Strategy in TECH...
One of the longest-running custom integration technology events, the Northern California Technology Conference, known as the CI Expo, will hold its 15th annual dealer show this month at the Hilton Oakland Airport on May 30th. An early proponent of knowledge sharing and bringing the technology to you, this event is free for integrators. You can’t get a better deal than that!
In the matter of Snap One, LLC v. AVA, Inc, and Josh.ai, Inc., we finally see a substantive move after the initial filing by plaintiff Snap One and subsequent answers from the defendants AVA and Josh.ai. And that subsequent move is a doozy – Josh.ai has gone on offense and filed a motion to dismiss multiple major claims in the Snap One lawsuit.
Josh.ai’s filing is well written and puts Snap One on defense, forcing them to submit genuine facts and evidence to support their many claims, including a few allegations that were really quite salacious.
Trident IoT, a relatively new company founded by a group of industry veterans with extensive experience behind them (“over a century of industry knowledge” according to the company), announced this week that it is launching a new series of chips that it says will decrease the time-to-market for connected device manufacturers. This new series of chips is the Taurus Z-Wave Series.
But just what is the Taurus chip all about?
Santos Electronics Inc., dba OSD Audio, and Outlaw Audio LLC – both direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands – have settled all claims between them in their dueling lawsuits that began back in 2022, according to court filings from earlier this year. In that order from the court, I learned that the entire action was dismissed “with prejudice” – meaning it cannot ever be revised or otherwise litigated again (on these issues).
A Federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York delivered a verdict against Lutron Electronics Co., finding that it had infringed on a window shade patent held by GeigTech East Bay, a South Carolina company. The jury awarded GeigTech $34.6 million in damages for Lutron’s infringement, a figure that Lutron called “grossly excessive.”
Draper at Home, a division of Draper, Inc., announced this week that it has appointed a National Director of CI (custom integration), a new role at the company. The company said it created the new position in response to the continuing growth in Draper’s custom integration business.
On Tuesday this week, a previously announced program being offered by Snap One – now Resideo – has begun. This program, called Control4 Connect, is a mandatory program that requires all integrators to connect all new client installations of Control4 products directly to Snap One’s central station for future software updates and data collection.
It is a new kind of transactional connection that establishes a direct relationship with the client for direct-to-user system updates and base-level client support supplied – not by the local integrator – but by Control4 support.
Residential construction, known as housing starts, dropped in March by a surprising double-digit percentage. Most industry analysts believe that the slowdown is due to stubborn inflation readings motivating the Fed to keep interest rates high which is affecting mortgage rates and home affordability.
After solid gains in February raised hopes in the segment, the March numbers were a chilling splash of reality as home inventory is low and mortgage rates are high.
The day after we learned about the acquisition of Snap One by security company Resideo, Moody’s Investors Service, Inc., one of the nation’s preeminent credit rating agencies, issued its initial judgment of the impact of this deal on Resideo’s creditworthiness. What they had to say kind of swung two ways so I thought I would share its perspective with you.
Frank Sterns, a well-known and highly regarded (some would say renowned) industry executive, has been retained to consult on custom integration matters with Nationwide Marketing Group. Clearly a sign of just how serious the large diversified Nationwide organization is about targeting custom integration, Sterns brings a wealth of Grade A experience as a leader in the custom integration space.
