The big news out of International CES for Control4 is that Harman and TiVo have added its Simple Device Discovery Protocol (SDDP), so their respective devices are more automation ready.
Control4’s Adaptive Phase Dimmer is designed to accommodate incandescent, CFL, and LED bulbs.
The SDDP technology enables device interoperability and integration with Control4 systems, which automatically finds and adds SDDP-enabled devices to the platform, making for a much simpler dealer setup.
Harman and TiVo join the ranks of about 60 other manufacturers that Control4 is working with to achieve a more seamless integration with its home automation platform.
On Wednesday at CES, I chatted with Paul Williams, about the ambitious product introductions the Utah-based automation system has made this past year and will continue to do throughout 2014.
I was most interested to hear what Control4 has done on the lighting control side. Control4’s Adaptive Phase Dimmer is one solution that is key for the federal lighting phase out of 40W and 60W incandescent light bulbs that went into effect January 1. For consumers upgrading their lighting systems, either by necessity or to achieve higher energy efficiencies in their homes, dimmers for the incandescent, CFL, and LEDs are mostly not universal—an important piece of information that industry has not done a great job at communicating to the public, Williams contends.
The Adaptive Phase Dimmer was designed to accommodate any of these types of bulbs.
There will be a bit of time before the incandescent light bulbs completely go the way of the dinosaur, “but people need to plan, and you need a flexible product, like the Adaptive Phase Dimmer,” Williams told me.
New configurable keypads are another development on the lighting control side. These enable dealers to easily upgrade the number of buttons on a keypad as a client’s lighting needs evolve by simply swapping one set of keypad buttons for another, without having to replace the whole keypad. Customizable backlit engraving also increases flexibility.
Lighting control is growing category for Control4 that Williams said has great market penetration. Another area of growth is the aging in place movement, which Williams said many Control4 dealers are involved in.
Control4 introduced a number of new products throughout 2013 and has more product releases already planned for 2014 as well. Control4 has “a lot of big stuff coming,” Williams said.
