As the Danish company explained, with the growing demand by homeowners to be able to integrate controls for audio and video with home automation systems, the need for simple, customer-focused solutions with one App, one remote or one touch to operate complex technical problems has never been greater. “We have created a solution, where some of the largest home integrators such as Crestron, Control4 and Savant are the first to be fully integrated into the Bang & Olufsen A/V world, and many more will follow”, according to Brian Bjørn Hansen, Head of Custom Installation.
“We have updated our product portfolio with direct IP control and together with the control system manufacturers we now have officially supported drivers for two-way control of our products. This allows system integrators to use e.g. our TV’s in any custom installation projects without further knowledge about the Bang & Olufsen system.”
Home automation made simple
The BeoLink Gateway solution from Bang & Olufsen is the missing piece to explain this new integration level, basically providing a central processing unit with direct connectivity to other IP-based networking solutions and direct connection to a server, pre-populated with all the drivers and auto-discovery mechanisms for third-party solutions.
Complex programming required to integrate dozens of disparate systems has been radically simplified in the BeoLink Gateway, in comparison to market standards. The Bang & Olufsen Real-time Configuration Tool is pre-installed with hundreds of drivers, and is based on a simple graphic interface to effectively take the coding out of home automation programming. What used to take days now takes hours – and is far easier than any other system to set up, modify and update.
The elegant device connects everything Bang & Olufsen has to offer in premium listening and viewing experiences to everything else in the home that anyone might want to automate – all in one incredibly simple system. The BeoLink Gateway has been upgraded for two-way integration, which means that based on status feedback on the dedicated BeoLink App e.g. different light or temperature settings, curtain or window control or similar in different rooms, we can control and change settings via the BeoLink App directly without any assistance from experts.
Bang & Olufsen also highlighted the fact that this integration level also allows it to be among the first A/V companies to have a IFTTT-enabled channel in the IoT world with the BeoLink Gateway. The popular If This Then That (IFTTT) app for iOS and Android is just one of many examples of easy “recipes” that users can configure to generate all kinds of smart scenarios when controlling an IP-based home automation system, or connecting devices to the Internet – similar to cloud services offered for smartphones and tablets, only adding AV and home integration into the equation.
“IoT will provide Bang & Olufsen customers with intelligent and extremely flexible options for programming their homes. We are constantly pursuing new opportunities in the growing home automation market to make life easier for our customers, and I believe that in some senses we are ahead of many of our competitors. Just the fact that we are building on our heritage of 30 years of system integration, where we have refined our approach to design, function and simplicity, makes our approach unique” says Brian Bjørn Hansen, Head of Custom Installation.
“We believe we have an interesting business proposition for many custom installers,” explains Lars Flyvholm, Vice President Global Sales.
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