Other Automation Systems

Most of our competitors use systems such as Control4. I am often asked what the difference is between those other systems and the Clare Controls system that Audio West uses. The first point I would make is that one manufacturer can not be the best at making everything.  In my opinion that is one of the major issues with other automation companies. When one manufacturer make all of the subsystems in your home, what happens when a central piece of proprietary equipment fails? Nothing works! Clare lets you choose the leading components in each category and it simply connects all the systems together in an easy to operate user interface. For example, you could use lutron lighting, Sonos audio, DSC alarm, whatever, and they all work together seamlessly with Clare. In the unlikely event of a catastrophic processor failure you can still control your heat, your lights, your music, everything. A nice feature when you are building a system into something that lasts as long as a home.  Clare is programmed from the cloud so when an update is available it silently get installed in your system. Most other systems require a technician on site to do updates costing you time and money on an ongoing basis. The next point is that there are thousands of automation dealers and many of them do not possess the skills to deploy a reliable and logically functioning system. There are many other issues but I will leave it there for now. Check out this Business report from investment research firm Seeking Alpha.