Johnson Controls to Serve Small Businesses with Control4 Products

Johnson Controls is a giant in the building-automation business, providing integrated lighting, HVAC, security, access control, and other systems for facilities management.

But Johnson's current offerings make little sense for buildings that are smaller than 100,000 square feet, leaving the small- to medium-sized business (SMB) sector virtually unavailable to Johnson.

Now Johnson plans to target all of those smallish buildings with the new Touch4 control system. The system is OEMed from Control4, manufacturer of mainstream automation systems primarily for the residential market.

"The [Touch4] interface is very easy to use," says Jim French, director of systems program management, building efficiency, for Johnson Controls. He explains that Johnson's existing products, Facility Explorer and Metasys, are meant for dedicated engineers whose job it is to manage buildings.

"They want all the data," he says. "Down at this end, they [building owners/managers] can care less about all of that. They want to know how to turn off the lights and set the thermostats."

Furthermore, a Touch4 system can cost as little as $5,000 for the product alone and entails very little installation and programming labor. At the higher end, systems start at $15,000 and require considerably more labor.

French says that Johnson contemplated creating its own automation system for the SMB market, but history shows that such development could cost tens of millions of dollars. Control4's solution was pretty much ready to go.

The Touch4 Solution

Touch4 starts with a central controller that is much like Control4's existing Home Theater Controller but modified to communicate with Johnson's HVAC systems via the BACnet protocol. BACnet is a widely used communications protocol for building automation.

Except for Johnson's own HVAC system, the company will use IP- and ZigBee-enabled lighting controls, entertainment systems and other devices from Control4. French says that Johnson does plan to create Zigbee-enabled thermostats and HVAC controllers to communicate wirelessly with the Touch4 system.

Control4 modified its traditional user interface to incorporate solutions for building management. On the main menu, all of the entertainment-oriented icons are folded into a single menu item to allow space for "Schedule," "Mode" and "Alarms."

These functions -- not available on Control4-branded products -- enable building managers to easily adjust occupancy modes and review histories of building activity.

Another function you'll see on Touch4, but not Control4, is a login/logout screen that enables different privileges for different users.

The system will be offered through Johnson's Authorized Building Control Specialists. About 150 of these independent contractors will be trained (at least one person per company) to install Touch4. French says that these professionals already market to small facilities, but they provide little integration -- mostly just intelligent thermostats.

The Touch4 system is on display at CES in the Control4 Partner Pavilion.