Press – Old Version (post-based)

Los Gatos, Calif., February 26, 2024 – cyberManor Inc., a 25-year-old custom home technology company based in Los Gatos was acquired today by home and small business technology installation and services company, Daisy. cyberManor is one of Daisy’s first flagship corporate-owned integrators and will begin operating with the Daisy name later in 2024. (CE Pro Magazine recently wrote This Story on the acquisition)

Via the acquisition, cyberManor will collaborate closely with Daisy’s seasoned team to provide enhanced and unparalleled services to both current and prospective clients in the San Francisco Bay Area. Daisy’s dedicated team, consisting of compassionate sales representatives, skilled technicians, and attentive client support staff, is committed to making the smart-home and office tech experience stress-free and seamless.

To achieve exceptional customer experience, Daisy has established the industry’s first franchisee support center which ensures exceptional customer experiences, offering tailored coaching, technician support, a 24/7/365 call center, advanced training, marketing assistance, and growth initiatives.

The nationally acclaimed showcase home of cyberManor in Los Gatos not only highlights cutting-edge solutions for homeowners and builders but also underscores its commitment to long-term operational excellence. Partnering with Daisy reinforces the importance of staying attuned to evolving trends and solutions in home automation, ensuring that the showcase home continues to be a state-of-the-art showcase. This collaboration bolsters cyberManor’s expertise by providing a top-tier support system tailored to the evolving needs of all clients, guaranteeing sustained performance and customer satisfaction.

“cyberManor is a renowned pioneer in smart home technology. I’m personally excited for the incredible synergy between our teams and the opportunity to deepen our expertise and enhance our reputation by partnering with cyberManor founder Gordon van Zuiden joining us,” said Hagan Kappler, Daisy founder and CEO. “Gordon’s knowledge and leadership in the smart tech space will be invaluable as we continue to simplify and enhance the digital experience in homes and offices everywhere.”

“We’re thrilled to be one of Daisy’s first national partners. Recognizing the shifting landscape of the smart home integration market, it’s crucial to provide clients with an enhanced level of support for their smart technology. While clients value our extensive experience, glowing testimonials, premium products, and exceptional staff, what truly matters to them is a partner committed to long-term care and support for their smart home. With our local in-person team and Daisy’s national remote support team, cyberManor gains a decisive competitive edge,” stated Gordon van Zuiden, founder of cyberManor.

The Daisy media kit is available here.

About Daisy  

Daisy is a nationwide home and small business technology installation and services company that simplifies smart home and office technology to make it work and perform optimally for its users, solving one of the biggest in-home problems today and bringing more joy into the home and office. For more information or to register as a future business partner, franchisee, or customer, please visit www.daisyco.com.

July 1, 2022 – Los Gatos, CA. Today, cyberManor unveiled their New Home Technology Center Portal for their builder partners and potential clients. This comprehensive portal gives visitors to the new smart home experience center a detailed overview of the home’s integrated, smart home technologies. Additionally, the new portal provides a single site to review and gain specific information on:

Gordon van Zuiden, founder of cyberManor, explained the reason for this new portal, “There is only so much information on a one hour smart home tour that we can give our builders and potential clients. We wanted to make sure that guests to the smart home could follow up with a deeper dive into any or all of the smart home technologies of interest to them. This new portal gives them these details on a room by room basis, accessible from their desktop or mobile devices, at anytime before or after their tour. The site gives our guests an in depth understanding of the home’s integrated technologies that will help them select and specify the smart home solutions they are interested for their own homes.”

Why We Built the Smart Home Experience Center

cyberManor wanted to build a showroom home – not just a showroom. We built our experience center home where we could showcase all the technology solutions that we provide our clients and builder partners. Potential customers want to see and experience the latest technology solutions for their front door/gate, kitchen, living room, media room, bedrooms, bathrooms, and the outdoors. Building a showroom home allowed us to best showcase all of these integrated solutions in one location. We also wanted to demonstrate how all of these technologies can easily be controlled by one total home control system (Control4), touchscreens, keypads, mobile apps, and voice.

