May 2016 Newsletter

Welcome to the first issue of The Connected Home hosted here on the new ELAN website.  If this is your first time on the new site, you will definitely want to take a look around. We'll archive the important articles in the Connected Home Blog page (linked from the main menu). Those of you who have been here before have likely found the new Dealer Resources pages. If not, take a look: Dealer Resources. Your same login from the old ELAN site will work.

Earn your way to the ELAN Club trip to Mexico Q1 2017.

The ELAN Club brings together the top ELAN Dealers for four days of great business discussion and an equal measure of entertainment at our destination site. 

If you have a hankering for habanero and you just can’t live without authentic fish tacos, you can make this trip a reality. This program rewards top dealers with a trip to Mexico in February 2017. This is your official reminder of how you can secure a spot for yourself and a guest!

• Criteria # 1: First, you must be one of the top 30 ELAN dealers based on your 2016 ELAN product purchase volume from Core Brands.
• Criteria # 2: Within this group we will select the top 15 based on your overall purchases from Core Brands – that’s across ALL brands, not just ELAN.

If you don’t hit the top tier for the February 2017 trip, you can work toward earning a spot on the next one! We will work closely with you to help you maximize your ELAN sales and even help you add a brand if you’d like to explore new product lines! Download the ELAN Club flyer here.

Nortek Closes On Its Minority Stake in MiOS Limited

You likely saw this announcement Last week. Nortek announced that it has closed on its Minority Stake in MiOS Limited. For Core Brands, MiOS creates opportunities to complement many of our Core Brands solutions, particularly those driven by the ELAN Control Platform. The ELAN Software 7.3.5 release includes VeraEdge (MiOS) support.

PROVIDENCE, RI–(Marketwired – May 11, 2016) - Nortek, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTK), a global diversified industrial company with leading brands and innovative air management and technology-driven solutions for residential and commercial applications, today announced that it closed on its 25% stake in MiOS Limited, a global technology company focused on developing and distributing advanced control and monitoring solutions for the home and small enterprise markets.

Underscoring the opportunities that Nortek’s minority investment in MiOS creates for its solutions portfolio, Nortek’s Core Brands business also announced that the MiOS VeraEdge is now available to ELAN^® dealers on the Core Brands dealer portal.

The recent ELAN g! 7.3.5 software update adds VeraEdge support, enabling ELAN dealers to connect a VeraEdge to an ELAN network for integrated control of select third-party Z-Wave devices, including 2GIG^® thermostats and Linear^® lighting control devices from Nortek Security & Control. VeraEdge connects to ELAN via Ethernet or Wi-Fi and can be located in the optimal location in the home to communicate with the Z-Wave devices.

“This exemplifies the importance of Nortek’s investment in MiOS Limited,” said Core Brands President Joe Roberts, “and we look forward to collaborating further with MiOS and our Nortek sister companies as we grow our position in the connected home market and create innovative and meaningful solutions for our dealers and their customers. As we do this, we also plan to make more Nortek solutions available on our dealer portal.”

Designed specifically for ELAN gSC and ELAN g1 controllers, the ELAN g! 7.3.5 software update also features ELAN HC controller to SC controller configuration migration, plus other third-party Z-wave device support and several performance enhancements.

“The integration with our ELAN Control Platform is just the first of several opportunities afforded to us by our investment in MiOS,” said Nortek President and Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Clarke. ”MiOS will work with several of our businesses to develop solutions for the connected home that leverage our brands and distribution strengths.”

MiOS President, Lew Brown commented, “Nortek’s investment affirms its belief and support for the bright future of MiOS. We look forward to working with Nortek and its market leading brands on strategies and solutions to drive growth for both of our companies.”

Multi-Room A/V: The ELAN S86A

Based on your requests, we brought back the S86A Integrated Multi-Room A/V Controller and have plenty of stock ready to ship. The S86A combines a high quality audio matrix switcher with flexible configuration options that allow up to four units to be stacked for up to a 24 zone system. The S86A at a glance:

• 6-zone multi-room A/V controller

• 8 audio source Inputs

• Integrated 12 x 30 WPC power amplifier

• Stackable to 4 chassis

• Compatible with all ELAN g! controllers 

MSRP: $2,100. Available for order on the Core Brands Portal or through your ELAN Sales Rep or International Distributor.

Featured Installation

This installation was recently featured by CE Pro. While the write-up was more focused on Sunfire speakers and subwoofers in the multi-screen home theater, the project is also controlled by ELAN.

Video Wall Looks Right at Home in Laguna Beach Home Theater

Over the last 10 years, video walls have become standard in many commercial spaces. After seeing a video wall in a bar, one Laguna Beach, Calif., beach-front homeowner took things to the next level by requesting a replica of the display in his family’s home theater.

Multi-screen Viewing
Matt Kindle, president of local technology integration firm eHome Lifestyle Inc., accepted the challenge without hesitation and began designing the 138-inch display around 10 Sunfire speakers and subwoofers, the logical choice of audio to enhance the massive set-up.

“This was the first time we’d done anything like this in a home,” says Kindle. “After receiving and accepting the homeowner’s request, I immediately started researching how to build the display. I knew that I wanted to use Sunfire for the theater whether the speakers were in-wall or exposed, so the primary goal was to find a TV with the very thinnest bezel possible. That’s how I came across the 46-inch NEC displays; the bezel is roughly 4MM thick. We installed nine of the displays to create an extraordinary visual solution.”

Full-Bodied Audio
Beyond the 138-inch LED display, Kindle installed enough speakers and subs to fill the room with full-bodied, crystal-clear audio. With five Sunfire XRS3 Ribbon Speakers along with a Sunfire TGA7401 400w x 7 amplifier, two Sunfire Subrosa subwoofers and two 2700w Sunfire Subwoofer amplifiers, viewers can feel the boom no matter what they are watching.

“This theater is by far one of the most amazing sounding theaters that I’ve ever heard,” says Kindle. “The quality of the sound is just insane! Having two of the Sunfire subwoofers really rocks the whole house.” To ensure that the theater not only looks great, but is also extremely user-friendly, Kindle built the system around the ELAN Entertainment and Control platform. Kindle pre-programmed the ELAN platform to create unique user settings within the display.

Personalized Video
“Any family member can watch their designated DirectTV box, Apple TV, or Blu-ray Disc on the big screen,” says Kindle. “We then set it up so that the viewer can easily change between screens. They can watch one thing with all nine screens displaying one large image, or can squeeze the image onto four of the displays, creating a 2×2, 96-inch image.” The other five screens surrounding the main display each have small DirecTV boxes attached to the back, so they can simultaneously play different channels around the compact main display.

“Through ELAN, I was able to make it so simple to operate the display,” adds Kindle. “One button turns it on. One button turns it into five different displays where you can easily select a source for the video and audio. Depending on which source you select, that’s what you hear. Additionally, we created ‘daytime’ and ‘nighttime’ buttons to automatically adjust the brightness of the video wall to reflect the specific time of day; viewers always have a perfect, high-quality picture.”

Control and Monitoring
Through ELAN, wherever the homeowner is in the world, he can monitor and operate each system within the home through the intuitive ELAN g!Mobile App on any mobile device. With the App, the homeowner can even check up on his children to see what they are watching on each of the nine displays in the Sunfire-enhanced theater, while also giving him the ability to remotely change the channel and audio input.