I researched solutions for Robo Callers, and the best option I could find is a third party box called the "Tel-Lynx Guardian". It plugs in-line between phone and wall (like an answering machine), and answers all your calls for you and requires all callers to perform a one time qualification before they can get through to you. When it answers, it has a automated voice prompts of it's own and requires 3 things. The first time a caller calls, it answers before ringing your phone, and requires the person on the phone to record their name, and the phone number they are calling from (and I believe a random number digit is requested as well to verify it's a human). If the caller gets past those steps, then the device rings your phone, and when you pick up it announces to you the information it collected in the qualification process and gives you the option to dump the call or allow through. Once you let the call through, it adds that caller to a whitelist that is then allowed straight through to your phone from then on so they don't have to jump through the automated system everytime.
The only problem with it, is it only works for landlines and land-VoIP phone service. I almost got one, but recently switched to a new VoIP home service that includes personal black-lists, community black-lists, and NoMoRobo integration, which has helped greatly.
Unfortunately, there are no options for cell phones that I have found, comming short of having your number bounce through a land-line with some type of filtering before going through to your cell. I would LOVE a software version (or implementation at the provider) of the Tel-Lynx device functionality for use with cell-phones, and I think would kill the Robocalling industry.
Not to be critical, but you might want to release the triangle wheel first, that way the square wheel is an improvement over it (however still flawed), then after that a pentagon wheel, then a hexagon wheel... The users will feel the product is getting better and better with each release, even though the wheel still isn't round.
I'm highly skeptical of the info in the article of being able to root 90%. When I got my GalaxyS5 (running 4.4), I needed to root it (for reasons I won't go into here), but in order to root it, I had to install "SafeStrap" for a recovery boot option, ODIN to flash older kernel to the device, boot to recovery, and downgrade the kernel, then use "BusyBox" and "TowelRoot" to root the device... then recovery boot again, and use ODIN to re-flash current kernel back. This method involved rebooting the phone multiple times, flashing from recovery mode (which an app can't run in recovery mode), sideloading some apps that aren't available in the Play store, and using ODIN (windows program) from a connected PC, plus having downloaded 2 kernels to have handy (and moved to the SD card) for the flashing.
With all that said, how is a "flashlight" app achieving all this when there were too many steps that required user interaction and couldn't be done by an app on the phone? I call BS to the 90% number.
But I agree with the parent, that Root access should be a menu setting, and not require the technical gymnastics that it has become. If not on all phones, then at least on all phones purchased outright that are "unlocked" and not from the carriers (Nexus and other brands similar). I have bought 2 phones recently for family, where we paid full price outright for them, not through the carrier, and are not carrier branded nor even sold through the carrier, and yet they have no root access on them. Why? Would people still use Windows/MacOS if all you got was a user account when you installed, and didn't have admin privileges? I think not. Why is this deemed acceptable on a phone when it's not acceptable on a PC. I would make the same argument for the mediaplayers out there as well, like FireTV, NVidia, AppleTV etc. Should all have root access as an option.
What they need to do, is open the right door while holding the brake pedal down as they re-apply power to the vehicle.
Once it powers on, they open the trunk to enter recovery mode where they can flash the infotainment system back to it's stock kernel! Fixed!
This has been a more recent problem, and it IS gang related. Some relevant information about the problem... there are 2 feuding gangs, one from Richmond, and another from Vallejo that are having some kind of feud between each other (don't know which specific gangs). The corridor of the freeway and towns mentioned are for the most part, all the towns in the stretch between these two locations. El Cerrito is just West of Richmond, and if you travel east, there is Richmond, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo, Crocket, and then the bridge with Vallejo on the other side. The majority of these shootings are happening mostly at night, not during normal driving hours and almost all of them have been in this specific corridor (with a couple outliers happening near Berkeley).
These are NOT people on foot taking pot-shots at passing cars or anything of the like. These are mostly targeted, and are between multiple cars on the road, not on foot, so the perpetrators shoot and then just drive away and get off the freeway down the road. In some of these cases, one gang will in Richmond will spot a rival gang member on their turf, and chase/follow them, until the rival members gets on the freeway toward vallejo and the ensuing shooting occurs on the freeway. I think most of the shootings that I'm aware of, have happened on the East bound side, which indicates travel from Richmond toward Vallejo.
I've also heard rumors that one of the reasons the shootings have moved to the freeways, and the 2 gangs are attacking there is because the freeway does not have any "Shot-Spotter" system installed, which some of these cities in that corridor of the freeway do. I don't know if this is accurate, but it does make some sense. So in other words, if one gang intends to attack another gang IN Richmond, the shot-spotter system would detect it and they have a more likely chance of getting caught. If they follow the person onto the freeway, then open fire on them, then the Shot-Spotter systems are useless. So this could already be a case of one "safety system" pushing the violence out of the area where it has naturally occurred in the past, to a new area that does not have the same "safety system". So there is the real possibility that putting some system in place on the freeway will just push it somewhere else, maybe a worse place (for those not involved).
