NanoLumens Introduces The Industry's First Six-Year, Zero Failure Warranty Program

NanoLumens® today announced a precedent-setting Six-Year, Zero Failure Warranty Program, effective for all NanoLumens displays purchased from September 1, 2013. According to Karen Robinson, Executive Vice President of Business Development, the new warranty covers everything, down to a single LED.

“NanoLumens displays are designed, engineered, and manufactured to the very highest quality standards,” Robinson said today. “Our Six-Year, Zero Failure Warranty Program underscores our belief that NanoLumens displays are second to none in quality.”

According to Robinson, other LED display manufacturers can leave customers exposed to a 0.5% LED failure rate. “It may seem low at first glance. However, if you own a display that has one million LEDs, you will face the reality that 5,000 individual LEDs need to be defective before your warranty covers repairs. At NanoLumens, this is unacceptable. We promise customers zero failure coverage, an industry first that establishes a new benchmark for other LED manufacturers to try to meet.”

The new warranty covers the entire display from corner to corner, including all parts and controller devices, sold by NanoLumens to end users, resellers, and distributors, effective from the date of shipment. NanoLumens warrants to the end user that the display will be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use as intended by NanoLumens for the warranty period and applies only to the displays as originally installed at the end user location. For more information about the new warranty program, please contact Clay Montaigne at cmontaigne@nanolumens.com.

Award-Winning Homebuilders Use ELAN g! To Capitalize On Housing Market Recovery

Consumer confidence is high, new home sales surged 8.3 percent in May and new home prices have climbed month over month in 2013, so it’s clear the housing market is recovering. Builders need to find ways to stand out and capitalize on this market growth, and one way to do so is to offer things that others don’t even consider, like total home control. Award-winning builders Jim Blansfield of Danbury, Connecticut-based Blansfield Builders, Inc. and Josh Wynne of Sarasota, Florida-based Josh Wynne Construction have both partnered with local integrators and found huge success using the ELAN® g! Entertainment and Control System to help close new home sales.

“I’m a believer in ‘the new normal’ way of thinking,” Blansfield said, “and with the affordable and expandable control solutions made possible by ELAN g!, home control is the new normal! In the past two years, I’ve closed several new homes by demoing the g! system for prospective clients. I have a g! system in my own home, so I’m the first person to say how easy it is to use, and my clients are consistently impressed that I include technology in my designs and recommendations, because many other builders minimize the importance of home technologies.”

Since partnering with the Danbury integration firm Structured Home Solutions, Blansfield has built 13 homes that include ELAN g! systems of varying size and complexity. Whether the new buyers were looking for enhanced security, HVAC scheduling, lighting, irrigation and pool controls, or super simple whole-home audio and video systems, every client received a custom solution tailored to their specific needs. From a business perspective, Blansfield knows that his knowledge, appreciation and passion for technology place him in an entirely different category from other builders.

“Any builders who resist change and aren’t prepared to talk to clients about integrated home control solutions will hurt themselves in the long run,” he said. “I even push remodel clients to install the ELAN g! system because it adds so much value to the home, and brings it into the 21st century more so than new countertops or an updated bathroom could ever do.”

Josh Wynne has had similar success integrating advanced home technologies with the ELAN g! system, and has teamed up with Sarasota integrator SmartHouse Integration to offer his new clients the best that modern home technology has to offer. Wynne is building four new LEED Platinum certified homes in 2013, each featuring the ELAN g! system to control core subsystems such as AV, HVAC, security, lighting, window shades, irrigation, garage doors, pool controls and surveillance cameras.

According to Wynne, “I’ve strived to make a basic home automation package standard for every new home I build. When smartphones came on the market a lot more people started to see how easily these advanced systems could integrate into their homes and help them live more simply and comfortably, and I’ve used that culture movement to benefit my business. Most of my projects are relatively big budget, around the $1 million mark, but there’s absolutely no reason that a $250,000 home shouldn’t include a multi-room audio system, an integrated HVAC or lighting system that saves money and energy, or a security and surveillance system that can be accessed remotely from any smartphone or tablet.

Both builders agree that determining the buyers’ interests is key to selling advanced home control solutions, whether they love music and want multi-room audio or desire heightened peace of mind and would benefit from a mobile-accessible security and surveillance system. From there it’s a small leap to demo the entire ELAN g! system and highlight all the trappings that easy-to-use home control offers. Another thing they agree on is the need to use a reliable, qualified integrator to make the homeowner’s technological dreams a practical reality. That’s why they’ve each partnered with a top integration firm in their respective regions, and worked together to craft custom solutions that make every home the perfect living environment for the owners.

Family Owned Chain of Pharmacies Keep An "Eye on Their Stores" Using the ELAN g! Control System

The Lomax family is no stranger to running a successful business. Founded in 1973, the family’s pharmacy business is experiencing rapid growth and now includes five northeastern Arkansas pharmacies. In 2009, their then newest pharmacy suffered, in a two-month period, two break-in attempts and several false alarms from the store’s security system. And every time an incident occurred someone had to get up, even at 2 a.m., and drive 50 miles to reset the alarm and survey the situation. The family realized this was an extremely inefficient and inconvenient way to manage security for multiple stores, so they went in search of a solution, and found it – the ELAN g! Control System.

The Lomax’s introduction to the ELAN g! Control System occurred in the fall of 2010 when they were getting ready to open their newest of five pharmacies. They met with Ryan Heringer, President of Jonesboro, Arkansas-based Sound Concepts, who suggested and installed the ELAN g! Control System to give them remote control over the store’s surveillance cameras, security system, heating, air conditioning and lighting.

