Half of new homes are going up these days with structured wiring, but Will West believes most of those homeowners aren’t getting their money’s worth. West, CEO and co-founder of a new home control startup called Control4, contends that the $2,500 or so homeowners currently devote to cabling and a can should be more about the wiring and less about the box in the basement. Anything left over can be used to buy Control4 modules for automated lighting, music, security, climate control, and more.
Ask what Control4 is about and it sounds like any other whiz-bang home automation product on the market. “It brings the electronics in the home to work together to make the home more safe and more efficient,” says West. “It takes all the subsystems in the home and makes them work better.”
What sets Control4 apart from the home automation systems the residential market has known to date are mainstream pricing and modular design. “Today home automation products are targeted at rich people,” West says. “They’ve existed for many years but not in a form that can be used by a broad market. We’re allowing builders and homeowners to create homes that can take advantage of that affluent lifestyle but do it in a way that consumers can both understand and afford.”
Unlike high-end control systems from AMX, Crestron, and others, Control4 doesn’t rely on proprietary wiring networks and protocols. Control4 is based on Ethernet, an open standard for networking that third-party companies can use to develop compatible—and affordable—products. Control4 is also retrofittable. Its products work over wired or wireless networks so its products can go into new or existing homes.
“Instead of spending $2,500 for structured wiring, they can spend $500 and put in a switch that controls the hallways, front door, and bedroom lights,” West says. “Then they can buy another $100 module to tie the lights into the security system.” Working together, if a smoke detector sounds, lights go on to a dimmed setting to light a path for family members to exit the house in an emergency.
Control4 was founded in 2003 by West and Eric Smith, co-founders of PHAST Corp., a home control system supplier that AMX purchased in 1997. From there West and Smith launched a broadband services company for the hospitality market. Control4 builds on both past lives.
Smith, chief technology officer of Control4, describes the company’s technology as the first IP-controlled (Internet Protocol) system for non-engineers. Installer/dealers will still sell, install, and program systems for consumers, but plug-and-play products that are recognized by the network can be added to the system without the need for a computer science degree. Programming changes can be done by dealers or homeowners using a PC, TV, touchscreen controller, or other interface.
West compares the user software to the kind of interview-response format used in software programs like Turbo Tax. “The program asks all the right questions so that the average person doesn’t have to know the tax code,” West says. Similarly, during the Control4 programming process, dealers use a software program to ask homeowners questions about security, lighting, climate control, entertainment, and other activities that could be involved in home control.
Users answer a series of questions about how they want electronics to fit into their lifestyle. That could be the time of day they want to wake up on Monday and Saturday and the type of music they want to hear for the wake-up call, whether they want motorized drapes to be open or closed, and how bright the lights should be. “The possibilities are infinite,” West maintains.