I recently switched to Comcast from ATT Uverse, and the 300GB cap says it's not 'in force' on my account page.
I have a 200mbps plan, and they offer faster than that, I think up to 400 or so at least. What areas do not have at least 100mbps plan on cable? Is that rare or a lot of places?
This was my first knee-jerk reaction as well. Right after they couldn't win a court case involving the same thing, it's convienient that now a personal more heart touching request is being made by a non-government agency. This raised red-flags immediately when I read.
While I feel for the guy, and understand the reason behind his request, my next logical reaction was "why didn't you get the password from your son before he passed away?". If it was a sudden, unexpected death, like a car accident or something then I understand not having plans for that, but this was cancer... he had time (maybe little, maybe a lot (while for the family, not enough time in general), but there WAS time to get that info from him while he was alive. Or to have the son take his password off the phone so it was unlocked and not protected at all.
I understand when a family is going through something like this, they don't want to think of all the things that need to be done on a rational level, but this proves that you still have to think of and deal with issues while you can if you are going to consider them important after the fact.
Here in the Bay Area, the CMU campus is actually on a Federal Base. It's part of NASA Aimes (or Moffett) I can't remember which one. I've been there, and in order to get in, have to go through armed guard gate since it's on base property.
This isn't entirely true. While you ARE on a contract, the phone is 100% yours after the contract is up, thus it doesn't hold up to the "renting" the phone paradigm that you suggest. It's more of a finance than a rent. If the phone was rented, then no matter how long you had it, it would still belong to the carrier. Similar to the cable companies "renting' the cable modems to the users, you never own it if you cancel service, no matter how long you've had it. On the other hand, after a 2-year contract, the phone is mine to keep, I can get the SIM unlock code, and I can take it another provider, or sell it on the used market, or whatever I want with it. They don't ask for it back. Thus, it's not renting.
Good luck with that. These systems are a platform for a very niche industry. They are programmed by very niche programmers in this industry. As a programmer of AMX and Crestron and Extron, it's a small market even when you include the fact that these are used in schools, corporate campuses, and governement. If the government engineered their own, and make their own platform, they would still need to have a big enough market to attract programmers to learn and implement these things.
The most someone would have been able to do is "maybe" hang up a call or something. While this might have been an inconvenience, it's not like the people on the ground need the white house watching them to complete their mission. The higher ups that were watching live might have been upset only because they got disconnected on their ring-side seat to their "reality tv show".
If they were "made" to put one in by , then that means that Crestron would have them too. Crestron has higher market share in all the same places AMX does as they are competitors.
This is correct, I would venture that 90% of the systems I program for and have seen installed, have a local switch in the rack that interconnects the touch panels, processor, and a few other dedicated AV devices for the system. Their is nothing touching the clients network in these cases.
I'm am also an AMX programmer (see my username), and I program Crestron as well (main competitor). While this is all new news to me as well, I can concur with the OP on several topics.
Firstly: AMX doesn't make hardware dedicated to government use. It's used in in lots of places, schools, homes, businesses, churches, government facilities and the like. The headline makes it sound like it's a defense contractor that did this. No excuse here, though, as a backdoor on anyones network is not good, but it's not good.
Secondly: AMX has taken strides for over the last 10 years to implement this small industries best security in the class of hardware they make. They ARE an engineering driven company, and I would be shocked if this was implemented for nefarious purposes over being a mistake.
Thirdly: I can also attest to the OP's comment, that the majority of these devices are being installed on air-gapped isolated networks that only connect to the AV gear located in a particular room. When they are attached to a larger network, or clients network, they are usually isolated on a seperate VLan dedicated to the AV gear and other controllers in other rooms/systems.
Forthly: This isn't a typical network appliance that many of you might be familiar with. It is an embedded controller, it doesn't access other computers or servers, it doesn't have hard drives, or the capabilities of a general purpose computer/server. It runs custom written code that communicates to A/V gear (projectors, monitors, audio DSP's, and video conference units, etc) to control them for the user from a custom GUI touch panel. They don't have access to data stores, or have sensitive information passing through them for any purposes. The most sensitive information that it might have that I can think of off the top of my head might be a phonebook list from a video conference device (names/contacts).
