Mother Nature…enough already

I read that Alta Ski Resort has crossed the 800” of snow mark for the season. It’s April. Isn’t it past time for Winter Storm Warnings?

April 1, 2023 | Filed Under Personal Life

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Golf 2023 is officially open

Yesterday I received a text from the National Weather service with a winter advisory warning. Woke up to 40 degrees, no snow, and local weather forecast of no rain or snow until 6PM.

I called River Oaks golf course and learned they were open for play. I jumped in the car and made my way to the course. A bit breezy, but a very playable mid to high 40s day. No snow bunkers.

Pretty to see the snow covered mountains off in the distance.

2023’s first trip to the course in the books.

Green at 7th hole, looking to the North.

January 14, 2023 | Filed Under Personal Life

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Three Years of My Life

Today Control4 announced Smart Home OS 3. It’s a major update, and as some of the press have said, the most significant release ever from Control4.

Over the past three years, the User Experience (UX) team at Control4 worked to enhance the customer interfaces and overall experience. And it was a significant amount of work and includes designs, specifications, and artwork for iOS and Android; phones, tablets, and dedicated touch screens; and a ten-foot TV experience.

It’s been a labor of love and passion. I live with Control4 in my own home. So to improve the experience for others improves my family’s experience.

As the Director of User Experience at Control4, I’ve been lucky enough to get paid for all the creativity and improvements that went into the effort. Of course, there were hundreds, no thousands of hours of meetings and debates and testing and model building and planning meetings with developers and reviewing software deliverables against specs–I like to think that’s why I got paid.

“Control4 OS 3 [is] the most intuitive, accessible, and meaningfully customizable professionally installed home automation system I’ve ever laid hands on. For what it’s worth, it’s also one of the prettiest, and although I sort of dismissed this saucy new look as one of the least interesting things about OS 3, it’s hard to deny that it’s also one of the most compelling things about this massive update.”

Dennis Burger, Residential Systems

Hardest Thing was Silence

Probably the hardest thing for me over the past couple of years has been to hear, “When are you guys gonna come out with a new design?” I had to silently listen and find a way to defend the current UI knowing full well that some of the very features people asked for were done. We literally have included thousands of great dealer and technician (our channel partners) and end-customer enhancements into OS 3.

My Favorite OS 3 Features

Control4 Smart Home OS 3 has hundreds, no thousands of enhancements driven from customer and dealer feedback. It was a blast to work these into the new customer experience. Which are my favorites? Here are just a few.

Favorite Rooms — I love swiping quickly between my family room, master bedroom, kitchen, and office.
Audio Favorites — my one-click Favorites to play Radio Paradise on TuneIn; The Beatles White Album (Super Deluxe) in MQA from Tidal Masters; and my Radiohead playlist.
On-Screen interface — I added Favorites for Netflix and Amazon Prime on Roku; Xfinity; Radio Paradise; lighting scenes; and my door locks and garage doors so they are what I see as soon as I press the red Control4 button.
Music distribution — sending music to rooms is available from the new Media Bar on the Room, Now Playing, or Sessions Screens.
All Rooms + Filter in Lighting — It’s easier than ever to see which lights the kids left on.
Volume tap — on the volume slider, I use the tap-the-slider option to change volume up or down a couple of percentage points.

Thanks To the Teams

I want to thank the teams that made the release possible: the UX designers, the UI developers, PQA, and executives that gave us a chance to deliver something familiar but uniquely different and delightful. And certainly the Marketing team–wow have they put together an arsenal of quality material to drive awareness and put the spotlight on the features that make OS 3 special!

Reviews

Here are a few links to reviews for the Control4 Smart Home OS 3 product.

Essential Install | Control4 Smart Home OS 3 Released; Promises 1,000+ New Features
Residential Tech Today | Control4 OS 3 Improves User Interface Experience and Empowers Homeowners with Personalization Features
Residential Tech Today | Control4 Delivers Smart Home OS 3
Gearbrain | Control4’s new OS displays a home’s status at a single glance
GeekWire | Ex-Amazon Alexa exec lays out Control4’s vision of an operating system for smart homes
Dealerscope | Control4 Unleashes the Smart Home OS 3
Home Theater Review | Control4 Releases Massive New OS 3 Update
CE Pro | Control4 Unveils New Smart Home OS 3 Platform
Inside CI | Control4 OS 3 Promises the First Truly Smart Home
Residential Systems | Control4 Unveils Smart Home OS 3
The Ambient | Control4 Smart Home OS 3 adds over a thousand new features
Strata-gee | Control4 Smart Home OS 3 – Making Complicated Installations as Simple as a Smartphone
Convergent AV | Control4 Delivers the Smart Home OS — OS 3
Hiddenwires | Control4 launches Smart Home OS 3 to control different devices on one system
HD Guru | Control4 Unveils Smart Home OS 3 Interoperability
AVNation | New Control4 OS 3 sets smart home standard