HomeTech.fm - Episode 268 - Non-Profit Technology Companies

Episode Date: August 2, 2019

On this episode of HomeTech: SnapAV and Control4 complete their merger, Locast lawsuits get started, AT&T rebrands something, and Seth takes a swing at recording a solo show and writing show notes while Jason is out of town… can you tell?

The Home Tech Podcast is supported by you. To find out more, go to hometech.fm support. This is the Home Tech Podcast for Friday, August 2nd. Holy cow, it's August 2nd. From Sarasota, Florida, I'm Seth Johnson. And this week, flying solo as Jason Griffin is on the road. He had some family things last week. I had family things last week, and we just couldn't make our schedules happen. So this week, he's still out there somewhere. I think he's doing some of the work, though. And I'm not. So I'm sitting here in the garage, talking to you alone. It's a good thing, right? Yeah, I think it is. I think it is. So I just wanted to do a quick show this week and cover some of the news and headlines and things that have happened over the past couple of weeks.

Actually, not much has happened. Everything is going really slow these days because, as Jason likes to say, these companies are out there keeping the powder dry. They're trying to save what they have for Cedia and they don't want anything to kind of get out and get ahead of the situation. So people are all excited as we move into the Cedia season in September. So not too far away. I think it's probably what, two months out. So we have the August, month of August, and I think about halfway through of September to get through. I want to say my flight said 40 some odd days. So yeah, about 45, 46 days out, something like that by now. So I can't wait to get to Denver and see that, check that out and, and see all of you. Uh, if you're in attendance at Cedia, we will be doing another home tech happy hour this year. And even though we are, we took the last week off, uh, we are working behind the scenes to figure out a venue for that

and figure out some activities and fun stuff to do. So keep an eye out for Home Tech.fm and here on the podcast. We'll definitely let you know when we got all of those plans solidified. But in the meantime, let's jump into some home tech headlines. Abode tells CNET that it's expanding Google Assistant's capabilities to give users more control over their system. More specifically, you'll now be able to ask Google Assistant to control a wider range of abode-supported gadgets, including smart locks, garage door openers, and cameras, and also door and window systems. Previously, users could only ask Google to control lights, switches, and smart bugs. You can also ask Google Assistant to arm your system. Disarm commands are also supported, though you'll need to provide a four-digit PIN code.

So some interesting developments there and expansions into the Google Assistant ecosystem for Abode. We had Chris Carney over there on the show way back, eight episodes ago, I guess, on episode 260. So I'll put a link to that in the show note if you want to listen to that one again. It's a really good episode. We really liked having Chris on the show. He was a straight shooter for sure and told it like it was. So check out that show if you haven't heard it. It's a really good interview. Facebook has approached Netflix, Disney, and other media companies about putting their streaming services on a new Facebook device for making video calls from televisions. This comes from the information. The device, which Facebook is aiming to release this fall, will use the same video calling technology that's

in Facebook's camera-equipped smart speaker, the Portal, according to two people familiar with the product and documents viewed by the information. The new device, codenamed Catalina, will also come with a physical remote and streaming video services similar to other television boxes like Apple TV. So Facebook kind of trying to get back into the home technology game. I don't know. I really don't know any. This is not something I would want.

I mean, I already don't want the portal. I'm curious if anyone listening to the show actually has a portal or has seen one off of retail shelves. I have never seen one in the wild other than at Best Buy or something. Funny enough, I was on the Facebook marketplace the other day checking that out and people were people were trying to sell them there. I guess they they got them for a holiday or something. They didn't want them anymore. So funny enough, you can use the Facebook marketplace to find Facebook portals. The major broadcast TV networks today sued Makers of Locast, a nonprofit organization that provides free online access to broadcast TV stations.