These units normally do not have internet access, so to access this backdoor, you would usually already have to have local network access anyway. While I'm not positive what this backdoor could allow a person to do, the most common/likely thing that could be done might be to wipe the existing programming or insert some extra commands to devices, which might play havoc with a system (turning it off in the middle of use, or turning it on by itself, or making it inoperable). I just don't see how it would allow actual real nefarious actions like accessing sensitive information or stealing secrets.
Because the other AV devices that these controllers interact with are only for control (many use simple RS232 serial) some telnet or other, there is really no danger, or possibility of using these backdoors to say, capture or evesdrop audio from the room, or spy on a video conferencing session, or "see" what is being displayed on a projector or monitor. The protocols of these devices are for control only, and do not actually transport this type of data on these connections. For instance, an AMX controlling a cisco VTC codec would be able to make calls, hang up calls, move cameras and other actions similar to the manufacturers control interface, but not actually "see" or "hear" the content of the video conferencing session. That's just not how it works, or what it's able to do.
I give AMX the benefit of the doubt on this one, while it was a mistake, and got magnified because of their installation in sensitive areas, the AMX team is good set of engineers. Thier aquisition by Harman might have changed things a little, but I still don't think this the security hole that most here are picturing. It's not like these things have access to data streams of an entire network passing through them like the Juniper switches we read about a few weeks ago that have backdoors.
I used to use WinAmp for years to play my mp3 collection but have moved to MediaMonkey. I like media monkey better. Also has some nice features for DJ (including what they call DJ Mode). Making playlists is super easy (especially temporary ones when you just want songs to play in a certain order), as is searching through your archive of music. The interface is really flexible, but does take a little getting used to comming from winamp but not bad. I dont plan on going back, Ive found MediaMonkey to be better for everything I used WinAmp for.
I ran into something similar with my Healthcare provider's website. I run Ghostery, Adblock and Ublock in my browser and when I logged in, I couldn't perform the necessary tasks I needed to without turning off Ghostery's blocking.
It wasn't ads they were trying to use, it was several tracking/analytics (like Google and a couple others) that were forcing. When these analytics redirects were blocked, it broke their site.
I should also point out that this is for a service that I pay $1700 USD per month for. In case anyone is wondering, the Healthcare provider is Kaiser Permanente, which serves California.
I program and setup pro av for a living and the video wall controller is the "best" option. Also the most expensive but they are highly flexible, especially the higher end ones.
Some of the well known ones to look at are "RGB Spectrum", "Christie Spyder", Extron QuantumView, And the the reigning king Jupiter Systems.
The best of these will let you define a virtual canvas as large as your wall is, and inputs are used as windows on that canvas, any layout you want. And presets are very nice and flexible and can allow for various view scenarios with the push of a button.
I don't mind the UI on it. Not sure when you last tried it or how much it's changed. Granted, setup is a little non-straight forward, but once it's all setup and going, using it is as easy to our family as any other media server, maybe more.
They've made repo(app) installation easier now, as you can just add one source/repo and install it, and it is a quick installer for almost all the major popular other app/repos that you need. Once you install it, you can just go through the list and click on any other app you want to install and it does it for you, and has apps like youtube, Genesis, iStreams, SALTS, Pheonix, and tons of others ready to go.
Alternate skins can make navigation more or less easy depending on the skin choice, but that is easily changed.
Sounds like what you have is working for you, but I would highly suggest upgrading your RasPI's to FireTV's or Firesticks running Kodi. I tried running my first build of Kodi on a RaspPI, and it was frustratingly slow and somewhat painful. The FireTV's and FireStick's run it much better and smoother. The FireTV's are quad-cores (the new ones are getting a speed bump), and the sticks are dual core (a bit slower but still usable). I haven't tried the newer RaspPI's that are faster now though, I was using the original version, and while it nice at first, the novelty wore off, and the speed/lag issue became frustrating real fast. Plus the FireSticks are like $40, which is less than the original RaspPI cost me.
We started using a FireTV sideloaded with Kodi (SPMC build to be specific). Have a network share from our server that stores our library and any downloaded media. Loving it. Have not used any of the actual apps on the FTV, just use it to host and run Kodi.
While I still subscribe to AT&T Uverse TV, we've been watching less and less TV on it and instead using our Kodi appliance more and more. Going to be picking up another FireTV or 2 for same purpose soon.
I highly recommend Kodi, and the FTV makes a great platform to run it from, quad core, very small form factor, low power draw, etc.
This has always been the bug in my side since seeing the charging spots at various companies that I contract at spring up several years ago as well, and this is the feeling I have as well.
