Atlona Extends AV Systems Into Residential And Light Commercial Markets

Atlona is extending the reach of its whole-home AV systems into the residential and light commercial markets through a new partnership with Josh.ai, an industry leader in artificial intelligence for the home.

The complete solution integrates Josh voice control platforms with Atlona HDR-H2H and PRO3 Series HDMI-to-HDBaseT matrix switchers. The simple configuration-based setup processes allow installers to offer intelligent, high-quality distributed AV for connected homes and small businesses.

According to Josh.ai CEO Alex Capecelatro, the partnership brings Josh full circle as a control and automation solution for luxury homes, restaurants and other facilities aiming to channel video and audio content from room to room. Prior to the Atlona partnership, many Josh installations were deployed to serve standalone AV systems in specific rooms, and/or programmed with macros from other control systems to channel media throughout various zones.

Integration with Atlona's 4K/UDR and HDR-capable matrix switchers provide installers with flexible options to "bring the magic Josh experience" to any home or business regardless of size or scope, supporting I/O counts of up to 16x16 with a single Atlona switcher. This flexibility will enable end users to easily search for content, and distribute video and audio from any source to one or more destinations. As Capecelatro explains, the integration offers a "re-architecture with a more elegant touch point" to seamlessly move higher quality content to premium video displays and speaker systems.

"We're excited to partner with Atlona for advanced voice control over distributed content," said Capecelatro, CEO. "This is an incredibly important integration for our luxury clients who want the power of distributed systems, with the simplicity of being able to ask for any music or video content in a room and have it instantly play. Atlona is an important manufacturer for many of our dealers, and we're excited with the range and performance of what they offer. Our goal with Josh.ai is to deliver a magical experience to the user and this integration gets us one step closer to that vision."

The Josh platform will self-discover the Atlona switcher on the network upon connection, accelerating the deployment process for custom installers and systems integrators. From this point, HDMI inputs and outputs are easily mapped and configured, with all connections clearly arranged by number on the Josh interface. Once live, users can move from room to room and request to watch or listen to content, with Josh's room-aware microphone "hearing" the request, which is then processed within the platform. The Atlona matrix switcher then executes the appropriate signal flow.