The lawsuit filed by ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC seeks financial damages and a permanent injunction that would shut Locast down. We talked about these guys in the past. It's kind of like on and off the radar. They've been kind of expanding their services into new cities. And I've actually have, this is funny, for the last couple of weeks, I've had a homework thing up at the top of our show notes for Jason to check out the Locast app in Denver, because that's one of the places that you can actually use Locast. The story from Ars Technica goes on, of course, broadcast television networks are available for free over the air with an antenna but selling the rights to retransmit those signals in other ways is big business to the tune of 10.1 billion dollars in 2018 from cable companies and of course you got

to put a star on that cable companies because those cable companies and other tv providers will pass that that cost along to consumers in the form of broadcast TV fees. And the networks have occasionally you'll see like this network like DirecTV. You see these all the time on DirecTV and Dish Network where they have a blackout and then they're arguing with NBC or Fox or somebody and they'll have a blackout. This is why the broadcasters are typically do want to have more of those fees raised every year, and the providers like Dish Network and the cable providers kind of push back on that, and they get no argument, and you get these weird commercials for a while saying, you know, you're going to have a blackout on this date, and that's why. Locast is a non-profit. The

broadcasters are arguing basically that it is not and bankrolled by the satellite TV industry. DirecTV owner AT&T notably donated $500,000 to Locast, and Locast's founder has ties to Dish Network. The broadcasters acknowledge that a 1976 copyright law allows nonprofits to boost local broadcast signals, but they argue that low-cast is quote, nothing like the local booster services contemplated by Congress in creating this narrow exemption. In reality, the network's lawsuit says that low-cast founding funding and operations reveal it is decidedly commercial. Here's a Colorado law professors thinks that the broadcaster has some holes in it, which, you know, they basically have to prove that Locast isn't a non-profit company because the non-profit exemption is

pretty, I have it here in front of me, it's pretty much in plain English. And as long as you have a non-profit organization and you can prove that you are a non-profit organization, you probably will be able to get by with this exemption. So Locast, this is kind of like one of the things they were founded on. They were like, hey, come sue me because this is what we're going to do. This is kind of like there's on the back of that Aero, A-E-R-E-O company that was shot down from basically the Supreme Court. They were doing this for profit. And the gentleman who founded Loc, who founded, uh, low

cast, uh, was a lawyer and he said, you know what, there's this nonprofit exemption and I'm going to try this out and see if we can work. Uh, I read in the same story than ours that he had put in about $700,000 of his own money and investment into this thing. Uh, so he is truly working, running on these donations, uh, cause it seems to be a, uh, a spendy thing to do. So if you, if you like this idea and you like what they're trying to do, working, running on these donations because it seems to be a spendy thing to do. So if you like this idea and you like what they're trying to do, head on over to Locast. Give them a dollar or two to help them out. Maybe they can expand into more areas.

I will say that this kind of like, if you read this back and you're like, oh yeah, this is coming from this 1976 copyright law. This is clearly a case where laws that were made in the 1970s, 60s, and before have really no bearing and no place with the technology that we have today. We need to have a competent Congress in place to come up with better laws to regulate these kinds of things and draft laws that are better and more founded in the technology and world that we actually live in today. Because the technology of 1976 is nothing like the technology of 2019. Speaking of DirecTV there, AT&T announced today that it's rebranding its DirecTV Now streaming service, AT&T TV Now. The effort is seemingly part of AT&T's work to streamline its online TV platforms and move everything into a single application. AT&T. This is worse than if this and that AT&T TV now will seemingly coexist with AT&T TV, which is a different thing.

The company's forthcoming streaming TV service that it will test in select markets over the next several months. It's not yet clear on how these two services will be different. So this is coming from 9to5Mac. Interesting little story over there with a couple of press releases that AT&T had put out. Man, what an awful name. I just AT&T TV Now. Try again. So we got a pretty good scoop from Dave Zatz over there at ZatzNotFunny.

He's got a pretty good article here about an incoming Ecobee camera that doubles as an Echo Dot with native Alexa. He says, I'm told the camera is but one element of a whole home monitoring system. He says, indeed, we know of door and window contact sensors that are in the pipeline. And he's wondering if this will be part of a suite of full-on security services like Ring has, or will it be more kind of like informational like what Wyze has. It will be interesting to kind of see what happens with this and these products as they come out. Getting to the camera, it looks like it will feature both Apple HomeKit and Alexa integration. And closer to the Alexa integration that the current, they named them smart thermostats, but it's like their Gen 5 thermostats where they're on feature parity with like an Echo Dot. You can actually do the intercom drop-ins with the thermostats now.

