Universal Electronics Introduces New Product and Cloud Service to Unify Entertainment Control and Home Automation Experiences
January 2, 2019
Home Digital Assistant Platform, Nevo® Butler, to enable brands to
quickly offer a range of new services
Visit UEI at CES in Sands Expo Booth #42325
SANTA ANA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Universal
Electronics Inc., (UEI) (NASDAQ: UEIC), the worldwide leader in
universal control and sensing technologies for the smart home, today
announced that it will be introducing a new platform for the Connected
Home at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV,
which kicks off on January 8, 2019.
Nevo® Butler is an end-to-end voice-enabled smart home hub
with a built-in white label digital assistant that promises to unify the
entertainment control and home automation experiences, enabling
interoperability across fragmented ecosystems. Built-in entertainment
control capabilities and smart home hub features powered by QuickSet®
Cloud make this device a versatile assistant for the home, capable
of addressing a wide range of the current installed base of devices in
consumers’ homes, addressing a range of use cases and innovative new
services in the smart home.
-
Remain in control of the consumer experience through a branded digital
assistant, while offering compatibility with third party digital
assistants and expanding compatibility of these platforms with the
current installed base of entertainment devices. -
As a far-field voice assistant, this platform enables
service providers to quickly and efficiently bring voice assistant
capabilities for content discovery and control to their existing
Pay-TV households without the need to upgrade current equipment, and
unlike other solutions, not limited to connected entertainment devices. -
As a managed, white label smart home hub with a built-in
digital assistant, allows home smart home brands to efficiently and
securely manage their installed base of devices, and address the
expanding consumer demand for cross-brand interoperability with
existing digital assistants and smart home hubs through the QuickSet Interoperability
as a Service program. -
In residential and hospitality segments, it opens the door to offering
converged services across entertainment, home safety and security,
energy management, and more. -
Access to a growing ecosystem of devices through “Works With
QuickSet” program, and channel specific Kits offered to accelerate
market introduction. -
New service and monetization opportunities through Partner Service
Marketplace initially previewing services in connectivity, analytics,
cybersecurity and digital well-being.
Voice assistants powered by artificial intelligence are playing a key
role in improving access to smart living products and services, and this
is only expected to expand in size and scope. Digital assistants that
connect consumers to important services such as safety and security, or
bring convenience through better interaction with entertainment devices
will play a key role in delivering the experiences promised by a brand.
Nevo Butler empowers brands to deliver these experiences
quickly, efficiently and directly to consumers.
A new industry research report from international firm Parks Associates
shows nearly 75% of the consumers planning to buy a smart home device
consider it important for their purchase to work with other products in
their home. This demand for interoperability is stronger than brand
loyalty, as less than 60% of smart home shoppers consider it important
that their future purchases be the same brand as their current products.
“As smart home devices proliferate, interoperability is the key to
creating true smart home systems. Consumer adoption of smart home
products is driving expectations that devices work together seamlessly.
Consumers are buying outside of a single brand’s ecosystem, so they are
demanding product interoperability,” said Brad
Russell, Research Director, Connected Home, Parks Associates.
As a managed smart home hub with far field voice assistant capabilities,
Nevo Butler is designed with security in mind, where the root of trust
is placed in hardware and managed from manufacturing throughout the
lifecycle of the platform as a service. Designed with UE878
multiprotocol chip built-in and pre-integrated with QuickSet Cloud to
offer the most comprehensive range of universal device control for
entertainment and smart home devices across IP, Zigbee, Zigbee rf4ce,
Bluetooth Smart, and Infrared.
Nevo Butler also comes pre-integrated with nevo.ai digital assistant
offered as a white label service to deliver branded and
customized experiences, and is capable of supporting other voice
assistants in the platform to address the growing consumer demand for
choice and access to domain specific assistants and services.
Nevo Butler supports a simple, cloud-based, natural language interface
to enable conversational device interactions, but also adds offline
pre-defined voice commands to ensure a reliable interface to smart home
services, even when the Internet is down.
Enterprise integration services ensure the Nevo Butler platform can be
seamlessly integrated into the existing service provider subscriber
management systems, while a growing list of partner services in the
marketplace allow new avenues for monetization and managed complementary
services.
In addition to its voice-enabled entertainment device and control, Nevo
Butler is offered in channel-specific kits bundled with a range of
certified devices that include safety and security sensors, energy
management controllers, and IoT lighting products.
“With Nevo Butler, we are delivering on the promise of unifying
experiences across devices in the home – the entertainment device where
consumers spend nearly 5 hours a day – and other smart home devices and
services,” says Arsham Hatambeiki, SVP of Product and Technology for
Universal Electronics Inc. “This solution puts brands back at the
forefront of the consumer experience, enabling consumers to interact
with products and services without going through a single, global
service and brings with it the confidence of device compatibility and
interoperability.”
Universal Electronics will host product demonstrations for all their
latest technologies and design concepts, and their most recent product
unveiling, Nevo® Butler and related platform kits at booth
#42325 in the Sands Expo at CES 2019 in Las Vegas from January 8-11.
Nikki Ahmadi, Director of Cloud and Software Products; and Patrick
Serrato, Director of Connected Home solutions will be available to
discuss how Nevo Butler and curated kits and services can be used to
introduce or expand offerings in a range of channels.
About Universal Electronics
Universal Electronics Inc. (NASDAQ: UEIC) is the worldwide leader in
universal control and sensing technologies for the smart home. Its broad
portfolio of patents includes QuickSet® Cloud service that utilizes the
world’s most complete knowledge graph of devices to detect and interact
with thousands of entertainment and smart home devices. The company
designs, develops, and manufactures innovative products that are used by
the world’s leading brands in the audio, video, subscription
broadcasting, connected home, home energy management, and mobile device
markets. UEI’s many first-to-market innovations have helped transform
the home entertainment control, home security, and home energy
management and sensing industries. More information is available at www.uei.com
and quicksetcloud.com
Nevo and QuickSet
are trademarks of Universal Electronics Inc.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made
pursuant to the Safe-Harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words and expressions reflecting
something other than historical fact are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a
number of risks and uncertainties, including the timely development,
delivery and market acceptance of UEI’s Nevo Butler product and
associated service offerings, and other technologies identified in this
release; the continued penetration and growth of the digital assistant
products and consumer technologies identified in this release; and other
factors described in the Company’s filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. The actual results that the Company achieves
may differ materially from any forward-looking statement due to such
risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligations to
revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect
events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.
Contacts
UEI Media Contact:
Benny Canady
Universal Electronics
Inc.
bcanady@uei.com
714-918-9500