What is on the mControl Roadmap?

[CalypsoCowboy]

I'm curious how much of the future of mControl has been roadmapped or planned out. Or at least what part of it you could share. I'm looking to see what direction the program is taken in the future. A couple of things I'm curious about not in any particular order.

1. Customizable screens - are there plans to allow for the users to create more customizable interfaces? Things I'm thinking of are custom graphics, removing or adding buttons, changing the flows of the menus, hardcoding menus rather than just having the zones be the menus.

2. Support for other home automation items. I'm guessing the team will be working on new drivers and it sounds like their will be a driver developement kit that we can create our own drivers for. If we create a driver I'm guessing we can share those with other users, can those also be shared and maybe beefed up and included in the subsequent versions?

3. Support for a/v control. Right how the only a/v type item controlled is IR but realistically that is more for just having IR trigger an event in mcontrol. While mcontrol can have an event that would raise or lower a volume. Having a list of events for ever IR code on a remote would be a nightmare. Are there plans to have better a/v control.

4. Along with the a/v control is tighter integration with MCE. Any plans to have mcontrol with the ability to play files on mce or bring the metadata from a file back to the interface?

5. Hardware - I think it's great there is a mServer option, what about hardware for touchscreens for other interfaces, one that would mount on a wall so I could control my lighting from a touchscreen mounted on the wall?

I realize you may not be able to discuss any of these as it would be against company policy but I would be interested to see where mcontrol is headed so I can understand where it will fit in my automation plans.

-Josh

[Ted Singh]

Josh,

Customizable screens - are there plans to allow for the users to create more customizable interfaces? Things I'm thinking of are custom graphics, removing or adding buttons, changing the flows of the menus, hardcoding menus rather than just having the zones be the menus.

There is considerable amount of customization you can do now. If you'd like, you can create your own HTML skin. If you're really enterprising, you can use our Software Development Kit (SDK) and develop your own Flash, WPF or plain WinForms user interface. If there are particular things that you'd like to do, drop us an email and we can help you in your customizations.

Support for other home automation items. I'm guessing the team will be working on new drivers and it sounds like their will be a driver developement kit that we can create our own drivers for. If we create a driver I'm guessing we can share those with other users, can those also be shared and maybe beefed up and included in the subsequent versions?

As part of mControl v2.0, we developed a Driver Development Kit (DDK). We've already made this available to some of our partners that would like to tie new technology into mControl - we expect to see the first fruits of this next quarter. Also, this work has also helped us, it's made writing drivers even easier for us, so we expect to refine and add more devices.

The DDK will be posted in the forum once we complete the documentation, but at the end of the day, anyone that knows any .NET code will be able to add their own driver.

Support for a/v control. Right how the only a/v type item controlled is IR but realistically that is more for just having IR trigger an event in mcontrol. While mcontrol can have an event that would raise or lower a volume. Having a list of events for ever IR code on a remote would be a nightmare. Are there plans to have better a/v control.

A/V control is one of the top request items on our queue. With our DDK work in place, we will be addressing this support in upcoming versions. As part of our DDK effort, serial drivers have been greatly simplified.

Along with the a/v control is tighter integration with MCE. Any plans to have mcontrol with the ability to play files on mce or bring the metadata from a file back to the interface?

By this, I take it you mean in the case of a remote touchscreen - so that you can use a UMPC or equivalent to manage your media/automation system. We also have an announcement in this area coming soon. In addition, we are hopeful that the Media Center extender eco-system will grow in the latter half of this year.

Hardware - I think it's great there is a mServer option, what about hardware for touchscreens for other interfaces, one that would mount on a wall so I could control my lighting from a touchscreen mounted on the wall?

As I mentioned above, we have announcement in this area coming soon.

Ted

[CalypsoCowboy]

Sounds good, I'm looking forward to the DDK and the announcement.

-Josh

[CalypsoCowboy]

I know this is kinda old, but any word on that hardware announcement?

[Ted Singh]

CalypsoCowboy,

We are bit delayed on this project, but the project is moving forward. We will announce something before the end of the year.

Ted