Hey guys,
I’m tossing this idea out here to see if it sounds sane rather than horribly misdirected.
I’ve been using Imperihome PRO for a while now and it works great.
Since I have a fairly large Z-Wave installation in over ten rooms controlling lights, HVAC, security and cctv, I’ve been hard pressed to find something suitable for on desk/on couch/on bed remote control. I’ve tried iPads and Android tablets (all sorts of form factors), but it just doesn’t feel “right”. They look out of place and the fact that they work on WiFi only and need to be charged is annoying.
Since I have ethernet with POE in all the rooms, I was thinking of getting an Android-based VOIP phone such as the awesome-looking Ubiquiti Unifi PRO or the Grandstream GXV3275.
I could then run Imperihome PRO on them + setup a SIP connection to my Asterisk box for intercom + other apps to be launched from Imperihome (e.g. I use Retune for accessing my iTunes library). I can tweak the system further to always switch back to Imperihome after some time (in case someone used the intercom SIP and didn’t switch back). Other tweaks include scheduled brightness settings as well as motion detection to wake up screen, the latter courtesy of Imperihome.
Placed on a desk or a bedside table (where a regular phone would be that is), I think this solution is elegant since:
1- You don’t have to knock your wall to botch a tablet on it (my walls are concrete). For me, I would keep using the wall switches as they are to trigger scenes or lights (I use Fibaro dimmers).
2- The Android-based VOIP phones do look quite attractive and modern, so a high WAF. It would not look out of date for some time to come.
3- Single cable solution for power and network connectivity (POE). No worries about charging! The thing needs to be plugged in like any regular phone 
No temptation to “take it out” for a stroll never to be seen again as I have seen with some iPad/tablet based solutions.
4- Wired ethernet adds an additional layer of reliability.
5- SIP for setting up voice/video intercom means you can toss out that 80’s looking intercom system.
6- The perk of having a full Android system in every room (perhaps I can lock it down/modify it to prevent things getting messed up - kiosk mode FTW).
7- The Vera Imperihome plug-in for voice synthesis notifications would be a charm on these units. Imagine writing a script to notify you when your kids are home (they enter their PIN on the Yale Z-Wave lock and the script announces that via Imperihome).
8- If I ever move away from Z-Wave or Imperihome, the phones would still be useful/work great.
I’ve been looking high and low for a “decent”, quick to deploy desktop interface for Vera (one thing that made me consider switching to Control 4) and I think this may be it.
So what do you think guys? Does this sound like a plan? If I ever do this, would anyone be interested in reading about my experience?