The gas car has been a staple of nearly everyone for over 100yrs, and not one employer that I know of (or have seen) provides a free gas fillup service at work, provided by the employer. If you need gas, you fill up on the way to work, or the way from work, (or other time when it's most convenient). And billions of workers all over the country, have never had a problem with this, or even though that the employer should not only provide a local gas station in the parking lot, let alone provide it for FREE. Why should EV drivers be treated any different, it's their personal choice to buy that technology, you get the good and the bad with it, and have to deal with it. If it's not so convenient to stop on your way to/from work to charge up, then maybe you bought the wrong vehicle. People have had to take gas mileage into consideration for decades when purchasing a gas powered car, how is this responsibility now pushed on (and accepted by) the employers for EV?
It comes down to the old "Carrot and Stick" method of forcing social change in the face of lack of technology or social unacceptance for a political purpose. The government wants you to own an EV, no matter how much it doesn't make sense for a large portion of the population to own one. So what is done?
First the Carrot:
- Offer tax incentives and rebates to purchase the thing/item you want them too to make it artificially cheaper than it really is by spreading the total cost over the entire tax paying populace (ie: those who drive gas cars subsidize the purchase of those EV cars because gas cars don't get the tax credits/rebates).
- Offer reduced rates for electricity if you go along with their plan, everyone else get jacked to pay for electricity, and told to conserve during peak times, but when you by an EV, you get a discounted electric rate. Gas cars do not get discounted anything.
- Next, hey lets let EV drivers drive in the carpool lanes as another "carrot" to sweeten the deal. The gas drivers can sit in heavier traffic because the local municipalities haven't expanded regular lanes in years, all new freeway improvements just results in more carpool lanes an no more regular lanes, but gas drivers still have to deal with the 5+ years of freeway hell during construction of the new carpool lane. (note: here in the bay area, there is a section of I80 that literally has 2 carpool lanes and is the most congested freeway section in the bay area.
- Next, lets mandate that new building provide on-site charging stations to meet EPA requirements, forcing business owners to make it more convenient to charge an EV car... the gas guzzling environment destroyers will still need to leave early if they need gas on the way to work, but not our coveted EV drivers!
- Then building owners/employers offer FREE charging to EV owners because in some places, they aren't allowed to meter and charge for electricity, and they have to provide the spots.
- Because of logistics, the best spots, closest to the building get converted to EV parking/charging, so gas drivers can literally 'take a hike'.
These are all the carrots offered so far, what is worrying, is when the 'stick' part comes. When most of the parking lot is EV, and gas cars are not allowed to park in them. When extra taxes are tacked onto gas to drive the price higher and higher (like sin taxes for other items not in government favor). When more and more lanes of the freeway are converted to EV only lanes, causing more congestion on the gas car lanes. When extra registration taxes/penalties are levied on gas powered cars... or worse.
Scheduling a stop at a charging station going to/from work is impractical. Charging an EV isn't like filling a gasoline tank; it's not a five-minute operation. You really wouldn't want to make an hour-long stop on your way to or from the office every day, would you? This isn't an issue of entitlement, it's a question of whether or not an EV with a given range will even work for your commute.
This IS an entitlement. Build out public charging stations along freeways and the like, and let the EV drivers pull in and PAY to charge their vehicle on the way to work like everyone that drives a gas car does. Just because one buys an EV vehicle doesn't mean they should automatically get the best parking spot + free fuel + no hassle of a longer commute time.
I drive a gas car, and there are times when I didn't plan on refueling when I leave the house, until I'm halfway to work, and I have to make a decision to stop on the way to work, or stop on the way home, because workplaces don't supply private FREE gas stations in their parking lot for 99% of the cars on the road. Why should they for the 1%?
If you don't like the idea of stopping for a 30-60mins on your commute to re-charge, then that would be something to consider before purchasing an EV car wouldn't it?
Upon looking at your requirements again, you would need a larger matrix than I originally mentioned. Since you have 3 PC's total, each with 2 monitor outputs, you would need at least 6 inputs. This puts your matrix size in the 8x4 range (don't think you'll find a 8x2). This would bump the cost up depending on price.
I deal with Pro-grade gear for work, so I would suggest something along the lines of an
Extron DXP 84 HDMI; or maybe a Kramer brand, or Atlona. I'm sure there are other options that may be cheaper, but can't speak to their quality. Most of these Pro grade models are also RS232 and Ethernet controllable, so if you know a bit of code, you could rig something up and send easy telnet or serial commands to make things a little more automatic to select your "scenes" that you described.
My suggestion was to NOT use the KVM for the video portion, just the USB Keyboard/Mouse portion of control. My suggestion would be to use a small HDMI video matrix router for routing the video where you want it (seperately from the KVM control).
Others have suggested using a martrix KVM, but I haven't ever seen/used one of those beasts before and didn't know they existed. And apparently are expensive.
