Brilliant Max: Unique Value

It’s always an exciting time at a company whenever there is a new product release.  I’ve been fortunate enough to work at some companies that have had similar buzz and great success.  With Sonos there were many, the original Sub, Playbar, and Play:1 to name a few.  With eero there was the eero Beacon (bring it back) and eero Plus.  At Brilliant, the launch of our smart dimmer, smart plug, and more recently faceplate 2.0 and PoE.  Each product, both hardware and software, comes with its own set of challenges, excitement, and expectations.  

With our recent release of Brilliant Max, I know that the initial knee-jerk response from end users will be something along the lines of, “Great, yet another subscription service”.  I had the same reaction - until I took a deeper look at the subscription services that exist. And I noticed we are doing something different that actually activates the smart home while also giving AV professionals an opportunity at recurring revenue they did not have before. With that in mind, let’s examine our place in this world of subscription services that homeowners live in and how we are truly different.

I feel there are two main subscriptions that I consider to be the most common.  The first is going to be the monitored security system.  Roughly $40/month, panel on the wall, sensors on doors and windows, maybe some smart home tech added in, but their value is the service of having someone call you and potentially dispatch police.  We, from experience, know that more often than not it’s a false alarm.  But in the end, the home doesn’t do anything really.  It’s a home that continues as it was, regardless of whether the alarm was real or false.  But people will pay that $40/month for the peace of mind.

The other scenario is for those who don’t need the monitored security, but still want to see their cameras and manage the system themselves, roughly $10/month.  They can watch recorded videos and get alerts, but again, the home doesn’t “do” anything.

This is where Brilliant Max is uniquely positioned to offer something that homeowners will actually use and benefit from.  Brilliant Max will customize the home to your exact specifications through a combination of triggers, actions, and presence sensors.  Left the home but didn’t activate your away mode?  Brilliant Max will suggest and activate that for you.  Gone for the long weekend?  We’ll put your home into Vacation mode, which will also randomize lights to give the illusion of being home.  A door is opened while one of these modes is activated. Not only will you get your notification, but we’ll put your home into action.  Lights on, doors lock, music plays (or blares if you choose), shades raise; anything you want to have happen will activate.  Now, instead of only telling you something may be off, with Brilliant Max it’s actively doing something for your clients.  This is actual value.  And this is just the beginning.

This service will continue to improve over time.  Making additional suggestions and recommendations to enhance the modes.  “Home” and “Night” modes are coming in just a couple of months to tailor exact experiences.  Run these modes in conjunction with the scenes you create to, as we say, have the smart home run itself.  We’re excited for your feedback on our first software offering. Let us know how you’re positioning and selling Brilliant Max.  Email me for a training, and we’ll dive into the details to make it super simple for you, and I’ll show you how you now have a model for recurring revenue in the AV space that did not exist before.

Here’s to this product launch and many more to come!

Oki

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Hi, I'm Ryan "Oki" Okimoto - and yes, the nickname stuck.

I've spent the better part of 15 years making tech feel less like a chore and more like a superpower. I cut my teeth at Sonos, where I helped people fall in love with music across their homes. From there, I joined eero to help the world's connected devices just work. Now at Brilliant, I'm knee-deep in the smart home space, helping builders, integrators, and homeowners realize that home automation doesn't have to be complicated, because within the next decade, every home will be a smart home.

If it plugs in, makes your home smarter, or has an app.  I've probably tried it or trained someone on it.  Pull up a chair — let's talk tech.