Systems Integration Asia — February-March 2018

Williams Sound Acquires Pointmaker

INTERNATIONAL: Williams Sound, a

global designer and manufacturer of

wireless communication technology has

acquired Pointmaker, as part of a new

strategy to expand the Williams Sound

product footprint beyond its traditional

audio end markets. Pointmaker is a

leading provider of hardware and software

for video annotation technology, and will

serve as a platform through which

Williams Sound will develop new products

to serve the larger professional A/V

market. In concert with this strategy, three

new board members have been added

and the holding company will be renamed

Williams AV.

“Aligning Williams

Sound audio with

Pointmaker video

is all about

synergy, with

both companies

bringing different,

but exceptional,

expertise and

experience,” said Richard Lough, Williams

Sound COO. “We are bringing together

two complementary and innovative

companies with a similar vision – driving

technology that enables communication,

strengthens connections, and ultimately

inspires collaboration. Referred to as C3 –

communication empowered, this

newfound synergy readies us to move

forward as a stronger force in the A/V

marketplace.”

Pat Brey, CEO of

Pointmaker, will

remain with the

company and join

the board of

directors of

Williams AV. “This

acquisition

provides an

exciting growth opportunity and

immediately enhances client access to

inspired, innovative technology. By

combining Williams Sound audio expertise

with years of video expertise, we are

delivering added value and depth of

product offerings. As we move forward,

we are mobilizing to capitalize, via

forthcoming innovation, on a

collaboration market that far exceeds the

size of our current individual targets.”

Williams AV has also added two industry

veterans to its Board, both with signicant

expertise in the video market. Rob Sheeley

and Tom Mingo

are the co-

founders of

Vaddio, a

Minnesota based

designer and

manufacturer of

video equipment

used throughout

the A/V

marketplace. Rob

is a serial entrepreneur who holds

numerous hardware and software patents,

and will assist the team going forward in

new product development. Tom formerly

led sales for

Vaddio, and will

assist the

company in

expanding its

sales and

marketing efforts

to support

Williams AV's next

stage of growth.

http://www.williamssound.com

Control4 Corporation

Acquires Ihiji for

Smart Home Market

INTERNATIONAL: Control4 Corporation, a

leading global provider of smart home

solutions, announced the acquisition of

the intellectual property and key operating

assets of Austin, Texas-based Ihiji, a

leading provider of remote management

services for technical integrators servicing

connected home customers.

By combining two industry-leading

network and device management

solutions -- BakPak from Control4 and

Invision from Ihiji -- into one unied

service platform, Control4 will provide

thousands of professional integrators with

powerful device monitoring and

management capability to efciently and

proactively support their connected-home

customers.

“Connected home opportunities are

emerging globally, and their individual

performance, reliability, and resilience are

foundational to all successful installations.

By combining Control4's BakPak, with its

strong network management capabilities,

and Ihiji's Invision, with its industry-leading

device monitoring and management

capabilities, Control4 can provide a set of

unied cloud-based services to our dealers

to securely and efciently monitor end-

customer systems. Dealers will receive

alerts when performance concerns are

detected; they can then remotely identify

the root cause and initiate resolution

actions, all without being on-premise. This

will improve homeowner satisfaction

through prompt and preemptive service,

in a time-saving and cost-effective

manner,” said Martin Plaehn.

The joint team is already developing the

unied cloud-based service platform

which will be made available in phases to

all Control4 and Ihiji dealers and their end-

customers later in the year. The shared

goal is to operate a single integrated

monitoring and services experience that

provides all dealers with complete visibility

and control at the network level, which

would include over 2,000 third-party

products, as well as all Control4 and

Pakedge smart home equipment. Today,

Ihiji works with the industry's leading

manufacturers including: Araknis, Belkin,

Brocade, Cisco, Crestron, Dell, Denon, D-

Link, Integra, Luxul, Marantz, Netgear,

Onkyo, Pakedge, Panamax, Russound,

Savant, Sky, Sony, SurgeX, Synaccess,

Yamaha, and others, and those

integrations will continue to be central to

the new unied management platform.

The new solution will also deliver a

comprehensive view of every home and

customer to enable dealers to monitor,

assess, remediate, and track performance

concerns associated with their customers'

homes.

Control4 has started selling the previously

named Ihiji APP-750 network appliance

under its new moniker, the Pakedge NX-1,

priced at US $650 MSRP. Control4 also

announces the elimination of all

subscription fees associated with the Ihiji

Invision management service, making it

easier and more nancially efcient for

dealers to provide remote management

services to their end-customers.

“Ihiji and Control4 share the conviction

that network and device management

capabilities are pivotal to every

professional integrator in order to best

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