Additionally, we wanted to use this new home as an educational facility for our residential builder trade partners. The installation of solar panels, batteries, and home control systems require that we work closely with solar contractors. Intelligent showering system installations require that we work closely with plumbers (see photo below). Sophisticated, tunable lighting systems and shades require that we work closely with electricians and lighting designers. This home allows us to to clearly show our partner trades how these solutions are installed and how we can best work together to provide a complete home technology solution for our clients.

We also use the smart home an R&D Center to vet and test new technologies for our clients. It even serves a housing from time to time for staff and key vendors that come to stay at cyberManor. Last but not least, an overarching objective was to make the home look as beautiful as the homes of our clients – and to make the technology implementation appear to be seamless and aesthetic. To accomplish that objective we hired a professional architect and increased our home improvement budget to include top of the line cabinetry, quartz countertops, hardwood ceilings and floors, and high end tiling for the floors and walls in the master bathroom. Gary Kohlsaat’s award winning architectural team designed the home and Celia Boutell, a local professional interior designer, created it’s beautiful interior.

January 6, 2022 – Los Gatos, CA – cyberManor is thrilled to announce that we are the national winner of the Consumer Technology Association’s Mark of Excellence Award for 2022 for our New Home Technology Center. This prestigious award was recognized as a cover story in the Los Gatos Weekly and in the local section of the San Jose Mercury News. The Mark of Excellence Awards, presented by the Smart Home Division of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, recognize the best in custom integration and installed technology. Each year manufacturers, distributors and systems integrators compete in more than 20 award categories for this coveted honor. 
 
cyberManor won this award in the Speciality Project of the Year category. This award recognizes an integrator’s creativity and innovative use of technology to achieve a specific application.  The entry can include sustainable/green energy projects, as well as emerging technologies, including virtual reality / augmented reality, voice control, or advanced systems in audio (i.e., listening technology), video, or security camera technology (i.e., facial recognition, thermal imaging).

cyberManor built our New Home Technology Center home behind our main office in Los Gatos from 2016 to 2021. The home is a 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath loft style, 1,300 square foot townhome with a garage, front and rear yards, and a garden roof deck. This New Home Technology Center (NHTC) was built to emulate the Sunset Idea Homes theme. Sunset Idea homes are built to promote the most innovative building design, interior decorator and exterior landscaping ideas. The company built our Technology Center to promote and showcase best of breed innovative home technology ideas that improve the entertainment, comfort, and security of the homes in which we live. When all the electronic systems are intelligent, connected, and integrated the home can become personalized for the needs of every family member. Each can simply controlled by the sound of one’s voice or the touch of a keypad, phone or tablet.

Here are just a few of the many technology solutions that you can see, touch, control and experience in the cyberManor New Home Technology Center:

cyberManor wanted to build a showroom home – not just a showroom. According to Gordon van Zuiden, founder of cyberManor, “We built our experience center home so we could showcase all the technology solutions that we provide our clients and builder partners. Potential customers want to see and experience the latest technology solutions for their front door/gate, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, and the outdoors. Builder partners not only want AV, lighting, shades, and security solutions – but energy and water management, healthy indoor air quality, and enhanced outdoor living and entertainment solutions. Building a showroom home allowed us to best showcase all of those solutions in one location. We also wanted to demonstrate how all of these technologies can easily be controlled by one total home control system (Control4), touchscreens, keypads, mobile apps, and voice.”

“Another overarching objective was to make the home look as beautiful as the homes of our clients – and to make the technology implementation appear to be seamless and aesthetic in accordance with the home’s overall appearance. To meet that objective we hired Celia Boutell, our interior designer to create the look and feel of our home. We also increased our home improvement budget to include top of the line cabinetry, quartz countertops, hardwood ceilings/floors, and dramatic tiling for the floors and walls in the master bathroom.”

