Seeking Advice on Integrating Roon into a Control4 System

Hi everyone,
I see this is rather an old post and this may not be the best place to post my question. If so, apologies!
I have had Roon (Rock on a NUC, the excellent David Snyder from this forum help me set up) for a few months now and just installed Control4 to replace an aging Crestron control system. This distributes AV to various rooms. I am told Control4 is fully compatible with Roon.
Could anyone please advise me on how best to integrate Roon into my system? Would it be simply to add Roon playlists to the Control4 app or is there a better way please?
Grateful for any assistance.
Best,
Dilip

I’ve moved your post from an old thread into a topic of its own in the Tinkering category of the forum. Now that Roon Labs has made the Control4 api open source, this is probably where you will get answers from the community.

Thank you, Geoff!

I don’t have a Control4 system, so I cannot help you, but perhaps the knowledge article is a good place to start:

Thank you for your kind response. I have looked at the article, but think would benefit from some ‘real-world’ advice from someone who is using both together and what might be the most effective way to get the best out of both systems.

Not sure if you are aware of this forum category, maybe the previous discussions there provide something useful:

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Hi Suedkiez, yes have seen these before. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Best,
D

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D,

I have it integrated. I personally use C4 to select Roon wherever I am in the house or on my theater and use C4 to control the volume. For song selection I generally use the Roon app as its interface is far better than C4. The nice thing about C4 is when I select off from the C4 app Roon stops. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Don

Many thanks, Don.
That looks great. What do you use as interface to see your C4? I have a single Halo remote for the cinema room and one C4 panel in the kitchen. I mush prefer a dedicated interface where possible but guess I would have to use a mobile phone for other rooms as these panels and Halo are pretty expensive? Wonder if low-spec iPad minis might be a good option for some rooms?
Best,
D

D,
I just use my phone. With a dedicated iPad you’d have to switch back and forth between the C4 app and Roon (which I do now on my iPhone anyway). I do use a remote sometimes (SR260) to select listen/Roon and set volume but then I open up Roon and play from there. I think this is much better than TIDAL or Roon on the C4 app as that interface in C4 is cumbersome and in Roon I just select the DAC/Zone I want to use and select all the music from the Roon app. Easy and honestly, the elegance of the Roon interface/infrastructure. With the Roon/C4 software being public/free and just a bit of time from my C4 installer it was a no-brainer for me.
I need to investigate multi-tasking on my iPad…C4 and Roon.
Don

And,

Roon doesn’t seem to support multi-tasking on iPad.

Don

Thanks, Don
Maybe I’m overcomplicating things! Ideally one interface to access everything would be great e.g. a button on C4 controller (iPhone or iPad) going straight to Roon for playlists etc. At the moment, the C4 has its own playlists and multiroom functionality, but like you, I’d prefer to use Roon where possible. Re. iPad mini, I was thinking of either these or a similar android tablet (or other device) solely dedicated to act as a (cheaper than the proprietary C4) controller for each room which would have the C4 app interface with a similar Roon ‘button’ to access functionality of NUC/Roon.
I will ask my installer for his thoughts and let you know if there is a reasonably sensible option that avoids the more clunky changing between the two separate apps. I know this is not actually much of a hardship, but C4 advertises itself as ‘Roon-ready’ and I’m not entirely sure what this actually means! Will keep you posted and thank you again for taking the time.
Best,
D

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