Telstra is set to demonstrate the capabilities of ZigBee based Control 4 home automation gear in their new experience stores.
The deal comes as the US IP automation Company, doubles their business in Australia following a controversial split with their former distributor Convergent Technologies.
According to the CEO of Advance Audio Australia Joseph Riediger, who was last year handed the distribution rights to Control4 gear, he is now the #1 dealer in the world of Control 4 Automation equipment.
A Telstra spokesperson said “We will not sell or install the Control4 technology. We will simply demonstrate how a home can be automated in our new stores” they said.
Another Telstra executive told ChannelNews “We have extensively tested Control 4 equipment and it is impressive because it runs over an IP network and is ZigBee based. All we want to do is demonstrate automation and how a Smartphone or tablet can be used as part of an automated home “.
Riediger said “We have had a lot of success with the Control 4 brand. We have been told that we are now the #1 dealer in the world for the Company who is rapidly expanding their product range”.
Adam Merlino a Director at Advance Audio Australia said “We have signed a deal with Telstra and we are hoping that we can grow the relationship”.
Earlier this year Cisco invested over $10M into Control4, they also signed a strategic agreement to sell the Zigbee network-enabled automation around the world.
The collaboration between the two companies includes the integration of Control4 technology into Cisco’s Service Delivery Platform and the introduction of Cisco-branded Control4 products.
Additionally, Control4 will become a key member of Cisco’s ecosystem in delivering specialised applications to meet the needs of Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities program.
Telstra who is a major customer of Cisco could in the future start selling Control4 gear which is fast gaining popularity due in part to the ease that their ZigBee based technology can be programmed.
ABI Research believes that the two no-new-wires technologies having the most impact on the home automation market at present are ZigBee and Z-Wave, both of which are low-power, low-data rate wireless sensor networking (i.e. RF mesh) technologies that enable devices in the home to transmit monitoring and control messages among themselves and a controller.
They said that of these two, ZigBee has been the more aggressive and successful in developing varying application profile layers to enable different sub-applications within the overall home automation market.
Recently the ZigBee Alliance evolved the proposed ZigBee Smart Energy 2.0 profile to include an IP-based networking layer. Likewise, the ZigBee Alliance has worked closely with the Continua Healthcare Alliance to encourage adoption of ZigBee as one standard for remote healthcare connectivity. These actions help to make ZigBee a useful technology for an expanding list of applications related to the core home automation market.
ABI Research forecasts that the market for ZigBee-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 ICs will grow from about 18 million shipped worldwide in 2010 to nearly 475 million by 2016.
