CEDIA 2016 marks Luxul’s first appearance as a Legrand company, and the home-networking provider will reveal several innovations that go beyond the usual enterprise-grade solutions that Luxul kicks out year after year.
Best known for its inventions around Wi-Fi roaming – users can move from access point to access point without disrupting their Wi-Fi connection — Luxul will introduce at CEDIA (booth #4728) a couple of new “Roam Assist” solutions that combine both a router and a wireless controller in a single box. Previously the technology could be found only in Luxul's standalone wireless controllers.
The new combo products are simple to configure and more affordable than separates.
One of the new systems, the XWR-1200 is “essentially the custom installer’s answer to Eero and similar consumer-targeted multi-AP wireless solutions,” Clark Roundy, Luxul VP marketing, tells CE Pro.
Despite the product’s simplicity and accessible price points, however, “We’re not going out with DIY messaging about this,” says Luxul CEO Jeff Curtis. “Our traditional channel will eat this up.”
New Luxul Products for CEDIA 2016
XWR-3100 Empowered Wireless Gigabit Router
The XWR-3100 (specs below) is more than just another very-good 802.11ac 4×4 MU-MIMO router, according to Roundy: “It is actually designed as a platform upon which the entire network infrastructure can be based.”
As mentioned above, the unit has a built-in wireless controller that includes Luxul’s Roam Assist technology to make it scalable. Dealers can add up to two additional wireless access points (APs) and maintain a seamless roaming experience across the entire Wi-Fi network.
It will also be the platform on which third-party applications reside. Luxul is announcing a few new platform partners at CEDIA, as discussed below.
XWR-1200
Clark calls the aforementioned XWR-1200 Roam Assist-enabled router/controller (specs below) the “little brother” of the XWR-3100. While it exceeds the performance of the hip new DIY networking solutions from Eero, Luma, Securifi and others, the product nevertheless “competes well from a price perspective,” according to Roundy.
The key is that it offers margins to the channel “and the ability to add value that they [integrators] may not be able to add with DIY-type type solutions.”
The product features 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO technology.
XWO-BKT1 Dual-Band Outdoor Wireless Bridge Kit
Did you ever have a remote network, maybe the pool house, that you wanted to connect to a primary network in the home?
Luxul’s new wireless XWO-BKT1 bridge kit does the trick without required the digging of a trench for a wired connection.
Bridging can be done at either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bandwidth, depending on the speed/distance requirements. The APs also can be used for outdoor coverage.
The Accidental Manufacturer: How it All Began
Luxul is known today as a leading developer of networking devices for the custom installation channel, but the company started life 16 years ago making RF signal-boosting technology for third-party device manufacturers.
Like many technology developers, Luxul had no intention of making end devices. The company’s wireless technology would be implemented in other vendors’ solutions such as wireless networking gear from Netgear.
About seven years, Luxul’s Salt Lake City neighbor Control4, a leading provider of home automation systems, “had this problem with wireless controllers,” says Luxul CEO Jeff Curtis. “Dealers noticed that clients with larger homes couldn’t roam from [wireless] access point to access point. They would get stuck on one access point.”
The solution could be found in those Luxul-enabled Netgear wireless access points (WAP), but eventually Netgear changed its firmware and the custom industry was left without a roaming-enabled WAP, as Curtis tells it.
“So we built our core technology into an ASIC [chipset] and then built it into our own wireless access points,” says Curtis.
He adds that even with the rapid development of networking technology over the past few years, users “still have roaming issues. The old access point doesn’t release.”
Luxul Wireless was formed to serve the custom installation channel, and somewhere along the line it dropped “Wireless” from its name when it went on to develop a full suite of networking gear for CE pros, both wireless and wired.
Today, Luxul makes wireless network controllers, WAPs, routers, switches (managed and unmanaged), repeaters and more, all with an eye towards optimizing audio/video/control and other mission-critical services for the home and business.
Curtis loves to tell the story of a lady he met in the airport while wearing a Sonos t-shirt.
The lady says, “I hate Sonos.”
She had called Sonos about problems with streaming audio and, according to Curtis, Sonos suggested she buy a better router.
“So she buys an Asus,” Curtis says.
After Curtis sets the family up with a Luxul solution, the husband calls and says, “Not only does Sonos work great, but everything works great now.”
Curtis says Luxul’s enterprise-grade wireless devices rival those of Ruckus and others that employ beamforming technology, but can cost about one-third the price. In any case, Luxul’s solutions are easier for lay-people to deploy and there’s the matter of support for the custom channel, he explains.
And now, at CEDIA 2016, Luxul continues the tradition of making robust networking solutions that are so simple a DIY could do it.
But no matter how simple and how affordable Luxul’s products may become, “we will always recommend professional installation,” Roundy says.
Luxul XWR Features
XWR-3100
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi (data transfers up to 3100Mbps)
- Easily Expands Wi-Fi Network with up to 2 Additional APs
- Seamless Roaming with Luxul Roam Assist™
- 4×4 MU-MIMO (Wave 2)
- High Power for Extended Signal Range
- Concurrent Dual-Band Wireless AC
- 2.4 and 5GHz Beamforming
- Quality of Service (QoS)
- VPN Remote Access
- Secure Guest Networking
- Network Security and Firewall
- 1 WAN and 4 LAN Gigabit Ports
- USB 3.0 Port
- Three Year Limited Warranty
XWR-1200
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi (up to 1200Mbps)
- Seamless Roaming with Luxul Roam Assist™
- 2×2 MIMO
- High Power for Extended Signal Range
- Wireless Data Transfers of up to 1200Mbps
- Concurrent Dual-Band (2.4 GHz and 5GHz)
- 5Ghz Beamforming Technology
- Virtual Private Network (VPN)
- Secure Guest Networking
- Quality of Service (QoS)
- Network Security and Firewall
- 1 WAN and 4 LAN Gigabit Ports
- USB 2.0 Port
- Three Year Limited Warranty
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