AV Control, Automation, and Expectations in a Consumer-drive World

Control and automation can be the most fun part of AV design; from the blank canvas of a user interface one can create anything. Preview windows? Live tiles? A photo of the room which reacts as conditions change? Imagination is the limit, but there are many pitfalls. Today we'll talk about why some users fear control systems and why some manufacturers fear their own potential resellers.

There's no question that the control interface is a major component in determining user experience; if controls are too simple, users will feel that the system is limited in capability. Too complex and it will be overwhelming and difficult to use. Poorly laid out controls make the experience uncomfortable and unpleasant, if not confusing.  How do people outside the industry see this aspect of AV design? I see a few trends.

To the User, The System IS the Program
This is an obvious point, and one on which we need to educate the public. I discussed the possibility of control systems with a family member when he was moving. He initially considered the idea but, after speaking to some of his friends, decided against it. One of the biggest factors was the number of people who said that they didn't like the system interface,that it was confusing to use or not flexible enough. This was a fully programmable system in which the interface would be whatever the programmer created. It's a bit like saying that you don't like your computer because the menu structure on your spreadsheet program is  difficult to use. It doesn't matter: the association had been made that Brand X (I'll not name them here) = bad experience. While not the only factor, this was one factor in his decision to not get a control system.

This came to mind yesterday during a Twitter discussion about how a certain manufacturer doesn't always make it easy for smaller AV contractors to buy their  control products. From the contractor's  point of view, I see this as not only frustrating, but as pushing them away from a brand which they'd otherwise be interested in supporting. Looking at the above discussion with the public, it makes perfect sense. If you let one poorly trained individual muddle through control system programming, their sloppy work creates the impression that your hardware is not very good. 

Configurable, rather than programmable, systems mitigate this a bit; a configurable system allows the manufacturer to carefully craft an interface which will fit the majority of simple configurations. This is, perhaps, a greater part of the configurable systems' value than the significant savings on programming labor. It is a way in which a manufacturer can control the experience while still allowing wide access to their devices. 

Consumerization Creates Familiarity - For Good and Ill
Not too many years ago, the initial part of training for an integrated AV system in a corporate environment dealt with convincing users that they don't need the "TV remote" and that they should control everything via the nice custom GUI on the touchpanel. Today most of us have touch panels in our pockets, and many of us have the ability to control something in the outside world with them. This means that a touchpanel is no longer foreign, but also that it's no longer special. An eye opening moment came when I was discussing device layout in the final stages of construction for a new fairly high-technology facility. One of the users pointed at a table and said "We don't want the iPad there. The people at that position only need a microphone."

The "iPad" in this context was a desktop-mounted touchpanel, complete with the control manufacturer's logo. It was over a thousand dollars in hardware with countless hours of custom programming and GUI design. It didn't matter. To the user it was a ten-inch touchpanel;  the same thing they use to watch Netflix. Turning on the big video wall with the touchpanel is no more special than streaming a YouTube video to the TV in your living room.

A day at programming class

We're Being Spoiled by Off the Shelf Tools
A few years ago I took introductory Crestron training and learned, amongst other things, how to build a rudimentary control GUI. One class exercise was creating a transport control page for a DVD player. We had to draw buttons, map them the appropriate commands, and set up feedback to buttons remained in the engaged state if appropriate. It took some time and some knowledge. This past year, as some of you know, I moved. We unpacked the DVD player long before we unpacked its handheld remote - a remote which I'm still not certain I found. This was no problem; in just a few minutes I was able to download a free remote app on my phone which just so happens to have an IR emitter. I can now use my phone as a remote for anything I own.

Automation and No-Touch Control Will become expected
"Wow moments"  are becoming few and far between. During an excellent webinar on modern control system design, Sumanth Rayancha of Pepperdash listed "no-touch" fully automated control as one future trend. An example was the "smart meeting room". Once a meeting is booked, everythign becomes automatic. Lights come on to the appropriate level when the presenter enters, the correct technology activates itself, complete with display of a presentation. An email or text message can even be sent to the food service team to deliver lunch. It's am amazing growth in the potential of control and automation.

