Control4 has announced the acquisition of the intellectual property and key operating assets of Ihiji, a provider of remote management services for technical integrators servicing connected home customers.

By combining two network and device management solutions – BakPak from Control4 and Invision from Ihiji – into one unified service platform, Control4 will be able to provide thousands of professional integrators with device monitoring and management capability to 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 unified cloud-based services to our dealers to securely and efficiently monitor end-customer systems,” says Martin Plaehn.

“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 pre-emptive service, in a time-saving and cost-effective manner.”

The joint team is already developing the unified cloud-based service platform which will be 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 control at the network level, which would include over 2,000 third-party products, as well as all Control4 and Pakedge smart home equipment.

Ihiji works with industry manufacturers and those integrations will continue to be central to the new unified management platform. The new solution will also give an inclusive view of every home and customer to allow dealers to monitor, assess, remediate, and track performance concerns associated with their customers’ homes.

Control4 will begin selling the previously named Ihiji APP-750 network appliance under its new name the Pakedge NX-1. Control4  has also announced the abolition of all subscription fees associated with the Ihiji Invision management service, making it easier and more financially efficient 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 serve their connected home customers,” says Ihiji chief executive Stuart Rench.

“By providing all dealers with the ability to monitor and manage thousands of devices, we are enabling them to detect and remediate issues remotely – often before a customer is aware there is even a problem. By combining with Control4, we can accelerate our plans to deliver more robust capabilities to further drive dealers’ success and end-customer satisfaction.”

The Ihiji product development and support teams are now part of Control4 and are working within the Company’s networking group to continue supporting existing Ihiji dealers, and to deliver the new unified management platform later this year.

All Ihiji dealers using Invision will continue to be supported and are encouraged to continue using and installing Invision in new installations. Later this year, progress releases towards the new unified and integrated service platform will be made available to all Ihiji, Control4 and Pakedge dealers and their installed customers through a software update process for supported service appliance devices including APP-750, NX-1, NK-1, RK-1 and WR-1.