With Best Buy
and Exceptional Innovation pairing up with a $15,000 home automation
package, there are lots of people thinking that $15,000 is a clear rip off for
what you get. I don’t think it’s a rip
off, but I think the concept could use some work.
Best Buy and Exceptional Innovation have a good idea, but
Best Buy is trying to get into a new market here. I think one of the
biggest problems with this is the fact that their average customer is not in
this new market yet, of course with Best Buy tagging on the product/program
this is a good way to start getting them in it.
At $15,000 the price is less then that of most Crestron, Control4, AMX,
etc setups. However, anyone going to
Best Buy to purchase home automation products likely doesn't know of these
companies or the large(r) price tags that come with professional installs. It isn’t cheap to have a full Crestron setup installed
in your home, but how many Best Buy shoppers even know what Crestron is?
Life|ware is expensive, I don't have exact prices on me but I'd factor in $3500
for Life|ware installed. Much of this price is going to come from the
fact that Life|ware needs configuration far from what the average user is going
to be able to do. It's not consumer friendly install software, it’s meant
to be installed by a certified Life|ware installer. Once installed, it's
rock solid and in my opinion is simply the best home automation software that
works with Media Center.
When you look at ~$5000 for Life|ware+z560 it's not too far from what a basic
Crestron controller+software is going to cost you. Of course, the person
going to Best Buy isn't going to know this. Best Buy isn't really in the
market of selling "Control Systems" which is really what Life|ware
is, just with a Media
Center twist.
Here's my basic price breakdown of what you will be getting.
-
HP z560 - $1600
-
Life|ware - ~$3500
-
Xbox 360 - $400
-
Two Panasonic Wireless cameras - $800
-
RCS Communicating Thermostat - $400
-
Ethernet/powerline adapters (x2) - $300
-
Five dimmers - $200
-
Five switches - $200
-
Two keypads - $120
All together, that's around $7500 for the basic hardware costs which leaves
$7500 for installation/setup/programming of everything else. I don't
think that's too outrageous if you compare it to other control system
installs. I’m not an installer, but just
basing this comment off of other products you can have installed in life,
double the price of the hardware/parts isn’t that uncommon.
There are several advantages that come with Life|ware over Crestron, Control4,
AMX, etc. For starters the hardware is a whole lot more open. If
you want to add switches/dimmers/keypads to a Crestron install you are going to
be purchasing Crestron controls and that's it. With Life|ware, you can
pick what you want. It supports Z-Wave, INSTEON, Vantage, Leviton,
Lutron, etc. Same thing goes with A/V Products, Audio Distribution, Shade
controls, etc. You can pick and choose what you would like.
I can't say I would pay $15,000 for it, but I think it's a step in the right
direction. Life|ware is great software, and I think when you look at
everything it can do it's amazing. However, at $15,000 it's just too
expensive for a large majority of people to look at, especially those shopping
at Best Buy. To get Media Center into peoples home we need cheaper
methods of getting this stuff done.
What I would like to see is Exceptional Innovation take a more modular design
with Life|ware. Give me the basic package to control just lighting for a
few hundred bucks. Add in a package for whole home audio for another few hundred
bucks. Add in IP camera support for $50. Add in control of my
fridge and washer/dryer for a few more hundred bucks. Make it more
scalable on a price basis; the software itself is already very scalable itself.
Best Buy and Exceptional Innovation have a great idea, and this is another step
to make Media Center and home automation more
mainstream. However, the price tag is
going to hold it back. Get the price down, and this will have a better chance
of really succeeding.
Edit: Thanks to a great Life|ware dealer on TGB I found out that Life|ware itself does have a modular design. So you can buy what you need/what. The average quoted price of Life|ware itself with all common modules is around $2,500, so I overshot my guess by $1,000. However, this isn't a negotiable price with the Best Buy package. It's $15,000 take it or leave it, which makes perfect sense based on the market they are going after.