LOS GATOS, CA – April 26, 2021 cyberManor announced today that its’ New Home Technology Experience Center (NHTC), in the heart of Silicon Valley, can now be rented on AirB&B or toured as a Smart Home Experience on AirB&B. After a very successful launch of the AirB&B site to initial renters of the home in April cyberManor has decided to continue this rental offering through the rest of 2021 and 2022. Guests of the home experience first hand a residence fully controlled by Control4 enhanced by Josh’s voice assistance. When first entering the home a guest can simply announce, “OK Josh, I’m Home” and the lights turn on, music plays softly in the kitchen, the TV turns on, motorized shades rise, the heating system turns on, the skylights open, and even the backyard fountain turns on. With four easy words the power of an integrated Control4 home comes to life. Our guest’s stay is simply smarter with Josh and Control4 working together. We call it a Talk, Touch, Push, Point, home control experience. Even the new Apple Watch can control our Control4 Certified home!

The home is also a showcase for the latest in motorized short throw projection and screen technology. In the master bedroom a Screen Innovations 90” screen drops from the ceiling and an LG 4K high resolution ultra short throw projector provides a movie theater experience from the comfort and luxury of a high tech bed from Bryte Bed. The adjoining master bathroom features the latest hydrotherapy shower experience from Kohler, heated flooring and towel bar, and even an Electric Mirror disappearing TV located behind the large vanity mirror where one can catch up on the latest news, personal calendar, or local traffic conditions.

The home also features the latest in energy management technology. The 12 solar panels on the roof generate enough power in the summer to fulfill the home’s energy requirements during the day with the excess solar energy stored in a Sonnen battery that is used to meet the evening’s electrical consumption needs. The battery also ensures that the home has power even when the electrical grid goes down.

You can tour the smart home experience center by clicking on the following interactive 3D video below:

According to Gordon van Zuiden, founder of cyberManor, “We completed our Control4 Certified New Home Technology Center home in December of 2020 – just after COVID-19 pandemic struck and shut down all of our in person showroom tours. So we pivoted and did a number of successful virtual tours of the showroom for our residential clients, builders, and vendor partners. We still do those virtual tours but now we’ve decided that the ultimate high tech home experience is to actually live in our New Home Technology Center for several days to gain an immersive experience of all the home’s smart technologies. We opened the home to AirB&B guests in April and the success and enjoyment of our initial guest experiences went far beyond our expectations so we will be continue this rental program through the end of summer. It will be open not only to guests traveling to Los Gatos but also to key potential clients that want to live in a Control4 certified home for a few days to help them make a final decision on using Control4 and cyberManor for their new home or upgrade project.”

Gordon went on to explain, “Once we are allowed to open the showroom home to larger groups of guests we plan to hold informational events on the latest home technologies for our builder partners as well as create an AirBnB experience where guests can visit the home for an hour or two to get a better understanding of the wide range of smart home technology experiences in the home. Before COVID hit last year and during construction of the home we did a large AirBnB experience tour for a large group of builders from South America where they learned how they could best integrate the smart home experiences they saw at cyberManor into the homes they were building in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.”

Alma, one of the New Home Technology’s first guests wrote in her AirB&B review,

“If you’re looking to take a step into the future of smart home technology all the while maintaining the coziness of a family member’s guest home then look no further than this Home Technology Experience Center townhome! The accommodation is a luxurious yet cozy smart home that features a fully integrated Control4 system that allows you to control everything from lighting, shades, and even music from panels mounted on the walls! With all of the amazing features, the house itself became the main attraction of our entire trip. In addition to the amazing technology the house is also a beautifully designed yet warm space. This high-tech paradise is an amazing find that I can’t recommend highly enough.”

Learn more about staying at the cyberManor NHTC AirB&B, or contact Gordon van Zuiden.

About cyberManor:

cyberManor’s mission is to design, install, and integrate Internet-empowered home networking solutions that enhance the entertainment, communications, and comfort of their client’s homes. Since 1999 cyberManor has designed and installed integrated home technology solutions for more than 2000 of the finest homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, including 4 Sunset Idea Homes, HP’s Digital Showcase home, and CE Pro’s LEED Platinum home of the year. In 2020 cyberManor completed their Control4 New Home Technology Experience Center which was honored by CE Pro Magazine as one of the top 2 experience center showrooms in the United States.