So you can use your thermostat as a full-blown intercom if you'd like. And it has microphones and speakers and everything inside of it. That'll be built into this camera as well. And then Dave writes, in regards to the HomeKit, I'm doubtful we'll see Apple's new secure video implemented with this revision. So maybe a little bit longer to wait to get that HomeKit, the new HomeKit feature built into this camera. And of course, the big news today, and it's the SnapAV Control 4 merger is now completed. SnapAV CEO John Heyman will lead the merge teams as chief executive officer, while former Control 4 CEO Martin Plain will join the board of directors of Snappy V's parent company.

Jeff Heineman joins the executive team as chief revenue officer, while former Amazon Alexa executive and Control 4 SVP of products and services, Charlie Kendall, is named as chief product and technology officer. Mike Cartlett will serve as the CFO, chief financial officer. And they're saying that the company will have headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina and Salt Lake City, Utah, with the offices and local facilities around the world. Kind of big news, kind of not big news. Like this is this is what we kind of expected to happen to see the executive teams merged into kind of a

one company that's going to figure out what they're going to do and come together and put their heads together and work out a roadmap for the future. And now they're kind of free to start doing that. Now that the merger is complete, I suspect probably this time next year, we'll probably see some, I don't know, maybe a little bit later, but in a couple more months, we'll start seeing some reductions in administrative tasks, you know, duplicate services that, you know, you don't want to have like two accounting firms running one company. So you would, you would probably see some administrative staff cuts. And then I think probably next year, as I've said before, CDF 2020, maybe we'll start seeing what these two companies can really do together with Control4 doing the home control stuff,

SnappyV doing, I don't know, SnappyV doesn't really do home control, so these are very complementary companies to put together. So we'll be excited to see what this actually means and what this actually brings to the industry moving forward. All the links and topics we've discussed tonight can be found at our show notes at hometech.fm slash 268. While you're there, don't forget to sign up for the newsletter, which includes even further analysis as well as other industry news

that may or may not have made the show. Again, that link is hometech.fm slash 268. Got no mailbag this week, but I've got a pretty good pick of the week. And this one, this one comes from Harry McCracken over there on Twitter. He is, he's actually from Fast Company. He's the Fast Company tech editor. But he must have been digging through some VHS recordings or something and ran across what is Radio Shack's secret internal anthem. And it is actually a thing of beauty you do not want to miss. As he said in here, you will not want to miss the Radio Shack employees

forming the words Radio Shack on a hilltop at the very end. And yeah, it's one of these corporate 1980s corporate song things that you hear about. Pretty amazing. Go check it out at hometech.fm slash 268. If you have any feedback, questions, comments, picks of the week, or great ideas for a show, give us a shout. Our email address is feedback at hometech.fm or visit hometech.fm feedback and fill out the online form.

As with every week, we want to give a big thank you to everyone who supports the show, but especially those who are able to financially support the show through our patron page. If you don't know how our patron page works, head on over to hometech.fm slash support to learn how you can support Hometech for as little as $1 a month. Any pledge over $5 a month gets you a shout out on the show, but every pledge gets you an invite to our private Slack chat, the hub, where you and other supporters of the show can gather every day for the inside baseball conversations about all aspects of home technology. If you want to help out but can't support the show financially, we'd appreciate

a five-star review on iTunes or positive rating in the podcast app of your choice. That really helps people find the show and get them on board. So if you could do that, we'd definitely appreciate it. Home Tech is a proud member of the technology.fm collective of podcasts. If you don't know about technology.fm, head on over there and you can find other great shows like Home On, Smart Home Show, Smart Kitchen Show, and DTNS. All good stuff there, so go check it out. That wraps up the show this week for news in home technology. Jason should be back next week, so we'll be able to sit down, chat a little bit more at our normal time and do our live show at our normal time,

which is usually around, I don't know, Wednesdays, somewhere around 7, 7.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Eastern Time, whatever the standard time is here, because I can't do the math on any other time zones except here and China, evidently, which is like 12 hours away. So I can do that one pretty easily. But if you want to know more about joining us live, head on over to hometech.fm slash live and you can see how to join us there. You can also follow us on Twitter at Hometech Podcast and I typically will send out the live announcements there. But in the meantime, have a great weekend and we'll talk to you next week.