of Crestron's products.

(Nope, don't work for them. I did, once upon a time, pretend to program them for multi-$k home theater systems. They make, AFAIK, as advanced a remote control system you can find. Period. Flushing toilets via remote DTMF dialin is trivial compared to the things people do with Crestron gear on a daily basis.)

Even better, check out some of Crestron's products.

(Nope, don't work for them. I did, once upon a time, pretend to program them for multi-$k home theater systems. They make, AFAIK, as advanced a remote control system you can find. Period. Flushing toilets via remote DTMF dialin is trivial compared to the things people do with Crestron gear on a daily basis.)

Even better, check out some of Crestron's products.

(Nope, don't work for them. I did, once upon a time, pretend to program them for multi-$k home theater systems. They make, AFAIK, as advanced a remote control system you can find. Period. Flushing toilets via remote DTMF dialin is trivial compared to the things people do with Crestron gear on a daily basis.)

Then again, why would I want any one company to control my home security, television, stereo, and toaster?

crestron - nuff said

Just two days ago I was at a company called Ultimate Entertainment in Scottsdale, AZ, and they said they run cat5 all over for automation, alarm, and even video distribution as part of their structured wiring package.

Apparently, they distribute HDTV throughout the home, and while they will also run coax or other normal structured wiring, this seemed interesting to me just because it would seem to simplify things a bit.

I actually went there looking into home automation work that they do based on a recommendation, including the fact that they are doing a project in southern california for $1.2 million in home entertainment and automation electronics alone. They are really focused on the entertainment side (as their name suggests), though, so I wouldn't consider them a superior resource for the other stuff, but a lot of automation devices can be added if cat5 is already run to the places you want it. If you plan ahead, you can avoid X-10 and have a system that works quite well.

I was particularly impressed with the wall-mounted touchscreens from ELAN and Crestron that they had mounted in their demo rooms, because they looked really great and make for a clean thermostat/security/lighting/A/V control panel.

Bottom line, Cat5 is useful for lots of other stuff in addition to computer networking. BTW, I am not affiliated in any way with any of the companies I referred to.

That's why we only have filthy rich clients.

Unless you're looking at home automation systems from the 1980s, I don't think they're too ugly. I use a Crestron Isys TPS4500L controller in my home... it has a pretty nice interface. Check out the Crestron website -- http://www.crestron.com

The entire Crestron setup is very Windows-centric, but I feel it was worthwhile. Not as simple, but much more expandable than what I used to use (a custom HyperCard stack running on a Mac Plus interfaced to an X10 transmitter).

Ok. First, X10 is fairly nifty, but you have a few issues to deal with. X10 basically works by encoding little data pulses over the zero crossing of the AC sine wave. There are a few problems here. First, is that a lot of houses are wired with multiple phases wherein the actual phase angle of the power is different (usually in increments of 120degrees). This munts the signals somewhat. Power conditioner wreak havok on those little pulses as well, as will certain forms of lighting ballast equipment. X-10 does have a phase-coupler that should help somewhat , but at that point you enter electrician-world.X-10 isn't really my strongpoint, but I do know that well thought out systems can be pretty fun. Clipsal stuff probably is a better option too. Oh, and watch out for your 50hz vs 60hz issues.
However, one of the nifty things you can do, if you are electrically minded, is get one of those Basic-stamp PIC thingers and build a nice clean RS-232 interface to X-10 and use some standard serial IO cmds on your *ix or windoze boxen to programatically control your stuff
Also for the harware hacker, IR stuff is pretty easy to manage too. There are plenty of net schematics/sourcecode combo's for IR learner/sender stuff. Controls VCR,TV's,DVD's,STEREO's,PROJECTORS,VIDCONF CODECS and even some light dimmers.
If you are cashed up however, the only way to go is to put in a Panja Netlinx system. This little sucker is a Coldfire processor based computer thinger that has 6xRS232 ports, perhaps around 10 IR sender ports, 6 Relay outs, 100mbit netport, AXlink, and basically interfaces to just about anythink. All programmed in some nutty little C type language. Panja just also sponsered some sortsa opensource thing. Hoping it worked for em. Panja basically rock and as yeah, specialising in there stuff keeps me well employed for a living. Nifty that. Chuck in a coupla touchscreens, and invite geek lasses over for the ultimate "Gosh I'm kitted up" schmooze.
There is also crestron, which do a simmilar thing. I prefer Panja, but that's probably more familiarity more than anything

Anyway;- Hyperlinks
Big page of nifty home automation links.
Panja
Crestron
Your own pc(sorry)

This is a great checklist. I'd like to add a few thoughts, mostly pertaining to new construction.

1) If the general and/or electrical contractors you use don't do this stuff regularly, find someone who does.

2) Beware: not all cabling is rated for use "in wall". Check the jacket for a UL listing and a "CL2" or "CL3" rating. Some (not all) building inspectors will catch this.

3) Conduit everywhere can get pretty expensive but at least make sure there are spare conduits between the attic and crawl-spaces (where applicable) both for network cabling and for line-voltage.

4) During rough construction, while the walls are still open, but after the infrastructure is in, do a walk-through with a video camera. Be slow and methodical, and get a good shot of every duct, every pipe, all major wiring routes. Be verbose. You'll thank yourself later.