This is amazing, but still well within reach of consumers; just this morning my wife was lamenting that if she forgets to turn off phone notifications on her phone before bedtime she'll often get woken up by something or other; I pointed out that it is now fairly easy to use a web-service such as If This Then That to automatically silence and unsilence your phone at certain times of day. One can also turn on the porch light, off the hall light, etc. As more people come aware of these things, they will become more expected.

Not many years ago there was a bit of a "wow" moment when you hit the "VideoConference" button on a touchpanel and the shades closed, lights adjusted themselves, cameras swung into position, and displays lit up. That is quickly becoming just as familiar as the "iPad" on the table.

What does this mean? It means that the expectations have never been higher. It's not enough anymore to have control or even automation - we need to have it and present it in a manner which is thoughtful, pleasant to use, and fills all of the users' needs. Otherwise we're back to users seeing AV systems - and hardware - as "terrible" because someone didn't make it do what they expected of it.

A Visit with Savant

Discussion of some project details recently brought me to the Savant Systems showroom in lower Manhattan. In addition to the matter at hand, I was treated to a showroom tour as well as a discussion on their offerings, the overall Savant ecosystem, and where they hope to be in the future.

They know the way to the AV industry's heart.
And liver.

The demo space is laid out the way many such spaces are, as a series of simulated rooms designed to showcase the technology in a variety of settings. There's a corporate boardroom with a conference table, a small classroom, a working bar (complete with liquor), and a variety of residential spaces including a sitting-room and a Theo Kalomirakis-designed screening room. The spaces all have a nice, modern look and are powered by Savant's control system. Many spaces, including the theater, use Savant's video-tiling as well as their control, switching, and transport.

Every demo space gets a Theo Kalomirakis theater. I think
it's a law.

As you may or may not know, Savant doesn't manufacture touchpanels. Instead, consumer tablets (in most cases iPads, although Android support is well on its way) as control interfaces. For some very special spaces I see the value in a commercial, hardwired touchpanel with physical buttons and capable of live video preview. For the vast majority of spaces an iPad is a 10" WiFi touchpanel at a fraction the cost of offerings from Crestron or AMX. The nice thing about an iPad is that it's very responsive - as much if not more so than the latest generation of commercial panels. They took advantage of this in some aspects of the standard GUI design, including drag-and drop and pinch-to-zoom gestures. 

Touchpanel inception.
A picture of the room, including
the iPad with a picture of the room

The residential space broke away from the standard interface to show off something a bit fancier. The iPad there had a scrollable image of the room in which we were standing. Clicking on a room element (a light, for instance) would open controls for that element. Even niftier, turning on a light made the light appear lit not only on the iPad interface, but on the picture of the iPad within the interface. It is, no question, a slick bit of GUI design.

What Savant is known for - at least to me - is their Apple-based control systems. For those who don't know, "Apple-based" is very much literal in this context. If you take the cover off one of their control processors, you'll find an actual Mac mini on the inside. They also have the sort of custom-engraved 8-button decora keypads  one seems from many control manufacturers. A variety of control extenders are available, including IP to IR or RS232. Given the number of extenders available and the capabilities of one processor, Savant claims the ability to run an entire campus including scores of rooms using a single unit (although this would be ill-advised as creating a single-point of failure).

They also showed off their switching and distribution equipment. It's the by-now familiar card-cage style switchers with local inputs, local output, and HDBaseT cards. Like many, their cards are of the four-in or four-out variety. Unfortunately, there are no HDBaseT input cards available yet. These are promised soon.

The front (and innards) of a controller. The rear
of a matrix switch

The rest of the discussion was about software. Savant is very proud of their "Blueprint" programming interface, claiming it to be easier and more user-friendly than competitors. They also boast an energy/resource management platform. This is a very nice thing which I'm increasingly suggesting as a standard part of the integrated control system for large deployments. 

Should Savant be considered a viable commercial alternative as well as a residential solution? They at least are working hard enough to position themselves that way and have enough capability to be a part of the conversation. I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing what's next from them.

Closing with a gratuitous rack shot!