Quantify makes leap from R&D to distribution in smart home race

ASX-listed smart home technology provider, Quantify Technology, has taken its “smart” light switches, power points, blind controllers and related hardware to market after securing international patents, global certification, a world-class manufacturer and distribution by one of Australia’s largest commercial appliance suppliers. 

Quantify’s patented products can be integrated with Amazon and Google’s voice control technology allowing householders to control everything from the blinds to the TV to the lights and the household alarm using just their voice.

The global smart home technology race is now well and truly on. Some of the biggest corporations around the world are racing to create space age technologies that are set to dazzle ordinary householders by allowing them to talk to their smart homes in order to effortlessly perform tasks that were once done manually.

The $4m market capped, Perth-based Quantify, has managed to muscle its way into the smart home space amongst industry monoliths like Clipsal, Google, Amazon and others.  It has created its own proprietary products that were developed in Perth by its own in-house team of engineers.

After a herculean research and development effort to develop and patent its own proprietary smart home products, Quantify is now pulling out of the R&D stage and into the distribution game which is where the rubber hits the road.

The company’s range of smart products aim to make buildings truly intelligent with light switches, dimmers, power points and blind controllers that are all inter-connected to each other wirelessly, essentially creating an internal electrical eco-system that allows the householder to pretty much do anything he or she chooses from any switch.

Any light or group of lights in the house can be turned on and dimmed from any light switch – and all without leaving the couch if necessary.  Quantify’s light switches and dimmers can be activated and controlled by hand, by mobile phone APP, or simply by voice control by integrating with Google and Amazon’s voice control technology.

Its blind controllers can also be controlled in the same way and any device in the house that is connected to one of Quantify’s smart power points can be activated from any switch in the house, or via APP or voice control.  Interestingly, Quantify’s wall switches can be programmed to undertake a series of actions simultaneously.

For example, one press of any pre-programmed switch or one simple voice command could see all the blinds raised, the lamp shade in the hallway activated, all the living room lights turned on and the radio spring into life.  Alternatively, one press of a switch by the bed, or one simple voice command before retiring for the night could set the alarm in certain parts of the house, turn off all lights and appliances and turn on the night light in the hallway.

Quantify recently added a fourth product, the “qBridge” intelligent auxiliary controller to its product list that will essentially allow its smart products to connect to other smart products on the market.

A key piece of the technology in Quantify’s smart switches is a ‘feature card’ which looks a little bit like the old SD card that was used in digital cameras but with way more smarts.

The card is the brains of every switch and can be easily pulled out and replaced as the technology evolves, dispensing with the need to completely replace a switch for householders that are looking to “keep up with the Jones’s” with the latest innovations.

Quantify can simply program its latest innovations into a new card and sell it as an upgrade as it develops new features.

Whilst Quantify is initially targeting residential and standard commercial markets, sectors such as aged care, disability and hospitality where frequent touching is potentially problematic, are obvious secondary markets in time.

In what looks to have been a smart pairing, Quantify has locked away home automation market leader, Harvey Norman Commercial as its East Coast distributor and has three distributors actively selling in WA, namely Intelligent Home, Powerhouse Home Automation and Limitless Automation. 

It has also secured a world class manufacturer for its products in CASwell, a subsidiary of the US$20 billion Foxconn Technology, with the added bonus of providing a potential avenue into the lucrative Asian market.

Quantify has patented its technology in thirteen countries to date, including key markets such as Australia, China and the USA.  Patents are also currently pending in another 52 countries, including the European Union.  Whilst the Australian market is estimated at about A$1 billion, the company says the USA smart home automation market is worth a staggering US$27 billion.

If Quantify can carve off any part of that market it will make a material difference to the $4m market capped company.

Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting ? Contact : matt.birney@businessnews.com.au