05-17-2017, 01:32 PM
May 17, 2017 - CQC Version 5.1 Released
Charmed Quark Systems, Ltd. is proud to announce the release of version 5.1 of their CQC automation platform. 5.0 was arguably the largest release we have ever done, completely rebuilding the administrative user interface. 5.1 picks up where 5.0 left off, introducing a couple major new capabilities, a lot of small improvements, and taking care of the usual small things that inevitably make it through a massive release like 5.0.
Here is an upgrade guide for existing customers upgrading from pre-5.0 versions:
5.0 Upgrade Guide
The major changes in this version are:
CQC Voice. We now have a non-cloud based voice control alternative, called CQC Voice. The Echo is still supported and will remain so. But the Echo is fairly intensive to set up and understand due to its open ended nature, and it is cloud based which makes some people uncomfortable. CQC Voice is designed to be the opposite, so very easy to set up and all local. It is based off of the same room configuration that is used by the auto-generation system. Unlike the Echo it is not open ended, it has a predefined set of commands. But, the payoff is it that it is much simpler and it is also much more 'conversational' and aware of the context of the commands it supports, so it is more more like a digital assistant than a voice driven remote control.
* We now require Microsoft's Speech Platform 11 for both text to speech and the new Voice option. The installer will help you easily get these installed.
Web Camera Widget. Up until now web cameras had to be supported through our web browser widget. That wasn't always optimal because in many cases the web browser based interface provided by the camera system included more than just the video feed. And we couldn't support (the very common) use of RTSP by cameras to stream their video because the Windows browser engine doesn't support RTSP. We now have a new, dedicated web camera widget that can support a broad range of streaming formats.
New Help. In 5.0 we completely reworked the help system, into a much nicer HTML format that ships with CQC. However there wasn't time to complete the full conversion, so some documentation (such as the device drivers) was still in the old format. This conversion is now 'complete', meaning the old content has been converted but there will continue to be more content added as we move forward. A lot of new content was added for this release as well.
You can also now hit F1 in the Action Editor or User Interface editor tab, and it will take you to the help for the currently selected command or interface widget, respectively. This is a considerable improvement in convenience. We will continue to expand support for this moving forward.
Device Support. We've added a new 'universal' Denon AVR driver, which makes it much easier to support more of the hundred models that will come out next month, and we've already added a number of new models based on it. There is a new driver for the Venstar ColorTouch and Voyager IP based thermostats.  The Hue driver now supports color temperature adjustable lights. And we've added support for a number of new Z-Wave modules.
Try It
You can download the new version via the home page of the web site, and try it out unencumbered for 40 days. So you can know for sure whether it meets your needs before you commit.
Existing customers covered under the maintenance system can upgrade at their convenience.
Charmed Quark Systems, Ltd. is proud to announce the release of version 5.1 of their CQC automation platform. 5.0 was arguably the largest release we have ever done, completely rebuilding the administrative user interface. 5.1 picks up where 5.0 left off, introducing a couple major new capabilities, a lot of small improvements, and taking care of the usual small things that inevitably make it through a massive release like 5.0.
Here is an upgrade guide for existing customers upgrading from pre-5.0 versions:
5.0 Upgrade Guide
The major changes in this version are:
CQC Voice. We now have a non-cloud based voice control alternative, called CQC Voice. The Echo is still supported and will remain so. But the Echo is fairly intensive to set up and understand due to its open ended nature, and it is cloud based which makes some people uncomfortable. CQC Voice is designed to be the opposite, so very easy to set up and all local. It is based off of the same room configuration that is used by the auto-generation system. Unlike the Echo it is not open ended, it has a predefined set of commands. But, the payoff is it that it is much simpler and it is also much more 'conversational' and aware of the context of the commands it supports, so it is more more like a digital assistant than a voice driven remote control.
* We now require Microsoft's Speech Platform 11 for both text to speech and the new Voice option. The installer will help you easily get these installed.
Web Camera Widget. Up until now web cameras had to be supported through our web browser widget. That wasn't always optimal because in many cases the web browser based interface provided by the camera system included more than just the video feed. And we couldn't support (the very common) use of RTSP by cameras to stream their video because the Windows browser engine doesn't support RTSP. We now have a new, dedicated web camera widget that can support a broad range of streaming formats.
New Help. In 5.0 we completely reworked the help system, into a much nicer HTML format that ships with CQC. However there wasn't time to complete the full conversion, so some documentation (such as the device drivers) was still in the old format. This conversion is now 'complete', meaning the old content has been converted but there will continue to be more content added as we move forward. A lot of new content was added for this release as well.
You can also now hit F1 in the Action Editor or User Interface editor tab, and it will take you to the help for the currently selected command or interface widget, respectively. This is a considerable improvement in convenience. We will continue to expand support for this moving forward.
Device Support. We've added a new 'universal' Denon AVR driver, which makes it much easier to support more of the hundred models that will come out next month, and we've already added a number of new models based on it. There is a new driver for the Venstar ColorTouch and Voyager IP based thermostats.  The Hue driver now supports color temperature adjustable lights. And we've added support for a number of new Z-Wave modules.
Try It
You can download the new version via the home page of the web site, and try it out unencumbered for 40 days. So you can know for sure whether it meets your needs before you commit.
Existing customers covered under the maintenance system can upgrade at their convenience.
Dean Roddey
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Explorans limites defectum