Last year at ISE I had a chance to play around with and talk to the guys at NEEO, They had come up with a brilliant remote control that promised vastly improved battery life, a great touchscreen user interface and worked with a wide range of Smart Home products such as Sonos, televisions, blu ray players and other smart home devices. I was lookig to see if it would be available here in Thailand and really looked forward to installing it into our custmers Smart Homes in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Hua Hin. It still needed a little work but what I saw was very promising.

Now at this years ISE it has been announced that Control4 has bought the company, going forward from now on the remote will be available only from Control4 and likely only through their network of Smart Home dealers.

It sounds like Control4 will be first taking some time to understand and work it into their range of Smart Home products. As such it will unlikely be available through a home channel for DIY installers in the near future.

Control4 Press Release -

Control4 Corporation (NASDAQ:CTRL), a leading global provider of smart home solutions, today announces the acquisition of Switzerland-based NEEO, the creators of the acclaimed smart home remote, to accelerate its leadership in delivering remotes, touch panels, keypads, and other smart home devices.

Introduced in 2016, NEEO’s remote quickly gained industry recognition for its simplistic set up, out-of-box interoperability with thousands of devices, and most notably, its beautifully conceived industrial design. Based in Bern, the NEEO product team has been led by the company’s founder Raphael Oberholzer and will be working with the Control4 engineering group in Salt Lake City on the development of the next-generation of Control4 remote controls, touch panels, keypads, and other devices. Oberholzer will take a leadership role in the development of Control4’s interaction devices and will report to Charlie Kindel, Control4 Senior Vice President, Products & Services.

“Raphael built a world-class customer-centric product team with proven strengths in industrial design, product development, and user experience. We’re keen to add NEEO’s unique expertise and award-winning Swiss design ethic to enhance our plans for reimagining the way homeowners interact with their Control4 systems,” said Martin Plaehn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Control4. “The NEEO acquisition is a talent and technology investment that will yield beautifully-designed and deeply integrated products in the future. We’re excited to welcome the NEEO team to the Control4 family,” he added.

“From the start, it was obvious that both our companies are passionate for customer-centric design,” said Raphael Oberholzer, NEEO Founder. “By joining the Control4 team, we can execute our shared vision to accelerate the creation of beautiful products consumers want in their smart home.”

NEEO previously sold its remote to homeowners online but is discontinuing all direct-to-consumer distribution in connection with this transaction. Control4 will support existing NEEO customers via www.neeo.com and plans to provide an upgrade path to make it easy for users to experience Control4’s broad array of smart home solutions.

Control4 is exhibiting at ISE 2019 Stand 10-N130 in Amsterdam this week and showcasing its extensive smart home solutions including the KNX line of smart lighting, multi-room audio and video offering, Triad speakers, award-winning Intercom Anywhere video intercom solution, Pakedge intelligent networking solutions, and security cameras.

For more information on Control4 visit Control4.com.