About Control4:

Control4 is a leading provider of automation and networking systems for homes and businesses, offering a personalized and unified smart home system to automate and control connected devices including lighting, audio, video, climate control, intercom, and security. Founded in 2003 Control4 debuted at the 2004 CEDIA Expo home technology trade show and released its first products later that year, as an early entrant in the home automation market. Over 15 years later, the Control4 operating system now interoperates with approximately 14,000 third-party products, is available in over 100 countries, currently runs in around 400,000 homes, and orchestrates more than 15 million connected devices worldwide.

About Josh.ai:

Headquartered in Denver with offices in L.A., Josh.ai is the product of serial entrepreneurs Alex Capecelatro, CEO, and Tim Gill, CTO. Like Siri or Google Now, the Josh programming language is built to support natural language voice commands. This includes greetings, questions, instructions, and more. Further, Josh is built to control and connect any “smart” device, from any device. For example, with Josh you can turn on your speakers from your watch, change the temperature from your phone, shut off the lights from your desktop, etc. Initially, Josh will be focused on the smart home, but over time they envision a more general-purpose AI. Josh will go where you go, making your life easier and more productive.

About AirB&B:

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to 4 million Hosts who have welcomed over 800 million guest arrivals in almost every country across the globe. Every day, Hosts offer one-of-a-kind stays and unique Experiences that make it possible for guests to experience the world in a more authentic, connected way.

cyberManor Unveils Control4 Certified New Home Technology Center

Los Gatos, CA – December 1, 2020 – (9AM) – cyberManor, Inc. is pleased to unveil its new Control4 Certified New Home Technology Center, located at 610 University Avenue, Los Gatos, CA. cyberManor, Inc. has been in business for over 20 years, focusing on providing home automation, entertainment, comfort, and security systems to Silicon Valley homeowners. Our customers seek out the latest home technologies, and we design each system to suit their current needs and smart home features they may want to add to their homes in the future.

cyberManor New Home Technology Center from Gordon van Zuiden on Vimeo.

Our new showroom home is designed to give local Silicon Valley homeowners, builders, architects, and designers the opportunity to experience a Control4 Smart Home in a real home environment. This Control4 Certified Showroom home demonstrates the wide range of possibilities in a smart home system, from a one-room entertainment solution that controls everything in the family room to a whole house Control4 system that includes lighting, temperature control, multi-room audio, shade control and much more. cyberManor’s new showroom home is a powerful way of educating consumers through personalized and engaging home automation experiences.

“Upon entering our showroom home visitors can interact with different aspects of a Control4 Smart Home. We have actually built a new 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath townhouse that realistically depicts the full range of Control4’s smart home benefits in a fully functioning home. Our goal is for them to be inspired and envision similar experiences being incorporated into their own homes or projects” said Gordon van Zuiden, President, cyberManor, Inc.

“We are thrilled that cyberManor has opened a Control4 Certified Showroom in Los Gatos, CA. Our dealers are passionate about what they do, and they value being able to educate and guide their consumers to reach their ideal smart home installation experience from start to finish,” said Bryce Judd, SVP Sales at Control4. “Because cyberManor offers an immersive showroom experience, homeowners in their area get the opportunity to really engage with their dealer and gain a deeper understanding of the smart home experience.”

Customers today have higher-than-ever expectations when they walk into a showroom; they are seeking a purposeful, personalized, and educational retail experience. They need to see, touch, feel and compare in person, to properly evaluate products and make a confident decision in their purchases. A brick-and mortar location provides the storytelling, interactivity, and lifestyle demonstrations that allow homeowners to take control of their technology by test-driving everything from lighting control to entertainment.

Control4 Certified Showrooms reflect a significant investment by premier Control4 Certified Dealers who are passionate about Control4 brands. cyberManor’s showroom showcases a range of lifestyle demonstrations including:

• • One-room Entertainment
• • Whole House Smart Lighting
• • Motorized Window and Skylight Shade Control
• • Multi-room Audio and Video
• • Camera Security
• • Comfort
• • Voice Control
• • Networking

DESCRIPTIVE TOUR OF THE CONTROL4 CERTIFIED SMART HOME

The first technology you discover when you tour the home is the beautiful brass Control4 entry station at the front door that provides a ring notification that someone is at the front door to all the touchscreens in the home as well as mobile devices outside of the home. A camera at this front door entry station allows anyone inside the home or with a remote phone to see and talk to the person at the door. An electronic keypad wirelessly connected to a Baldwin Evolve intelligent door lock allows the homeowner to assign time dependent access codes for entry into the home entering their home, eliminating the need for a physical key.

