Acquiring a national alarm company could help Amazon increase recurring monthly revenue (RMR), but also pave the way for Amazon to become a chief security officer (CSO) and managed service provider for the home.

Way beyond a "distribution deal," the partnership between Lutron and SnapAV is an ambitious effort to expand the lighting-control universe, and to extend the ecosystem of OvrC-enabled managed services for the home-technology channel.

Smarter video surveillance, neighborhood-oriented services, and machine learning are some of the alarm and home-automation trends to to expect at ISC West.

Parks Associates data shows half of U.S. households would pay $5/month for subsidized smart thermostat installation with ongoing service program.

SnapAV, leading provider of home-automation, audio, video, networking and security products – as well as the popular OvrC platform for remote network management – acquires Allnet, a top home-tech distributor in the Midwest.

The ProSource buying group is pushing lighting control and remote managed services as new opportunities for home-technology integrators, adding OneVision, Parasol, SnapAV's OvrC, Coastal Source and Colorbeam to its roster of providers.