05.20.2008 — A European division of D&M Holdings was the first to announce it would incorporate Control4's operating system into one of its products, namely the Vision media server from D&M subsidiary Escient.

But the announcement, issued quietly in January, was vague then, and the relationship between Escient and Control4 is vague still.

When we broke the news about Control4's efforts to become the OS of the home, we were unable to reach Escient about its plans, and Control4 (understandably) would not comment on the specifics.

Subsequently, I spoke to Bert Kiggen, brand manager for D&M Installation (DMi), based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

What are they doing with Control4?

"At the moment, not a lot, to be honest," he says. "We're talking and we're looking at what we have to offer. Based on that, it might result in incorporation" of Control4 into the Escient product.

Kiggen says he likes the way Control4 "integrates with other devices, especially with Zigbee."

D&M is no stranger to the Zigbee two-way RF control protocol, popularized in the home market by Control4 (and later Crestron, AMX and others).

At CES in January 2008, D&M subsidiary Denon introduced a Zigbee-enabled remote control, the RC7000CI. (Control4 would do well to mimic that industrial design.)

Besides noting its Zigbee compatibility, Kiggen lauds Control4's finesse with A/V distribution, climate control and lighting. "It's an excellent solution with an affordable price," he says.

Still, he notes that there are other excellent automation solutions in the market.

As for Control4, Kiggen says, "The discussion is ongoing [in terms of] how exactly we implement or if we implement."

In addition to Escient, D&M owns Denon, Marantz, Boston Acoustics, Snell and McIntosh.


D&M has some experience already with Zigbee, which is used in Denon's RC7000CI remote.