“I knew the ELAN g! Control System was what they needed for the pharmacy,” said Heringer. “And once they saw how simple it is to control their whole store from the iPhone app, they knew it too. Now they can monitor surveillance cameras and the alarm system from home, and also control lighting, heating, audio and video, so it was the perfect solution.”

Now, instead of waking up to drive 50 miles when an alarm is triggered, Kyle Lomax can open the g!Mobile app on his iPhone and instantly view the live surveillance cameras, and turn off or reset the alarm. “On Saturday we close at noon, and one Saturday I got a call from our alarm company at 2 p.m. that the alarm tripped, and they asked if they should dispatch the police,” said Lomax. “I said yes, and then immediately logged in to the g! iPhone app to view the surveillance system. Before the police even got there I knew it was a false alarm. If I didn’t have the g!Mobile app, I would have had to go all the way back to the store right after I got home.”

The Lomax’s know that pharmacies are a potential target for criminal activity, so security and surveillance are very important to them. “We’ve had people try to come in through the drive-thru window before, so now we have a camera right above the window,” said Lomax. “There’s another one outside the front door and the back door, and seven more inside the store. We can’t see the whole interior from the register area, so having all the camera feeds on one screen right on the counter is important for the safety of our employees and our store. And we can adjust everything from any computer in the pharmacy.”

To reduce their energy costs, they programmed the system to automatically turn on and off the lights, heating and air conditioning at specific times every day. The system also includes three zones of audio with ELAN Elios speakers and a 37-inch HDTV in the waiting area that displays the pharmacy’s internal marketing messages and cable news programs.

The Lomax’s are now installing the ELAN g! Control System in all five of their pharmacies, as well as any new locations that they open. “As our business grows, we will increasingly rely on the remote-monitoring system to ensure our stores run smoothly and to handle any incidents,” said Lomax.

The ELAN g! Series Control System provides users with the most uniform and intuitive icon-based control from their favorite devices, including TVs, touch screens, touch pads, PCs, iPhones, and iPads. The standardized interface works across platforms, so that the trendy g!Mobile app users love on the iPhone appears and works similarly on ELAN touch screens, valets and handheld remotes as well as users' TVs and mobile devices. And the system's IP backbone makes it just as easy to control the system from across the room as across the globe.

Forward-Thinking Minnesota Builder Now Pre-Wires Every New House For ELAN g! Whole Home Automation

When Rocky DiGiacomo, a forward-thinking Minneapolis home builder, heard about the ELAN® g! Series IP-based Home Control System that can use the iPhone to control every household function, he knew home buyers would love it. Now DiGiacomo is putting his belief into action and pre-wiring every new home he builds with ELAN g! home control technology — leaving it up to the consumer to then decide which functions and which components they want to install in their new home as part of the finishing process.

DiGiacomo, founder of 20-year old DiGiacomo Homes and Renovation, Inc., wanted his houses to include value-added features to differentiate them from the competition, and he found one solution – ELAN g! He believes the ELAN g! system is going to help him sell a new $1.3 million house in Golden Valley, Minnesota. This is his first ELAN g! system installation, and he integrated 6-zone independent and simultaneous audio/video sourcing into 9 rooms, energy management control, and pre-wired for the home’s security system and surveillance cameras.

Well aware of the iPhone’s massive popularity, he believes that the ELAN g! iPhone app is a way to make home control simple and intuitive. The ELAN g! app is also available on internet-connected iPads, laptops, and PCs, providing complete home control from anywhere in the world.

“We’ve seen the success of the iPhone, and believe that with it, we can make home control attractive and accessible to anyone,” said DiGiacomo. “The ELAN g! app is simple enough for anyone to use, and can even do some things on its own, such as when you pull in the driveway, it can automatically open the garage door and turn off the security system. You don’t even have to hit a button. And you can monitor security cameras and control climate settings from anywhere in the world.”

When DiGiacomo heard about ELAN g! he turned to J.J. Vanderson & Co., a dealer that has been selling ELAN systems for more than 15 years, for a demo. Owner Jay Vandermyde asserts that people who want home control want all the features that ELAN g! offers, including web-streaming music and audio/video distribution. And he tells builders that with remote lighting and heating controls, the ELAN g! System even helps homeowners save on energy costs and makes homes more eco-friendly.

“In today’s crowded marketplace, builders need to make their properties stand out from the competition,” said Vandermyde. “ELAN g! is great because the consumer can expand the system as their needs and wants change. It’s easy to sell, easy to demo, and easy to install and maintain, which limits or eliminates service calls.”

The ELAN g! Series Home Control System provides users with the most uniform and intuitive icon-based control from their favorite devices, including TVs, touch screens, touch pads, PCs, iPhones, and iPads. The standardized interface works across platforms, so that the trendy g!Mobile app users love on the iPhone appears and works similarly on ELAN touch screens, valets and handheld remotes as well as users' televisions and mobile devices. And the system's IP backbone makes it just as easy to control the system from across the room as across the globe.

Individual apps for each subsystem allow the user to control security, climate, lighting, media, irrigation, pool/spa, messaging, video and photos with the flick of a finger. Access is fast and secure through any ELAN home interface or globally with mobile Internet enabled devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Netbooks, and PC Tablets. Since the intuitive interface empowers users with personalized scheduling and detailed history views, high consumption subsystems like lighting and climate can be closely monitored and managed for a greener lifestyle - and substantial energy savings.