Brilliant Brings Wi-Fi-Based Home Control Switches to Market With Alexa on Board

The do-it-yourself home control, available at first only at the company’s website, installs in “minutes,” using the same four wires used for conventional light switches, CEO Aaron Emigh told us in an August pre-brief. Advanced programming by a CEDIA-level installer can bring out more in a system for customers who prefer to go that route, Emigh said. Prices start at $299 for a single-gang switch, which has a 5-inch diagonal LCD touch screen.

A custom integrator can map out controlling other lights, for instance, said Emigh. The company provided flexibility for professional applications while “keeping it simple” for consumer DIY projects, he said, calling it a “delicate balance.” The company tried to build in a lot of intelligence “but hide the complexity from consumers.” Third-party devices have a lot of sophistication built in, including their status, which can affect scenes. “We make it simple,” he said.

Brilliant turns “dumb lights into smart lights,” said Emigh, enabling any wall-controllable light to be controlled by touch using a swipe motion, by mobile app or by voice with Alexa built in. He called Brilliant the first Amazon Alexa-compatible third-party device to offer visual responses directly from the wall of a house. The device has a built-in camera for intercom use, along with a mic used with Alexa or for paging capability. A shutter is included to block the camera if users are concerned about privacy.

Although the switch can be controlled by Google Assistant via a Google Home speaker, Google Assistant isn’t integrated into the product and likely won’t be due to Google’s issues over coexisting with Alexa, said Emigh. “Google has taken a more cautious approach than Amazon has when it comes to third-party integration,” said Brilliant’s co-founder. “Their issue right now is over allowing multiple assistants to coexist.”

That’s not the philosophy at Brilliant, which believes in a “multi-assistant future,” said Emigh, saying, “we don’t feel it’s a very likely ultimate outcome that there’s only one assistant that you ever want to talk to, in the same way that there’s not one friend you ever want to talk to." Alexa has an edge in home automation and shopping, and Google stands out for general information retrieval, he said. Brilliant would like to have native access to both.

“Google still takes the point of view that it’s a winner-take-all market,” Emigh said. Though Google has been “supportive in principle” of integrating with other companies, “they’ve not been able yet to agree on exactly what that integration looks like in terms of coexistence,” Emigh said. Saying the “ball’s in their court,” Emigh said he hopes Google moves toward supporting integrations with other voice engines “because I think it will be good for consumers. It’s bad for consumers to be withholding that capability.”

Google’s Nest does integrate with Brilliant, however, and Nest is featured prominently on the Nest landing page along with ecobee, Honeywell, Philips Hue, Ring, SmartThings, Sonos and Wemo lights. It's compatible with Zigbee and Z-Wave products via a Samsung SmartThings, hub, said the company.

Despite the spotlight on Alexa-based control, Brilliant sees limitations of voice control. “We felt speech is very important and we wanted to include it,” Emigh told us, “but it has a number of defects,” including lacking discovery. “It’s hard to do anything that requires you to process a good bit of information,” he said, comparing the command to pause music with choosing a playlist a consumer wants to hear if she’s not sure what she's in the mood for. “Anyone who’s ever had an Alexa news briefing and listened to it for five minutes knows how tedious that can get," he said.

Visually, Brilliant sought a clean look that could “complement crown molding,” said Emigh. The switch’s display can show family photos or art running as a slide show all day, or it can be off, or motion-activated, he said. Display options are selectable via app. The in-wall Alexa feature removes the need for Echo Dots or speakers in rooms around the home, he said: “Building voice into the walls of the home means you don’t have to install appliances around the house.”

Over time, Brilliant owners will be able to “layer in” additional functionality through software updates, allowing them to use cameras and microphones for monitoring babies or detecting burglars, said Emigh. He boldly compared Brilliant to a Tesla car: “You buy it and it has a certain set of capabilities, and over time it learns to drive itself.” Brilliant “is not just a hardware product; there are a lot of things we’ll teach it to do over time,” he said, calling it “future proof.” As third-party products are developed, Brilliant will work with them when they become available, he said.

With security becoming an increasing concern for consumers -- Amazon’s glitch with mics repeating an overheard comment to someone in an Alexa user’s contact list, for instance -- we asked how Brilliant will allay concerns. Emigh pointed to cybersecurity work he’s done for the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, among other credentials, and his “dozens of patents on security and applied cryptography.” While Emigh doesn’t claim that Brilliant could never have a security problem, he said company engineers “have a deep understanding both of the complexities involved and that the best approach is defense-in-depth, where you harden your product and services in layers, guarding against all known attacks, remaining vigilant, and updating as new information emerges.”