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I researched solutions for Robo Callers, and the best option I could find is a third party box called the "Tel-Lynx Guardian". It plugs in-line between phone and wall (like an answering machine), and answers all your calls for you and requires all callers to perform a one time qualification before they can get through to you. When it answers, it has a automated voice prompts of it's own and requires 3 things. The first time a caller calls, it answers before ringing your phone, and requires the person on the phone to record their name, and the phone number they are calling from (and I believe a random number digit is requested as well to verify it's a human). If the caller gets past those steps, then the device rings your phone, and when you pick up it announces to you the information it collected in the qualification process and gives you the option to dump the call or allow through. Once you let the call through, it adds that caller to a whitelist that is then allowed straight through to your phone from then on so they don't have to jump through the automated system everytime.
The only problem with it, is it only works for landlines and land-VoIP phone service. I almost got one, but recently switched to a new VoIP home service that includes personal black-lists, community black-lists, and NoMoRobo integration, which has helped greatly.
Unfortunately, there are no options for cell phones that I have found, comming short of having your number bounce through a land-line with some type of filtering before going through to your cell. I would LOVE a software version (or implementation at the provider) of the Tel-Lynx device functionality for use with cell-phones, and I think would kill the Robocalling industry.
Not to be critical, but you might want to release the triangle wheel first, that way the square wheel is an improvement over it (however still flawed), then after that a pentagon wheel, then a hexagon wheel... The users will feel the product is getting better and better with each release, even though the wheel still isn't round.
I'm highly skeptical of the info in the article of being able to root 90%. When I got my GalaxyS5 (running 4.4), I needed to root it (for reasons I won't go into here), but in order to root it, I had to install "SafeStrap" for a recovery boot option, ODIN to flash older kernel to the device, boot to recovery, and downgrade the kernel, then use "BusyBox" and "TowelRoot" to root the device... then recovery boot again, and use ODIN to re-flash current kernel back. This method involved rebooting the phone multiple times, flashing from recovery mode (which an app can't run in recovery mode), sideloading some apps that aren't available in the Play store, and using ODIN (windows program) from a connected PC, plus having downloaded 2 kernels to have handy (and moved to the SD card) for the flashing.
With all that said, how is a "flashlight" app achieving all this when there were too many steps that required user interaction and couldn't be done by an app on the phone? I call BS to the 90% number.
But I agree with the parent, that Root access should be a menu setting, and not require the technical gymnastics that it has become. If not on all phones, then at least on all phones purchased outright that are "unlocked" and not from the carriers (Nexus and other brands similar). I have bought 2 phones recently for family, where we paid full price outright for them, not through the carrier, and are not carrier branded nor even sold through the carrier, and yet they have no root access on them. Why? Would people still use Windows/MacOS if all you got was a user account when you installed, and didn't have admin privileges? I think not. Why is this deemed acceptable on a phone when it's not acceptable on a PC. I would make the same argument for the mediaplayers out there as well, like FireTV, NVidia, AppleTV etc. Should all have root access as an option.
What they need to do, is open the right door while holding the brake pedal down as they re-apply power to the vehicle.
Once it powers on, they open the trunk to enter recovery mode where they can flash the infotainment system back to it's stock kernel! Fixed!
This has been a more recent problem, and it IS gang related. Some relevant information about the problem... there are 2 feuding gangs, one from Richmond, and another from Vallejo that are having some kind of feud between each other (don't know which specific gangs). The corridor of the freeway and towns mentioned are for the most part, all the towns in the stretch between these two locations. El Cerrito is just West of Richmond, and if you travel east, there is Richmond, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo, Crocket, and then the bridge with Vallejo on the other side. The majority of these shootings are happening mostly at night, not during normal driving hours and almost all of them have been in this specific corridor (with a couple outliers happening near Berkeley).
These are NOT people on foot taking pot-shots at passing cars or anything of the like. These are mostly targeted, and are between multiple cars on the road, not on foot, so the perpetrators shoot and then just drive away and get off the freeway down the road. In some of these cases, one gang will in Richmond will spot a rival gang member on their turf, and chase/follow them, until the rival members gets on the freeway toward vallejo and the ensuing shooting occurs on the freeway. I think most of the shootings that I'm aware of, have happened on the East bound side, which indicates travel from Richmond toward Vallejo.
I've also heard rumors that one of the reasons the shootings have moved to the freeways, and the 2 gangs are attacking there is because the freeway does not have any "Shot-Spotter" system installed, which some of these cities in that corridor of the freeway do. I don't know if this is accurate, but it does make some sense. So in other words, if one gang intends to attack another gang IN Richmond, the shot-spotter system would detect it and they have a more likely chance of getting caught. If they follow the person onto the freeway, then open fire on them, then the Shot-Spotter systems are useless. So this could already be a case of one "safety system" pushing the violence out of the area where it has naturally occurred in the past, to a new area that does not have the same "safety system". So there is the real possibility that putting some system in place on the freeway will just push it somewhere else, maybe a worse place (for those not involved).
