Leviton to Acquire ControlThink, Developer of Z-Wave Automation Software

Lighting and infrastructure giant Leviton is acquiring ControlThink, a small developer of home automation software. It's a nice fit for Leviton, a prominent provider of residential lighting and structured-wiring products.

The company has dabbled in the home controls business but has never really ventured beyond basic lighting controls -- at least not successfully.

ControlThink is an itty bitty software development firm best known for its integration of Z-Wave control and PC-oriented environments.

I first discovered ControlThink a few years ago at an Electronic House Expo, where its automation software (now called ThinkEssentials) was running on a media server.

It was a handy little PC application that let users easily enroll their Z-Wave-enabled lights for immediate configuration and control through the intuitive PC interface.



The ControlThink software didn't seem to change much over the years, and primarily has been seen as a simple if nice PC interface for Z-Wave lights. But the magic is less in the user interface than in the process for discovering and enrolling Z-Wave devices onto the network.

"The interface might look the same as a few years ago," says Ian Hendler, director of business development for Leviton. "Most of it is behind the scenes."

Z-Wave Support

Specifically, in October 2007, ControlThink introduced a .NET-based software development kit (SDK) to simplify the development of Z-Wave solutions.

The SDK, says Hendler, "is one of the most important pieces, because as we reach out to new players in this space -- like Microsoft and some in the PC industry -- a very robust SDK allows them to get into the Z-Wave ecosystem."

Z-Wave is a low-rate, low-cost, mesh-networking technology developed specifically for home-control applications.

The technology is now found in dozens of products from garage-door openers to thermostats to lighting controls. All Z-Wave products are interoperable with each other.