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 You could say the home automation market is still in its Wild West phase. Will West, CEO of Control4, Salt Lake City, is grabbing a lot of attention in the nascent market with his low-cost home-control system, which enables homeowners to control lighting, heating, security and entertainment systems over a network.At this year's CEDIA Expo, where Control4 had one of the busiest booths on the floor, West, 45, never missed a chance to talk up Control4's philosophy of bringing home-control solutions out of the domain of the rich and famous and to the masses, or at least the upper middle class. "It's a gigantic market out there that's just being scratched," he says. "The CEDIA guys are beginning to get it." Control4 doesn't release sales numbers but claims to have 700 dealers. It also has attracted a number of new competitors. Many home integrators say they are waiting for Control4 to establish a more solid presence before signing on, but others say that despite some product delays, the company is helping them take their business in new directions. And that's just what West envisioned. He believes affordable home-control systems will enable integrators to create new service and sales opportunities and deeper relationships with customers. "You're not going to make money by doing 10 $100,000 jobs a year," West says. "If you can implement some type of control into each job, you can own the customer." |
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