Control4 is holding its third C4Yourself Day June 13, it said Monday. It gears the event to homeowners, architects, builders and design professionals to “get hands-on” with smart home technology in at-home settings, it said. CEO Martin Plaehn said it's a way for dealers to show a smart home can “juggle more than feature at a time,” while highlighting the value of a customized, professionally installed system. Host showroom dealers can demonstrate integrated smart home with scenes that lock down the house, change lights from cooking to dining mode and set a scene for watching a TV show in vignettes depicting kitchens, living rooms and outdoor spaces, with lifestyle scenes tailored to their market. Homeowners are increasingly familiar with smart products such as light bulbs, door locks and cameras, but they need an introduction to the idea of a professionally installed, integrated system, said Parks Associates analyst Brad Russell: “Consumers need to experience them ‘out of the box’ and in “real-life settings." Control4 has certified 210 Control4 dealer showrooms to date.

Three smart home devices mark the “tipping point” at which consumers want to consolidate products with a control system, blogged Parks Associates Wednesday. Smart garage door openers, thermostats and irrigation controllers have the most diverse multichannel distribution, said Parks. Easy-to-install, do-it-yourself devices, such as lighting and smart plugs, have the largest share of retail sales, but as smart home adoption expands, new sales channels can address the demand for more targeted, integrated solutions that work across devices, it said. Retail is the leading channel for smart home purchases, but the expanding market is opening “new paths to market” for insurance companies, homebuilders and other channels, said analyst Brad Russell.

Home builders care about Wi-Fi “because home buyers want connected homes,” representatives of Leading Builders of America said in a meeting with Chief Julius Knapp and others from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. The focus was the 6 GHz band, which the agency is examining allocating for unlicensed use, said the group, which earlier commented (see 1902150030) in docket 18-295. “Just as granite countertops went from optional to standard due to demand, the same thing is happening to wifi-enabled homes,” the group said Friday.

Cognitive Systems received a $7.3 million loan from the Canadian government’s Strategic Innovation Fund to further development of its WiFi Motion technology designed to detect motion in the home. When incorporated into routers and gateways, the technology monitors wireless signals within a Wi-Fi environment to alert users of motion and apply predictive analytics and learning patterns in response. Algorithms use advanced artificial intelligence and localization capabilities to classify signals and provide context around when and where motion occurred. The funding lets the company develop more sophisticated AI engines and drive benefits to users in wellness monitoring and energy management such as powering off lights and heating systems based on occupancy.

Consumer familiarity with video doorbells grew 57 percent in 2018, and the devices have the fourth highest adoption rate among smart home products in the U.S. market, blogged Parks Associates Tuesday. A quarter of broadband households plan to buy a smart video doorbell in the next 12 months, said analyst Patrice Samuels. A competitive market -- energized by new products from Ring, SimpliSafe and Netatmo late last year and new products from Kasa, Ezviz, Tuya and Maximum at CES -- will drive sales of 4 million units this year; Parks predicts a 5 million-unit market by 2023. Manufacturers will look to differentiate offerings with unique features or by targeting new consumer segments, said Samuels, noting Ring designed its Door Cam for multi-dwelling unit occupants. Many smart doorbells are bought as stand-alone devices, but almost all are part of a product ecosystem including smart cameras, thermostats or other sensors, Samuels said: “The current popularity of smart doorbells helps raise the adoption prospects for a host of smart home devices.”

The global market for smart home devices will grow 26.9 percent to 832.7 million shipments in 2019, IDC projected Friday, increasing through 2023 to 1.6 billion devices as consumers adopt multiple devices and availability of products and services increases. Last year was about “getting products into consumers’ homes,” led by Amazon and Google with low-cost smart speakers and bundles across device categories, said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. This year, industry will focus on “tying the various devices together” to create a more cohesive experience and “layering in additional services,” he said. Amazon and Google will dominate the smart home market, but Apple is expected to gain traction, said IDC. Samsung “is worth watching” as its products extend into more categories, and the company continues to invest in Bixby and Tizen, said analysts. An important trend to watch is how smart assistants become integrated in the home, said analyst Ramon Llamas. "Smart assistants will act as the point of contact with multiple smart home devices and essentially become the cornerstone of the smart home experience,” Llamas said, noting the experience consumers have with smart speakers today “will eventually move on to appliances, thermostats, and all sorts of video entertainment."

Four days before Version 1 Zigbee devices from Lowe’s doomed Iris smart home and security platform were set to go dark (see 1902010055), Hubitat announced local control and communication with Iris devices via its Elevation platform. Lowe’s said last month it was shutting down the cloud-based Iris platform Sunday in a planned exit of the Iris business announced last year. Hubitat engineers devised a way for Elevation to control Iris Version 1 devices locally, and the capability is included in a software update released Wednesday, the company said. Patrick Stuart, Hubitat vice president-product and business development, said Elevation is supporting Iris Zigbee sensors “on a platform that doesn't require the cloud or an internet connection to work.” Hubitat encouraged Iris owners with early Zigbee sensors that couldn’t be moved to other platforms to use the prepaid Visa cards Lowe’s offered them as compensation to buy the $99 Elevation hub on its website.

A quarter of U.S broadband homes intend to buy a smart door lock in the next 12 months, Parks Associates blogged Thursday. Over the next several years, the market is expected to expand into early mass-market households with moderate incomes and smaller homes, it said. The systems will integrate with smart speakers, with voice control helping to improve the user experience, said analyst Denise Ernst. Builders are adding built-in smart home technology in their models, said Ernst, saying partnerships with homebuilders and real estate developers will have “significant implications in broadening the user base.” Some 35 percent of those surveyed think smart door locks are affordable, she said.

Homebuilder D.R. Horton tapped Alarm.com for its Home Is Connected smart home device package and long-term post-sale support, said the tech company Wednesday. Alarm.com’s Home Is Connected solution -- an app, lights, locks, doorbell camera and thermostat -- will be installed in every new home by the builder and includes home automation and voice control. Professionally monitored security will be available as an upgrade using existing hardware, it said. Alarm.com’s service provider partners will configure locks, thermostats and lighting hardware after installation, add new devices of the owners' choice and support homes’ technology. Shawn Barry, Alarm.com’s vice president-strategic sales, cited growing homebuyers enthusiasm for smart home technology and said the company’s program offers builders a way to offer smart home technology quickly with minimum risk. For service providers, Alarm.com’s Builder Program offers a new opportunity for growth and revenue generation at scale, it said. As part of the program, Alarm.com offers model home kits, hardware and an automation-only service plan to further facilitate partnerships.

Control4 took the wraps off a 250-square-foot smart home at the International Builders' Show’s Design & Construction Week Tuesday. The Control4 Tiny Smart Home is designed to give architects, builders and designers an “interactive, design-forward smart technology experience,” said the company. The company cited a Kitchen and Bath Association January report saying 83 percent of homeowners ages 25-65 planning a remodel over the next 24 months want kitchens with technology, including smart appliances, Wi-Fi connectivity and centralized lighting controls. As smart home technology becomes more prevalent in home renovations and new construction projects, the Tiny Smart Home is meant to “inspire creativity” among design professionals, Control4 said. The compact home demonstrates smart lighting and shading, multiroom audio, an intercom system, video distribution, temperature control and security. Brad Hintze, Control4 senior director-product marketing, called the downsized home a "way for design professionals to begin envisioning how technology can be orchestrated to suit their design talents,” saying the whole-home automation system can be “discreet” with no compromise to interior design.