We’re seeing three main ways people are using AudioShare with Control4:

1. Door Station only – Add just the C4DS door station to trigger the chime you program into Control4. Optionally, send that mp3 chime back to the door station with a 10w amp.

2. Door Station and Intercom Paging – Add an intercom-enabled door station and a few interior AudioShare wall stations in central locations of the home. From the wall stations, talk two-way with the door station and also send intercom paging into the Control4 music zones – talk into the wall station and it’s routed through the music speakers of Control4. For people who view one-way paging as the intercom function of choice, this method really suits their needs.

3. Whole home intercom and music – Some home owners want the point-to-point selective call intercom and room monitoring along with the digital music distribution. Each wall station allows multiple audio inputs and can send that audio anywhere else in the home. Most rooms are fine with the built in speaker (proudly known as the “world’s most beefy intercom speaker”) but for even more powerful stereo output to in-ceiling speakers, we add the 50w amplifier module. In this case, AudioShare wall stations go in each room. Having the Control4 command functions in these wall stations is a very powerful advantage of this scenario. AudioShare wall stations can now do the home automation functions that a Control4 remote control can do. These “List Navigator” functions of Control4 are scrolled through using the digital encoder knob (volume knob when receiving audio), displayed on the LCD screen, and selected by pressing the encoder knob.

We’ve seen this third approach viewed as a builder’s starting point for customers who want intercom and music, adding Control4 later. Another great benefit for this approach is that when Control4 is added, AudioShare is already in every room to provide the Control4 audio endpoints everywhere. Some endpoints go to the wall station “beefy” speaker, some through the station’s 50w amplifier to in-ceiling speakers.

Future Control4 Integration Features

Now that the List Navigator functions are available at the AudioShare wall station, the next step in the integration is the ability to add “quick touch” control functions at the AudioShare wall station for quick access to the most popular home automation functions performed through Control4. With just a few keystrokes, the AudioShare wall station will send a request to Control4 to execute the command. This step is ready now for your programming to determine which commands will be done with which “quick touch” buttons.