I recently switched to Comcast from ATT Uverse, and the 300GB cap says it's not 'in force' on my account page. I have a 200mbps plan, and they offer faster than that, I think up to 400 or so at least. What areas do not have at least 100mbps plan on cable? Is that rare or a lot of places?
This was my first knee-jerk reaction as well. Right after they couldn't win a court case involving the same thing, it's convienient that now a personal more heart touching request is being made by a non-government agency. This raised red-flags immediately when I read.
While I feel for the guy, and understand the reason behind his request, my next logical reaction was "why didn't you get the password from your son before he passed away?". If it was a sudden, unexpected death, like a car accident or something then I understand not having plans for that, but this was cancer... he had time (maybe little, maybe a lot (while for the family, not enough time in general), but there WAS time to get that info from him while he was alive. Or to have the son take his password off the phone so it was unlocked and not protected at all.
I understand when a family is going through something like this, they don't want to think of all the things that need to be done on a rational level, but this proves that you still have to think of and deal with issues while you can if you are going to consider them important after the fact.
Here in the Bay Area, the CMU campus is actually on a Federal Base. It's part of NASA Aimes (or Moffett) I can't remember which one. I've been there, and in order to get in, have to go through armed guard gate since it's on base property.
This isn't entirely true. While you ARE on a contract, the phone is 100% yours after the contract is up, thus it doesn't hold up to the "renting" the phone paradigm that you suggest. It's more of a finance than a rent. If the phone was rented, then no matter how long you had it, it would still belong to the carrier. Similar to the cable companies "renting' the cable modems to the users, you never own it if you cancel service, no matter how long you've had it. On the other hand, after a 2-year contract, the phone is mine to keep, I can get the SIM unlock code, and I can take it another provider, or sell it on the used market, or whatever I want with it. They don't ask for it back. Thus, it's not renting.
Good luck with that. These systems are a platform for a very niche industry. They are programmed by very niche programmers in this industry. As a programmer of AMX and Crestron and Extron, it's a small market even when you include the fact that these are used in schools, corporate campuses, and governement. If the government engineered their own, and make their own platform, they would still need to have a big enough market to attract programmers to learn and implement these things.
The most someone would have been able to do is "maybe" hang up a call or something. While this might have been an inconvenience, it's not like the people on the ground need the white house watching them to complete their mission. The higher ups that were watching live might have been upset only because they got disconnected on their ring-side seat to their "reality tv show".
If they were "made" to put one in by , then that means that Crestron would have them too. Crestron has higher market share in all the same places AMX does as they are competitors.
This is correct, I would venture that 90% of the systems I program for and have seen installed, have a local switch in the rack that interconnects the touch panels, processor, and a few other dedicated AV devices for the system. Their is nothing touching the clients network in these cases.
I'm am also an AMX programmer (see my username), and I program Crestron as well (main competitor). While this is all new news to me as well, I can concur with the OP on several topics.
Firstly: AMX doesn't make hardware dedicated to government use. It's used in in lots of places, schools, homes, businesses, churches, government facilities and the like. The headline makes it sound like it's a defense contractor that did this. No excuse here, though, as a backdoor on anyones network is not good, but it's not good.
Secondly: AMX has taken strides for over the last 10 years to implement this small industries best security in the class of hardware they make. They ARE an engineering driven company, and I would be shocked if this was implemented for nefarious purposes over being a mistake.
Thirdly: I can also attest to the OP's comment, that the majority of these devices are being installed on air-gapped isolated networks that only connect to the AV gear located in a particular room. When they are attached to a larger network, or clients network, they are usually isolated on a seperate VLan dedicated to the AV gear and other controllers in other rooms/systems.
Forthly: This isn't a typical network appliance that many of you might be familiar with. It is an embedded controller, it doesn't access other computers or servers, it doesn't have hard drives, or the capabilities of a general purpose computer/server. It runs custom written code that communicates to A/V gear (projectors, monitors, audio DSP's, and video conference units, etc) to control them for the user from a custom GUI touch panel. They don't have access to data stores, or have sensitive information passing through them for any purposes. The most sensitive information that it might have that I can think of off the top of my head might be a phonebook list from a video conference device (names/contacts).
