On the Radar
Last updated January 27, 2007 14:00 EST
Q&A with Ron Risdon, President of Lagotek
Lagotek is a B2B platform company for wireless whole home
control that uses
Z-Wave as one of its two wireless protocols for network
communication between its primary network devices. With
its appeal to the remodel marketplace and new home builders,
Lagotek requires no new wires and no new holes to install
the two-gang electrical box for its Home Intelligence Platform
(HIP) 100 intelligent controllers. ZWaveWorld asked Ron
Risdon, president of Lagotek about its current offerings
and why the company adopted Z-Wave as its wireless platform
for home control products.
Why did you decide to develop on the Z-Wave platform?
We were looking for standards. We're looking for not just
standards from an IEEE working group, but standards by adoption
and we selected Z-Wave because it's the only standard that
exists for wireless controlled home electrical systems.
Zigbee is out there, but there's no adoption of Zigbee other
than some proprietary applications such as Control 4. We're
looking for third-party companies like Leviton, Monster,
and Cooper and others to adopt and produce devices that
we can then bring into a reference bubble for solutions.
What Z-Wave products does Lagotek currently offer?
The HIP 100 is the main control hardware (even though we're
primarily a software company). Each HIP 100 controller is
a server. The network is made up of these small control
units connected to and control all home electrical systems
and those include lighting, zone, climate, and audio controls,
monitoring and surveillance cameras, irrigation system controls,
and security system controls. All systems are controlled
through the same touchscreen user interface.
The HIP 200 is the wireless interface hub. Its intention
is to attach to all wired appliances of legacy home systems
that include heat pumps or any forced air furnace, radiant
heating system, or irrigation system. They all connect to
this device, which then wirelessly communicates through
Z-Wave to the network. The most notable example is to take
a standard forced-air furnace the HIP 200 can connect to
it and take control of the furnace. Various parts of the
home could have six independent heating zones that also
connect to wired temperature sensors (since there are no
Z-Wave temperature sensors on the market yet). The key differentiator
is that we take all those separate keypads and apply the
control function that blends into the interior of the home.
Who is the target audience?
We market to builders and remodel contractors nationally.
Builders are our great source of influence, but they are
not the customers to whom we sell. We sell to a dealer network
that in essence becomes the subcontractor to the builder
marketplace and those are CEDIA dealers, the professional
home automation audio/video folks, electrical contractors
that specialize in lighting controls, and security dealers.
Those are the three types of dealers that we market to predominantly.
Will there ever be a time that this will become a DIY
product?
We have seen the results of the DIY marketplace - we get
that question a lot. But the answer is no. There will likely
be a time in the future where a high scale retailer might
sell our products but we always see it being installed by
a trained and certified installer network. We train dealers
and certify them as Lagotek installer/dealers. We have seen
the results of DIYers trying to do something as complex
as whole home control - it always fails at some point. The
very smart people who try it come to realize that it was
more difficult or there were more things to learn before
they started. Ours is an installer-only product.
But it's driven by the consumer's desire for such a
product?
Absolutely. But we market to builders and remodelers. Lagotek
supports the consumer marketplace and we market through
our dealer network to home shows for our dealers to create
awareness to end users.
What do consumers need to look for in a custom installer?
Look for authorized dealers in your area. Custom installers
are typically certified by CEDIA and other companies, including
Lagotek. Get as much consumer information as you can on
the products you're interested in and understand what it's
all about. Be sure to avoid unauthorized dealers.
Find out more about Lagotek.com.
