We were referred to Stereo Types after being told by the original Crestron and Lutron system installer that all the systems had to be replaced because they were too old to service and support.
Wow, what a difference-- We had Roman from Stereo Types come out to give us his take. He didn't throw the other guys under the bus, in fact was complimentary of the work they had done. What he did do, however, was explain that while what they told us wasn't necessarily a lie, we did have options that wouldn't involve a 6-figure system replacement. He explained to us that there were a couple of options that allowed us to retain various parts of the system and set expectations on the anticipated life of anything that would not be replaced. This allowed us to make the decision that was right for us and how we live, especially since we are only here a few times a year.
As it turned out, we ended up spending more than we expected going into this, but far less than we'd been told it would take to the same Crestron Home app for our phones, same Sony TVs, and same Crestron remote controls. As for the Lutron Lights and Shades system, the other company told us we had to upgrade the Lutron brain to make it work with the new Crestron, and also upgrade a bunch of the lighting equipment to work with the replacement LED lights we installed. Roman was able to make it work without any changes to the Lutron hardware by adjusting the programming so the LED lights stopped flickering and by using Apple Home Kit, we now have Siri Voice control of everything (which was not something the other guys were giving us).
The bottom line, Stereo Types delivered a system that gave us more functionality than was proposed by others for about $40,000 less.
Oh, almost forgot, the Service Agreement we decided to go with... I admit, it's expensive as crap, or so I thought until having to use their support team a few times in the past 6 months.
They can remotely reboot things, which will usually solve an issue, but if not, our service plan includes Zoom Video Call support. This Zoom thing... it works. We had a music system issue during a charity fundraiser event-- I guess the kids got a bit crazy with the volume and the system stopped working. The girl on the Zoom knew exactly where to tell me to look in the AV rack and had me pull the power cord of a box, plug it back in-- 2 minutes later, the music was back.
Anyway, we highly recommend these guys. read more