Once you walk into the home, a simple voice command saying “Okay Josh, I’m home” or “Alexa, I’m home” will turn on the living room and kitchen lights, open the living room shade and kitchen curtain, turn on the music to a preferred listening station, turn the heating or air conditioning system on if needed, and turn off the security system. From the 10” Control4 touchscreen flush mounted near the front door you can easily close the garage door, turn on the landscaping lights and fountain, start the irrigation system, or view the performance of the home’s solar backup sonnen battery system.

In this solar powered intelligent home if the interior summer temperature is above 75 degrees the Velux skylights automatically open and the Haiku smart ceiling fan turns on to provide convection cooling prior to turning on the more energy intensive AC system, thereby preserving and extending the sonnen solar battery life. The home’s energy management system is even intelligent enough to know that if the local weather forecast predicts cloudy days ahead the battery should be charged during the lower electrical rate off peak hours so that inexpensive stored electricity is available to the home during the more expensive daytime hours. The home also has installed Schneider Electric smart circuit breakers that can intelligently turn off and on circuits in the home during power outages – further extending the life of the battery for all the electrical needs of the home.

Walk into the kitchen from the living room and the latest connected kitchen technology solutions from Bosch and Thermador are on display. The coffee machine can deliver up to 8 personalized beverages so family members and houseguests can program their own favorite drinks—from a single shot espresso, to tea, to extra-large cappuccinos. These drinks can be initiated by voice command for the ultimate ease of use coffee making experience. The Thermador oven can also be turned on to a specific temperature by voice command or even from a Josh.ai total home control portal on a Tesla touchscreen on your way home.

Walk upstairs and along the wall you will find the latest solution in digital picture frames from Meural, a Netgear company. Images of family photos and vacation trips can be scheduled and programmed to display on these high resolution picture frames at anytime of day or night. When you leave the home, or when it is dark, these digital screens automatically fade to black.

Upstairs in the master bedroom an 85” motorized short throw screen from Screen Innovations drops down from the vaulted ceiling for an immersive TV and movie viewing experience projected from an LG Cinebeam short throw projector. When the master bedroom C4 Neeo handheld remote control Watch mode is turned off the screen retracts into the ceiling when not in use to restore the open feel of the master bedroom loft space.

In the morning you can push a Fibaro Zwave connected button sitting on the nightstand that invokes an “I’m awake” scene that raises the master bathroom shades, turns on the desired music and the flat screen LCD computer hidden behind the Electric Mirror to current news or local weather information, and even starts the Kohler Intelligent shower to the homeowner’s preferred shower temperature and spa setting.

The home was built so that a visitor can not only see the design and beauty of these integrated home technologies working seamlessly together but also understand what is required to make all these solutions work by “looking under the hood”. Tours of the home include the mechanical room where the home’s centralized lighting panel, networking wiring and hardware, solar battery/inverter, and master bathroom shower controls are located. Inside the family room an AV rack can be pulled out and rotated to show how all the home’s AV gear is custom installed and connected.

The New Home Technology Center investment is the centerpiece and culmination of cyberManor’s 20+ years of expertise designing and installing home technology solutions for clients in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was designed to be educational for our clients, builder partners, and vendors and serves as a working lab to prove and test the integration of the best of breed manufacturers that we recommend and install in our clients’ homes every day.

This new Control4 Certified showroom home is open by personal appointment or virtual tour Monday through Friday from 9AM to 5PM. Click here to see a recorded video of our last virtual showroom tour. The showroom home is available for individual as well as group tours. To book an appointment please email Shannon Evaristo at sevaristo@cybermanor.com or call us at 408-399-3331.