5) Request "quad-shield" RG6 coax with Thomas and Betts "snap-n-seal" f connectors. Make every cable outlet a "home run". Better yet, stop watching television.

6) Dont be shy with cabling. Run cat5 cables to things like:
- printer locations ( if you want to use a print server)
- attic (for 802.11 base)
- stereo-to-network, stereo-to-stereo
- alarm panel

7) For integrated equipment, consider Crestron. They do a good job of combining audio, x10, touch-screens etc.

Have fun.

This is the ultimate geek hobby. The price-to-play is surpsisingly cheap (you can get simple controllers and applications modules from X10 for miniscule sums of money, but as you catch the bug, you can scale all the way up to Crestron's high-sex-factor touchscreens.

Home automation scales. Start with setting up a couple of controllers that call switch on or kill all your houselights from the bedroom; and you'll find yourself scaling up rapidly to astronomical clock-driven blinds-controllers that open and shut individual slats of your vertical blinds to cut off monitor glare while simultaneously flooding the room with lights. Many of the controllers are IP aware, so you can have your doorbell send email to your pager.

Have a look at these sites for cool programmable control systems ("remote" is too small a word for these ;-):

• Crestron -- Definitely the coolest I've seen!
• SmartLinc -- Not as impressive as the first, but still...

Of course now we're out from the $300-400 price range... more like $700-$2000 (sic)! Happy drooling! ;-)

There's quite a few "serious" programmable hand-held remotes out there -- seems every audio company that's putting their fingers into the home theater market has one (Sony, H-K, Rotel, Onkyo, Marantz, B&K, Carver, and so forth). Some of these are all but incapable of reliably learning codes; others get them right most of the time; none of them get it right all of the time. That said, once the codes are learned, they'll always work. Rather, they'll always work, *if* they've got enough memory to store all of the codes for all of your gear (no good way of determining that without actually trying it).

Many of the more expensive ones use an LCD touch panel. Some of these emulate a hands-on remote (which is silly), while others allow placement and shapes of buttons to be minutely tuned. Still others only have an LCD for clock display, and others still have no LCD at all.

What to do? Depends on how much you like the the toys your equipment has. At the low end, Radio Shack has a learning remote that also has preprogrammed codes (which is a good thing, as it's only got enough memory for about one full keypad of codes - you'd be lucky to get two devices into it if neither worked out-of-the-box). It's around $20, and also works with X10 stuff such as the Firecracker kit that Slashdot is still in bed with.

On the other end of the price spectrum exists Crestron, who makes incredibly serious gear. You get to create your own interface (sadly, using Windows software) and write some code to run it that runs on a large, black, rack-mount box. Plugged into this box can be almost anything - a Matrix Orbital RS-232 keypad would not be out of the question. Or an RF reciever, snagging control codes out of the air from a wireless backlit 256 color LCD panel. And light control? It wouldn't take much doing in order to get it to talk DMX-512 over RS-485, such that you can plug in your choice of professional halogen light dimmers or pretty effects lighting for your next party or stadium gig. One word of caution, though - Crestron does not list prices on their site for a reason.

Xantech has a few serious remote control systems (mostly geared toward permanent installation), and is the behind-the-scenes manufacturer for a large percentage of IR equipment.

Me, I can't afford a Crestron system, Xantech is too inconveniently yuppie for my taste (though I do use a remote repeater system of theirs, and our host Rob has one of their ground loop eliminators hung off of his VCR), and the cheaper LCD panel remotes seem flaky and cheap. So, I use a couple of things (depending on my mood and/or how involved I want to be with button-pushing).

Firstly is a Rotel RR920 learning remote. They don't make it anymore :^), but it works wonders. A large, geekish array of buttons with equally geekish labels (what did they intend the BEQ button to do, anyway? I've got it running the TV's sleep timer), and I've never come close to running out of memory with it. It supports lengthy macros, and has an LCD clock (which can also trigger said macros). List price was $150, iirc.
No pre-programmed codes, so you're on your own if you've lost the original remote.

I've also got the aforementioned Radio Shack remote. It doesn't do as much, but does have a glow in the dark button you can push to light up the keypad. I keep it by the bed to turn the lights on and off with X10. For each bank of buttons, there's a few (usually) unassigned keys that you can learn arbitrary commands into. And, the pre-programmed codes aren't complete shit - it does every feature of my DSS equipment, and formerly did the Primestar boxen without complaint. But, it has no codes for my Carver CD player or Rotel preamp, and its poor little memory got filled up rather quickly because of that.

Whatever you get, it'd serve you well to buy from a place with a liberal return policy. Some of these things will not do what you expect (never trust the packaging), and there's some devices (such as a Samsung TV that I have) which no third-party remote can control (except a Crestron system, which just doesn't care how funky the remote's signal is; it will duplicate it).

Panja (formerly AMX) or Crestron is the way to go. Both offer a wide variety of wired and wireless remotes (both IR and RF flavors) that communicate to a proprietary CPU that sends outs commands via IR or rs232/422. They're really cool, and work well, but the cost is a little prohibitive to most of us who live off of an IT staffmembers salary. Both units are completly programmable using (again) a proprietary language that is unique to the system (AMX looks a lot like C, I belive Crestron is more working with modules than code) but allows very robust control of whatever you are using.