Brilliant didn’t rush to market, taking time over three years to “ensure that we have a solid, secure service when we launch, as well as putting secure infrastructure in place for regular updates that can include both functional upgrades and security measures,” he said. The plastic shutter that slides over the product’s camera lens is evidence of the level of security detail the company has considered, he said.

Emigh, a staunch opponent of the proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, testified last month in public hearings that the threat of duties hangs over Brilliant just as it's bringing product to market and that the company tried unsuccessfully to source goods from alternative countries of origin (see 1808210047). Emigh told us tariffs caused Brilliant to price its goods “a little higher than we planned to," some $50 higher at retail. Trying to source components in the supply chain, especially capacitors, has been “trickiest,” he said. “It sounds strange to have concerns over parts that cost a penny, but that’s the thing that could constrain the ability to build these things right now,” he said. Brilliant devices have “hundreds of capacitors,” he said.

On whether the retail prices could go higher, he said: “I hope and believe this will blow over. It’s clearly harmful to consumers, it’s harmful to companies and really harmful to labor. So there’s nobody the trade war is good for, and I hope that saner heads will prevail.”

CEDIA Expo Notebook

Sony unveiled a trio of good-better-best 4K home theater projectors in its flagship line Thursday, certified for use with the new Imax Enhanced program announced earlier this week (see 1809040055). On the significance to Sony of the Imax program, Sony Electronics President Mike Fasulo told Consumer Electronics Daily: “From a content point of view, we constantly talk about creators' intent, improving and enjoying the experience in the theaters as well as in the living room.” The Imax-DTS program gives an opportunity to “bring that theater-like immersiveness to your living room,” he said. On the positioning of DTS-Imax vs. Dolby’s Atmos and Cinema combo, Fasulo said it’s not one or the other, but about consumer choice. “We’re always interested in working with partners that care about quality and improving the experience.” Sony’s premium TVs and projectors will be part of Imax Enhanced but “not all of the product line,” Fasulo said. AV receivers are coming next spring, but Sony hasn’t made a decision on bringing out sound bars under the program, he said. Sony’s new projector line is led by the VPL-VW995ES ($34,999, November), powered by a laser source boasting 2,200 lumens of brightness with maximum screen size of 220 inches. The mid-tier VPL-VW695ES ($9,999, October), at 1,800 lumens with 4K Motionflow to reduce blur, fits compact installation needs and has a wide lens shift for easy installation, said the company. The entry-level 1,500-lumen VPL-VW295ES ($4,999, October) has a 4K SXRD panel, 4K Motionflow and HDR, also available in the higher end models, it said. Sony is bringing its Crystal LED modular display technology to the home market, Fasulo said. Maximum screen size is 220 inches for a 4K display, with modular display units four inches deep, said the company. The video wall is positioned as “perfect for active glasses 3D presentation,” said a brochure.

LG currently has no plans to bring the 88-inch 8K OLED TV it showed at IFA last week (see 1808290034) to the U.S. this year, Tim Alessi, senior director-home entertainment product marketing, told us at the company’s Thursday news conference. “No announcement yet for introduction of that in the U.S.,” Alessi said of CEDIA news, adding in an obvious reference to January's CES, “There’s another big show coming up.” LG did show products currently on the market: its 77-inch C8 OLED and 65-inch E8 models in settings depicting suburban and urban environments, along with 65-inch and 77-inch W8 “Wallpaper” OLED TVs. It also showed 4K laser projectors in a separate theater. The company underscored its commitment to the custom integration channel. It added a “Reach LG” training portal exclusively for CI professionals on its website, giving them access to CAD drawings, spec sheets, user manuals and training modules, said Rick Calacci, senior vice president-home entertainment sales. LG is partnering with control companies, most recently with Savant, to develop network drivers for its 2018 OLED and Super UHD TVs, Calacci said. LG profiles will be available on Savant’s 8.9 system release expected later this month. Drivers are also available for Crestron, Control4, Elan, URC and Logitech, he said.

JVC announced six D-ILA projectors Thursday, including its latest native 4K model and what it called the first 8K e-shift home theater projector, with technology used by the U.S. military for flight simulation projectors, said Jeff Marks, general manager, retail merchandising. Marks demonstrated 4K 60p content from a server that the projector received and then applied 8K e-shift “to enhance the final image.” The DLA-NX9 and DLA-RS3000 will retail for $17,999 when they ship next month, said Marks.