These units normally do not have internet access, so to access this backdoor, you would usually already have to have local network access anyway. While I'm not positive what this backdoor could allow a person to do, the most common/likely thing that could be done might be to wipe the existing programming or insert some extra commands to devices, which might play havoc with a system (turning it off in the middle of use, or turning it on by itself, or making it inoperable). I just don't see how it would allow actual real nefarious actions like accessing sensitive information or stealing secrets.
Because the other AV devices that these controllers interact with are only for control (many use simple RS232 serial) some telnet or other, there is really no danger, or possibility of using these backdoors to say, capture or evesdrop audio from the room, or spy on a video conferencing session, or "see" what is being displayed on a projector or monitor. The protocols of these devices are for control only, and do not actually transport this type of data on these connections. For instance, an AMX controlling a cisco VTC codec would be able to make calls, hang up calls, move cameras and other actions similar to the manufacturers control interface, but not actually "see" or "hear" the content of the video conferencing session. That's just not how it works, or what it's able to do.
I give AMX the benefit of the doubt on this one, while it was a mistake, and got magnified because of their installation in sensitive areas, the AMX team is good set of engineers. Thier aquisition by Harman might have changed things a little, but I still don't think this the security hole that most here are picturing. It's not like these things have access to data streams of an entire network passing through them like the Juniper switches we read about a few weeks ago that have backdoors.
I used to use WinAmp for years to play my mp3 collection but have moved to MediaMonkey. I like media monkey better. Also has some nice features for DJ (including what they call DJ Mode). Making playlists is super easy (especially temporary ones when you just want songs to play in a certain order), as is searching through your archive of music. The interface is really flexible, but does take a little getting used to comming from winamp but not bad. I dont plan on going back, Ive found MediaMonkey to be better for everything I used WinAmp for.
I ran into something similar with my Healthcare provider's website. I run Ghostery, Adblock and Ublock in my browser and when I logged in, I couldn't perform the necessary tasks I needed to without turning off Ghostery's blocking.
It wasn't ads they were trying to use, it was several tracking/analytics (like Google and a couple others) that were forcing. When these analytics redirects were blocked, it broke their site.
I should also point out that this is for a service that I pay $1700 USD per month for. In case anyone is wondering, the Healthcare provider is Kaiser Permanente, which serves California.
I program and setup pro av for a living and the video wall controller is the "best" option. Also the most expensive but they are highly flexible, especially the higher end ones.
Some of the well known ones to look at are "RGB Spectrum", "Christie Spyder", Extron QuantumView, And the the reigning king Jupiter Systems.
The best of these will let you define a virtual canvas as large as your wall is, and inputs are used as windows on that canvas, any layout you want. And presets are very nice and flexible and can allow for various view scenarios with the push of a button.
I don't mind the UI on it. Not sure when you last tried it or how much it's changed. Granted, setup is a little non-straight forward, but once it's all setup and going, using it is as easy to our family as any other media server, maybe more.
They've made repo(app) installation easier now, as you can just add one source/repo and install it, and it is a quick installer for almost all the major popular other app/repos that you need. Once you install it, you can just go through the list and click on any other app you want to install and it does it for you, and has apps like youtube, Genesis, iStreams, SALTS, Pheonix, and tons of others ready to go.
Alternate skins can make navigation more or less easy depending on the skin choice, but that is easily changed.
Sounds like what you have is working for you, but I would highly suggest upgrading your RasPI's to FireTV's or Firesticks running Kodi. I tried running my first build of Kodi on a RaspPI, and it was frustratingly slow and somewhat painful. The FireTV's and FireStick's run it much better and smoother. The FireTV's are quad-cores (the new ones are getting a speed bump), and the sticks are dual core (a bit slower but still usable). I haven't tried the newer RaspPI's that are faster now though, I was using the original version, and while it nice at first, the novelty wore off, and the speed/lag issue became frustrating real fast. Plus the FireSticks are like $40, which is less than the original RaspPI cost me.
We started using a FireTV sideloaded with Kodi (SPMC build to be specific). Have a network share from our server that stores our library and any downloaded media. Loving it. Have not used any of the actual apps on the FTV, just use it to host and run Kodi.
While I still subscribe to AT&T Uverse TV, we've been watching less and less TV on it and instead using our Kodi appliance more and more. Going to be picking up another FireTV or 2 for same purpose soon.
I highly recommend Kodi, and the FTV makes a great platform to run it from, quad core, very small form factor, low power draw, etc.
Requiring registration will only make the criminals use stolen drones, and or open up the market to self assembled "ghost drones".
This has always been the bug in my side since seeing the charging spots at various companies that I contract at spring up several years ago as well, and this is the feeling I have as well.
