United States. Snap One's OvrC keeps the technology in an 11,000-square-foot tampa-based smart home running smoothly, thanks to the ability to do remote reboots and generate real-time alerts.
The Lucas family, client and owner of the property located in Tampa, wanted to reduce the probability of failures and have immediate support in case of eventualities, so they turned to Don Dunn, vice president of technology at HavenSmart, who with his team of home technology integrators installed a remote monitoring software so that the house worked smoothly at all times.
Installed on the home Araknis Internet router, the OvrC software permanently monitors any problems that may occur with the products on the home network. In case of a failure or eventuality, HavenSmart knows this immediately, thanks to the notifications sent by the system.
The notification process is done through a computerized map that represents the client's house, in this case of the Lucas family, when everything is fine the terminals are represented by green dots, which at the time of failure change to red.
From this map, the OvrC software allows access to all the electronic components of the home network, so that a HavenSmart technician can quickly identify the culprit.
Dunn commented, "In almost every case, we can fix the problem remotely by restarting the device. For a family as busy as this, it was imperative that all electronic devices had reliable and consistent performance. They wanted their home technologies to be error-proof, downtime to be minimal, and never to fail. OvrC enables just that."
In that sense, the Lucas house, which occupies an area of 11,000 square feet, is based in OvrC because it needs to maintain 24-hour supervision over a remarkable variety of technologies. As are the outdoor surveillance cameras, the network router, the distributed audio and video system, several smart TVs and a rack of audiovisual equipment that includes satellite receivers.
"Florida's power grid is delicate because of frequent storms and power outages, which can disrupt a home's electronic devices," Dunn explained. "Mr. Lucas knew it, so did we, so it made a lot of sense to install OvrC."
However, what really convinced the remote monitoring platform family was the ability to restart components from afar. "Any device with IP – which in this house is almost everything – can go offline or freeze when there is a failure in the Internet service"
In that sense, Dunn added that the OvrC program avoids this problem by allowing disconnected or frozen components to be restarted at the push of a button from anywhere, so that all the attachments in the home work again, usually before the family realizes the problem.
Even for greater security OvrC automatically self-repairs the network. It continuously pings the Internet and if there is no response it starts its own restart of the router and modem.
In addition, HavenSmart adapted a quick reset button in the OvrC app so that the family can deal with a suspected failure independently. In this case, it is particularly useful with satellite receivers and smart TVs, as updates can block them at times, so lucas can easily remedy it, without having to manipulate the equipment, just by pressing a button on their smartphones.
Another attractive point of this solution is that although HavenSmart is always there to rescue the home from occasional small setbacks, the family maintains some control over its own environment.
Dunn explained that in this way the family could be involved as much as they wanted in the supervision and arrangement of their devices, whether it was nothing or a lot, while for them as service providers it also implies a profit, because added to the level of customer satisfaction was having less time expenses.
Finally, thanks to OvrC, HavenSmart has reduced its truck journeys by at least 75%. Which translates into less time on the road and in customers' homes, less wear and tear to decipher problems and more money, plus a change in the way you look at the business.
"We focus less on closing jobs, but more on continuing them by providing a great service that keeps our customers happy. OvrC plays a very important role in this approach. It is invaluable to our business," Dunn said.
