Design Buy Build Issue 34 2018 | Page 96

Nice Expansion Nice looks to the future as it celebrates its 25th year. Home Automation specialist Nice continues along its path of international expansion by acquiring Polish company FIBARO, one of the major players worldwide in the Smart Home sector, which offers a true wireless, modular ecosystem for a connected, controlled and customized building suited to the user’s specific needs. In addition to existing lines of automatic gates, garage doors, shutters, blinds and access barriers, Nice will now be able to offer a complete range of integrated Smart Home products which are the heart of the home and building management system, including award winning advanced multifunction sensors, which monitor the indoor environment for factors such as flooding, fumes and presence of CO, sensors that detect whether doors and windows are open, acoustic alarms and cameras. It also offers innovative heat controllers that optimize the temperature of the house and allow significant energy savings. The applications for smartphones and tablets are extraordinarily easy and intuitive, and are available from the App Store, Google Play and the web. Moreover, it is possible to control FIBARO devices by voice control, choosing among several virtual assistants, such as Google Assistant®, Amazon Alexa® and Apple’s Siri® which respond to voice commands and the user’s questions, enabling the management of lights, automation, cameras, heat controllers, sensors and scenarios in the home. “Nice and Fibaro are united by a drive for innovation and digitalization, as well as by a shared mission: to simplify the daily lives of people by offering an extraordinary, simple, friendly and secure user” commented Lauro Buoro, founder and Chairman of Nice S.p.A.. “This important new deal allows us to accelerate our growth by offering a portfolio of the most complete products in the Home Automation and Home Security sector, thus strengthening our position of leadership in world markets, characterized by the growing demand for connected solutions to allow consumers to have their own most innovative Smart Home.” The Nice Group, which has production and distribution facilities and research and development centres in more than 20 different countries has also recently acquired Abode Systems, Inc., an American company specialized in offering smart solutions for home security and integrated Home Automation. [email protected] www.niceforyou.com 96