Q&A: Control4
Control4 has been in the news a lot recently, thanks to a raft of new products and the local acquisition of Leaf Audio. Senior vice president of marketing Susan Cashen and technology sales leader Robert Kidd talk to Kate Jordan about the road ahead for the popular control company.
After the Integrated Systems Europe 2015 expo, a blog post appeared titled: ‘Control4 Introduces Too Many New Things for One Headline to Handle’ – and there’s a certain amount of truth in the satire.
Control4 has been busy building a portfolio of products and services that ensure customers have everything they need to create their ideal smart home. New products include the T3 touch screen (a home control interface and video intercom) and 4K UHD AV switches for home entertainment solutions. Acquisitions have included Extra Vegetable, Card Access and Australia’s own Leaf Audio. On the more technical side, Control4’s OS 2.7 product suite, including Composer Express mobile app and Composer Pro software, was released to improve installation times and ease of use.
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Making everyone’s life easier does seem to be Control4’s main aim – and not just around the home. With an impressive online marketing campaign, they’re making it simpler for consumers to find out more about home integration and to contact their local Control4 dealer – which in turn makes it easier for the dealers to find customers and grow their businesses.
We spoke to Susan and Robert, as well as Adam Merlino, brand manager for Control4’s local dealer Advance Audio Australia, about these new developments in products and services.
Kate Jordan: Why has Control4 developed a new 4K media distribution solution?
Susan Cashen: From a content perspective, most of our consumers are adopters of the latest and greatest technology for the home. 4K is the future of home entertainment. There has been a lot of ground swell around the solution as it relates to smart TVs, ever since CES in Las Vegas.
This is a big area of demand with our dealers globally. We’re pretty excited to be one of the first to distribute a full line of 4K video distribution solutions for home owners looking for the very best in home entertainment.
Kate: Is this line HDCP 2.2 compliant?
Susan: Yes. We believe, from a video switch point of view, that we’re the first. There are a lot of video switches out there that are not – we call them FauxK as opposed to 4K.
Robert Kidd: And this is a full product line. We can receive up to eight sources and distribute 10 out. We can also scale down to six by six. That’s one of the beauties of Control4 – we scale from the single room experience, all the way to the pretty large homes of 40,000m2.
Kate: How will the acquisition of Leaf Audio change the way you operate globally?
Susan: We have worked with Leaf for a number of years. We’ve distributed a lot of their products outside of Australia in pretty much all of our global markets.
Essentially what the acquisition does is add more technical talent to our US development team, particularly as it relates to video distribution technologies.
From a manufacturing point of view, we’ve already manufactured integrated product with Leaf and so operationally, it wasn’t a huge transition for us.
Kate: Control4 is well-known for its IP capabilities. Why are IP systems becoming more popular?
Susan: There are lots of digital devices out there that consumers want to have work together. And that’s kind of the magic of Control4 automation.
Robert: It’s well connected.
Adam Merlino: In terms of traditional home control systems, Control4’s been a player for over 10 years. Part of the basis of the product family has been to operate on standard networking protocols, such as IP, since inception. That way it does leave the door open for integrating with all the new technologies that are arriving daily.
Control4 in its most simple form unifies everything within the home. All these various IP devices work great by themselves, but Control4 orchestrates them in a single user experience to make it simple.
Kate: Can you tell me a bit more about the Associate Installer online training program?
Robert: The Associate program is the first level. The next level is a more intensive, three day, hands-on training program in a classroom.
Susan: We offer that training globally. In the United States, we offer that training in three locations, in North Carolina, Utah and Chicago. Our distributors like Advance Audio provide that training here for the Australian dealers.
Further, every time we release new products or new solutions, we have videos and online training about installation, user case studies and how to sell the solution to consumers.
We also have business training classes online at Control4 university for our dealers to make sure that they’re building a successful business for themselves. Topics include how to market and sell Control4 solutions in local markets, as well as technical training.
Adam: The internet has enabled us to communicate more frequently, visually and via audio. I think it’s a huge part of what needs to happen to keep our dealers up to speed with the latest changes and improvements as they occur. We can all work from a laptop sitting on a beach now, so we can train anybody anywhere anytime.
Susan: We leverage that same philosophy in marketing directly to the consumers. A couple a weeks ago we hosted a global online education event for consumers. We were able to market to a quarter of a million consumers worldwide, who had expressed interest in smart home technology.
The internet is an tool for communicating, training and collaborating with our dealer channel partners, but also it’s a great way of connecting.
Kate: How can integrators use Control4 to best service their clients?
Robert: The biggest benefit of a Control4 solution is the lifestyle experience that can be achieved. We’re talking about achievements in making homes more secure, making a home deliver ambience, convenience and energy savings in a multi-system – lighting, audio, music, security – fashion.
When you can deliver that, with one touch of a button or depending on daylight and the time of day, then you’re really delivering an experience.
We’ve been at this for almost a decade. We started with very much of a product focus, about the specific end points and how technology works. Now, what’s required is for the dealer communities to have a conversation about the lifestyle goals of home owners and then to elevate the conversation to a solution. We do all the work in terms of building products and building a platform, and it’s their job to really understand what each home owner wants to achieve and to find the perfect balance for that home owner.
It’s become less focused on speeds and thieves and a lot more focused on the experience that the home owner wants to achieve.
Kate: Do you see a difference between the Australian and American markets?
Adam: I think Australia tends to be basically aligned with America in terms of what we expect and what we should be able to achieve in our modern day lives. From what I’ve seen over the years of doing what I do, apart from voltage differences, of course, the technology and the expectations are fairly in line.
Susan: In terms of the target market, their purchasing patterns and the formula for success in delivering exceptional customer experience, it’s the same in the US as in Australia.
Kate: Moving forward, what plans do you have to expand your market reach?
Susan: I think if Control4 CEO Martin Plaehn was here, he would say that we’ve got the distribution we need, we now want to go deeper. We want to empower our distribution partners to build a bigger business around the smart home and Control4.
Robert: There’s more for us to do to enable customers to have the desired effect, desired results. It’s about continuous innovation in the products and also continuous distribution efforts and education.
Susan: When we look around the world, new construction is a big opportunity. Multiple dwelling units are a big opportunity – we’re seeing all of our distribution partners experience a big uptick, so we see that as being a gross driver for Control4 and our partners.
Kate: Do you think home integration is ready to jump from early adopters to mainstream?
Susan: It’s well on its way. I think that the attention around smart and digital devices has really gotten consumers excited and educated about the promise of what a smart home can really be. Three or four years ago, it was a lot of work to even communicate what home automation was. And now, everyone has smart devices in the home and this concept of making them all work together is really easy for consumers to digest now. The noise of the Internet of Things and smart homes has really helped our industry become relevant and interesting to these consumers and home owners.
Robert: It’s a good point. The Nest launch has helped us cross that chasm. Previously, maybe it was more focused on early adopters but because there has been such as broad and public proliferation of smart devices, phones and apps, now people say, “I don’t want just a single device, with an app for this and an app for that, I want an experience”.
That’s what we are able to serve with our dealer community. It’s really important to understand what the home owner wants to accomplish, it’s not a DIY experience. We focus on the more affluent home owner, that’s true, but you can also deliver a Control4 experience that’s more affordable as well.
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