The gas car has been a staple of nearly everyone for over 100yrs, and not one employer that I know of (or have seen) provides a free gas fillup service at work, provided by the employer. If you need gas, you fill up on the way to work, or the way from work, (or other time when it's most convenient). And billions of workers all over the country, have never had a problem with this, or even though that the employer should not only provide a local gas station in the parking lot, let alone provide it for FREE. Why should EV drivers be treated any different, it's their personal choice to buy that technology, you get the good and the bad with it, and have to deal with it. If it's not so convenient to stop on your way to/from work to charge up, then maybe you bought the wrong vehicle. People have had to take gas mileage into consideration for decades when purchasing a gas powered car, how is this responsibility now pushed on (and accepted by) the employers for EV?
It comes down to the old "Carrot and Stick" method of forcing social change in the face of lack of technology or social unacceptance for a political purpose. The government wants you to own an EV, no matter how much it doesn't make sense for a large portion of the population to own one. So what is done?
First the Carrot:
- Offer tax incentives and rebates to purchase the thing/item you want them too to make it artificially cheaper than it really is by spreading the total cost over the entire tax paying populace (ie: those who drive gas cars subsidize the purchase of those EV cars because gas cars don't get the tax credits/rebates).
- Offer reduced rates for electricity if you go along with their plan, everyone else get jacked to pay for electricity, and told to conserve during peak times, but when you by an EV, you get a discounted electric rate. Gas cars do not get discounted anything.
- Next, hey lets let EV drivers drive in the carpool lanes as another "carrot" to sweeten the deal. The gas drivers can sit in heavier traffic because the local municipalities haven't expanded regular lanes in years, all new freeway improvements just results in more carpool lanes an no more regular lanes, but gas drivers still have to deal with the 5+ years of freeway hell during construction of the new carpool lane. (note: here in the bay area, there is a section of I80 that literally has 2 carpool lanes and is the most congested freeway section in the bay area.
- Next, lets mandate that new building provide on-site charging stations to meet EPA requirements, forcing business owners to make it more convenient to charge an EV car... the gas guzzling environment destroyers will still need to leave early if they need gas on the way to work, but not our coveted EV drivers!
- Then building owners/employers offer FREE charging to EV owners because in some places, they aren't allowed to meter and charge for electricity, and they have to provide the spots.
- Because of logistics, the best spots, closest to the building get converted to EV parking/charging, so gas drivers can literally 'take a hike'.
These are all the carrots offered so far, what is worrying, is when the 'stick' part comes. When most of the parking lot is EV, and gas cars are not allowed to park in them. When extra taxes are tacked onto gas to drive the price higher and higher (like sin taxes for other items not in government favor). When more and more lanes of the freeway are converted to EV only lanes, causing more congestion on the gas car lanes. When extra registration taxes/penalties are levied on gas powered cars... or worse.
Scheduling a stop at a charging station going to/from work is impractical. Charging an EV isn't like filling a gasoline tank; it's not a five-minute operation. You really wouldn't want to make an hour-long stop on your way to or from the office every day, would you? This isn't an issue of entitlement, it's a question of whether or not an EV with a given range will even work for your commute.
This IS an entitlement. Build out public charging stations along freeways and the like, and let the EV drivers pull in and PAY to charge their vehicle on the way to work like everyone that drives a gas car does. Just because one buys an EV vehicle doesn't mean they should automatically get the best parking spot + free fuel + no hassle of a longer commute time.
I drive a gas car, and there are times when I didn't plan on refueling when I leave the house, until I'm halfway to work, and I have to make a decision to stop on the way to work, or stop on the way home, because workplaces don't supply private FREE gas stations in their parking lot for 99% of the cars on the road. Why should they for the 1%?
If you don't like the idea of stopping for a 30-60mins on your commute to re-charge, then that would be something to consider before purchasing an EV car wouldn't it?
Upon looking at your requirements again, you would need a larger matrix than I originally mentioned. Since you have 3 PC's total, each with 2 monitor outputs, you would need at least 6 inputs. This puts your matrix size in the 8x4 range (don't think you'll find a 8x2). This would bump the cost up depending on price.
I deal with Pro-grade gear for work, so I would suggest something along the lines of an Extron DXP 84 HDMI; or maybe a Kramer brand, or Atlona. I'm sure there are other options that may be cheaper, but can't speak to their quality. Most of these Pro grade models are also RS232 and Ethernet controllable, so if you know a bit of code, you could rig something up and send easy telnet or serial commands to make things a little more automatic to select your "scenes" that you described.
My suggestion was to NOT use the KVM for the video portion, just the USB Keyboard/Mouse portion of control. My suggestion would be to use a small HDMI video matrix router for routing the video where you want it (seperately from the KVM control).
Others have suggested using a martrix KVM, but I haven't ever seen/used one of those beasts before and didn't know they existed. And apparently are expensive.