New smart-home Gateway from Savant Systems includes handheld remote, little black box, full Savant home automation for less than $1,000. See it at CEDIA Expo 2013.
Savant Systems packs Big Boy Automation into little black box. Gateway controller and handheld remote will retail for about $1,000.
By Julie Jacobson, September 25, 2013
Today, if you want Savant home automation system, the price of entry is about $4,000. But the maker of Apple-friendly home controls is rolling out a “system” at CEDIA Expo 2013that starts at $999 for a controller and slick handheld remote.
The key is a new $500 Gateway nicknamed Big Boy Automation—as in, not a wimpy little box that Comcast sells you. The Linux box, expected to ship in Q1 2014, features the full Savant software and does not require a Mac Mini on the network (although one can be added to enhance the system).
The Gateway is packaged with Savant’s new $499 Wi-Fi universal remote, the SUR-0500.
A kit that includes one Wi-Fi dimmer/keypad one Wi-Fi thermostat and user license (both iOS and Android) will retail for $1,499.
A security-centric package is on the way.
Savant’s Jim Carroll tells CE Pro that commercials from home automation mass-marketers are driving consumers to specialty dealers.
They tell him, “We need to be relevant. … Here, I’ve got something for $1,000.”
The Gateway includes IR, two RS-232 ports and two GPIOs. It “can do everything a full-blown million-dollar Savant system can do,” Carroll says, but a full “luxury license” will be required … and of course a lot more I/Os.
Savant only recently launched a line of Wi-Fi dimmers and is adding to the Internet of Things category with $99 Wi-Fi plug-in modules and smart power supplies.
We’ll snap some picture of the new products during CEDIA Expo 2013.
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