Control4 Adds $600 Remote Control From Neeo for Combined Touch-Screen-Button Home Control

SnapAV added a $600 handheld remote to its Control4-brand product line to combine the benefits of hard buttons and a touch screen for intuitive home control, it said Tuesday. Buttons give customers fast access to functions and activities they use most, Charlie Kindel, SnapAV chief product and technology officer, told journalists on a Friday pre-brief. The Neeo Remote, designed by Swiss engineers and built from machined aluminum, is meant to convey a luxury experience that’s also durable, said Kindel. Control4 bought Neeo in February (see 1902050045), before its acquisition by SnapAV in August (see 1908010013). The handheld's buttons control power, mute, home and navigation functions; an on-screen keypad allows customers to type in a channel number directly. The combination of touch screen and buttons makes Neeo an ideal universal remote control for entertainment “because anyone in the home can intuitively use an icon-driven touchscreen,” Kindel said. A former Amazon executive who headed up the Alexa team, Kindel reinforced the need for different types of user interfaces in the smart home: “Customers want choice, and they’re always going to have scenarios where all of these modalities interact,” including voice, he said. Spotlighting Control4's latest OS 3 operating system, Kindel said household members in an OS 3-powered home have "one-touch control and at-a-glance views of virtually every device through voice with Alexa and Google Assistant, the Control4 App, a Control4 touch screen, a TV on-screen display and with the Neeo remote." The Neeo combined with the $500 EA-1 controller gives customers control of a single-room entertainment system for $1,100, plus installation. Despite the affordable price, the company isn’t interested in a do-it-yourself offering: Control4 is “steadfastly committed” to its professional installers, Kindel said. As customers adopt more smart technology in their homes, and the number of controlled devices goes up, their expectations for how much integration they want rises at the same time they're experiencing "smart home fatigue," he said. Homeowners, even those comfortable with technology, want control professionals to install their systems so they don’t have to be IT managers of the home, he said. Neeo will be sold exclusively by the 7,000 Control4 dealers, though customers will be able to install the device themselves, if their system is running OS 3, without a visit from a dealer. Control4 will continue to offer its SR-260 remote control ($330) and other interfaces.