Ensuring Pros and Their Customers Are Delighted  

You may have noticed that software updates from SnapAV and Control4 have been coming out a lot faster and more regularly these days. To those who have noticed and sent us messages thanking us, well, we’d like to say thank you right back. We couldn’t do it without continued feedback from pros like you.  

I’d like to share some of what is driving this progress and talk to you about our development philosophy here at SnapAV + Control4, but would first like to talk to you about our motivation. 

As CEO John Heyman said in his COVID-19 update video last week, you are the center of our entire business model and the reason for everything we do—when you succeed, we succeed, because we are partners.   

It is this focus on you, the pro, that is our greatest motivation—delivering products and services that make a difference and improve your ability to build profitable businesses that deliver incredible customer experiences. 

Smarter Development Practices Deliver Smart Solutions 

In the last two years our team has been constantly updating our development process to bring you new features faster and to strengthen our products. We’ve adopted the Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery practice, a pipeline of processes and mechanisms that more effectively bridges our development and operations teams and makes code development and deployment more agile.  

Each quarter I run a review with our teams where I ask, “show me the broken windows you’ve fixed this quarter.” The idea being no product is perfect, and all products contain at least a few annoying defects that can and should be fixed easily. Without a mechanism that focus the teams on those defects, other priorities take over and they linger. We started small, asking each team to try to fix just three a quarter and slowly increased this expectation, then by the end of 2019 we we’re able to fix 300! Some of these fixes are in code. Some are in documentation. Some are in packaging. But collectively, they add up higher quality products across the board, and a better experience for you. Happily, at ISE in Amsterdam this year I had several of you tell me you’ve noticed our products getting better. This made me realize it the mechanism was working and now, in 2020, we’re well on our way to doubling the number of broken windows we fixed last year! 

In fact, Todd Puma and Mark Feinberg referred to one of the mechanisms for new process in their review, epically titled “Mark and Todd’s Excellent OvrC Adventure.”  

“Through the feedback link in the OvrC app or website, we’re able to see progress updates for our bug reports and feature requests. And the developers have been on top of things… This feedback mechanism allows all users to provide feedback, vote on other’s feedback, and see what the team has replied to. This dedication to constant improvement and a more focused development team means we will all see a better and better OvrC experience as time goes on. We will benefit from being able to better serve our clients (and hopefully provide more reason for them to subscribe to our support plans) and our clients will have better support experiences because we will be able to more for them, faster, and with fewer service calls.” – Todd Puma & Mark Feinberg, integrators and bloggers for Residential Systems 

The new OvrC, with its built-in feedback function, best exemplifies this and it has had positive impact on our development process. In the seven weeks since launch we’ve already released three OvrC updates that provided big fixes and recommendations requested by pros like you!  

On that note, I’d like to add: Pros are problem solvers and as a result you don’t always tell us about the little, annoying things you encounter with our products. So, this is my plea to all—do not be shy about telling us what bugs you! Constant dealer feedback is critical, which is why we’re continually improving the way our team captures feedback from you.   

Continuous Improvement Across the Board:  

OvrC, Control4 OS 3, and the Neeo Remote 

The new OvrC has been added to over 10,000 projects, reached 15,000+ users, and is used 325 times every minute to configure, monitor, and manage devices. Feedback has been incredibly positive, and we love hearing the many ways OvrC has helped you and your business ⁠— and the OvrC experience continues to improve! Since its launch just seven weeks ago, OvrC has been updated three times. These updates have included with over 100 bugs and added support for newly released, OvrC enabled devices. 

New products supported in OvrC: 

• WattBox WB-800-IPVM-12 
• Pakedge MS-switches 
• Clare Controls ClareOne security panel 
• SunBrite Pro 2 displays 

Bugs squashed: 

• Made Web Connect more secure. Added additional security requirements in the communication with devices remotely. 
• Resolved issue where OvrC Home macros were triggering wrong ports in some instances 
• Resolved issue where Company logo could not be updated in OvrC home 
• Resolved issue where push notifications were not being sent to some mobile devices 
• Improved navigation where selecting a push notification from a mobile device, now takes you to the device with the issue 
• Resolved issue where new users were not getting email invite 
• Lots of cosmetic improvements 

While updates to OvrC in the web browser are automatic, please make sure you update your iOS and Android mobile apps in order to benefit from these new releases. 

Smart Home OS 3 was specifically designed to enrich your business by providing a robust platform for automation that is beautiful and simple for homeowners to use. Since its launch we’ve made some major updates, some of which you may not be aware of. It is not the same platform you were introduced to last year, so please take some time to explore our recent OS 3 releases: 

• 3.1.3 – Access agent, Automatic Updates on T3 and OSD, 
• 3.1.2 – Faster camera thumb nails, bug fixes, support for new Essential Lighting (N. America) 
• 3.1.1 – Room switching on OSD, elimination of default passwords, bug fixes and the return of List View in Composer 
• 3.1.0 – Lighting on OSD, more control in Media Sessions (transport controls), Push Notification snapshots, pinch/zoom/pan on cameras, support for Google Assistant, 1 version of Composer, Wakeup / Goodnight in the mobile app, support for third party door stations, and MDU support for Intercom Anywhere 

The Neeo Remote has been an incredible success, dealers love shipping it directly to customers and letting the automatic setup and updates make their jobs easier. For customers who are looking for a streamlined remote experience that gives them access to their Favorite home automation scenes and streaming services, the Neeo Remote is a sure bet—and it’s always getting better. Control4 Smart Home Pros can see all the Neeo release notes here, but these are the highlights of what has been added or improved: 

• Thermostat control   
• Shade control  

• Volume Indicator  
• Media Sessions  
• Music queues  
• Mapping Custom Buttons from SR-260 to Neeo 
• Screen brightness controls  

• Wakeup/Goodnight modes  
• and more!  

Our Sincere Thanks 

I cannot emphasize enough, none of this would be possible without your support and the feedback and participation we get from all our pros. Thank you again for being such incredible partners in our joint endeavor to deliver amazing experiences to home and business owners across the world.    

Cheers! 

Charlie Kindel   

Chief Product and Technology Officer, SnapAV 

P.S. You can always email me directly at [email protected].  I may not be able to answer every question, but I promise to read whatever you write. If you pass on a bug or something about one of our products that you find annoying, you can have confidence I’ll get it to the right team to add to their list of broken windows! Also, feel free to follow my tech rants on Twitter, at @ckindel.