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3vNet Winds Down, Automation Company Launches in its Place

Embattled brand 3vNet will wind down operations by the end of 2013, and CEO Mike Anderson is launching Automated Control Technology Partners (ACTP), an automation parent company residing over several custom electronics brands and products, including 3vNet.

Embattled brand 3vNet will wind down operations by the end of 2013, and CEO Mike Anderson is launching Automated Control Technology Partners (ACTP), an automation parent company residing over several custom electronics brands and products, including 3vNet.

3vNet CEO Mike Anderson.

The new company will offer automation products for the residential, commercial and health industries. Its first new home automation products will debut in May.

Anderson explained the move as “a necessary paradigm shift in the approach to control. ACTP’s mission is to revitalize the industry by taking an ‘outside-in’ approach to home automation by focusing on the user experience as the single most important driving factor behind product development.”

Products branded 3vNet, once known as Colorado vNet, will be discontinued December 31, 2013. The timing of this announcement was intended to allow dealers to phase out existing projects to transition to the new product line. The company insisted there is sufficient 2vNet inventory, and 3vNet customer needs will continue to be supported “as long as necessary,” including honoring all existing 3vNet warranties.

“ACTP is committed to the advancement of building automation, and in order to move forward, it is vital that we begin to focus our efforts on the next generation of products,” Anderson said. “That forward-thinking philosophy has led us to the decision to wind down the 3vNet brand. However, we do not want anyone to be caught by surprise and feel a responsibility to the dealers, so we are supporting and shipping products until the end of the year. The technology behind 3vNet has had an impressive impact over the years, but now is the time to undertake an entirely new direction in our approach to automation.”

The decision to phase out 3vNet, which supplies IP-controlled lighting and multi-room-audio systems, comes less than eight months after 3vNet showed off its first new products at the 2012 CEDIA EXPO after the brand had been purchased earlier in 2012 by Anderson from Russound.

Russound sold off Colorado vNet in part because Russound concentrates on selling products through distributor channels, while 3vNet products don’t have the margins to support two-step distribution, Anderson said during the EXPO. 3vNet products also require more technical support and training than Russound’s distributed-audio products, so closer relations were needed with dealers, he said. “Different marketing is required.”

3vNet, formerly Colorado vNet, was a standalone company that had been effectively shut down before it was purchased in October 2009 by Russound owner and president Maureen Baldwin. Russound then announced in December 2010 that it would cease Colorado vNet sales and marketing operations as of March 31, 2011, but in February 2011, Russound announced that it had reversed course and would keep the brand alive. Then in April 2012, Russound sold Colorado vNet to Mike Anderson, who was a Russound executive at the time. The company was then renamed 3vNet. 

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