Bright House Networks has decided to go ahead and leap on the Internet of Things bandwagon, and offer a security and home automation system from iControl, one of the key US early market leaders.
iControl offers a hosted Software as a Service platform, unless larger operators want to run the system on their own servers, and already has deals with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Rogers in Canada, ADT, one of the largest security companies in the world, Swisscom in Switzerland, Bell Alliant in Canada and CenturyLink in the US.
Bright House is the 6th largest US cable provider serving over 2.5 million homes and will offer the iControl Converge platform, which includes centrally monitored security plus energy, light and home appliance management controlled via an in-home touchscreen, the web or a smartphone.
The system uses instant text messages to notify you of any key events you set up, such as when your home security camera recognizes that your children have returned home from school on time, or if there is suspicious behavior around the home. Users can opt to receive video of their homes and trigger alarms if they are worried.
The big question about iControl’s strategy is whether or not you believe that a broadband operator is the main route into a home for security and home automation. In many cases, players such as Comcast charge an extra $30 a month to put all these services together, and an upfront installation fee in the $100s. In the case of Central Monitoring Station alarms (where they dispatch police to your home) it is another $30 to $40 a month extra. The market for home automation does not anticipate that consumers will pay this much, and so this tends to push the service only to high-end customers.
Conversations we have had with the company suggests it is perfectly aware that the price of automation is coming down, but feels it can follow that trend when it needs to, but is meanwhile picking the low hanging fruit ‘ the customers with cash to burn. iControl is now in the process of launching in Europe and is looking for similar operator deals here and has signed its first with Swisscom last year, which it is now rolling out to customers.
The company has had $130 million in VC funding, with companies like Charles Rivers Ventures, as well as strategic funding from Comcast.
To some extent Bright House has had to sign up with someone, and who better than iControl so that it can guarantee that it has the same kind of service other cablecos have brought to market relatively successfully over the past two years. Although it is expensive, using a home hub with standards based protocols (which it calls it Open Home) means it is much cheaper than prior generation US home security measures, which were always proprietary in format.
iControl is considered weak in home energy management, although it offers a system, and so is susceptible to separately sold Smart Thermostats, such as that supplied by Nest, a company now owned by Google, which it bought this year for $3.2 billion.
iControl has three ways to deploy, two of which are focused purely on the ZigBee low energy network, and one other which works with all three of WiFi, ZigBee and Z-Wave and other protocols, and which is more expensive. It is unclear which hub Bright House customers will get. iControl uses WiFi for camera communication in the home, because cameras need their own power supply and are not battery constrained, but they do not share with the home WiFi network and instead running their own encrypted sub-net.
The company is working on geofencing systems which use GPS tracking of your phone to tell when you are approaching your home, so it can take steps such as turning on the lights and heating, to make you comfortable upon arrival. But in this it is seen as a follower rather than a trendsetter, as such systems are already well established in the US.