Companies from all walks of the industry often tout their core competencies as creating and delivering value to customers in their chosen field, where the idea of “core competences” is one of the most important concepts currently perpetuating our business world.
Companies from all walks of the industry often tout their core competencies as creating and delivering value to customers in their chosen field, where the idea of “core competences” is one of the most important concepts currently perpetuating our business world.
With so many vying for the attention of service providers, retailers, manufacturers, and consumers, smart home solution providers are anything but singular in their approach. Amongst them, MivaTek is a prominent name in this category that has established a foothold in the industry by deploying an ultra-secure, video collaborative, and interactive protection for the Internet-of-Things.
“Part of our core technology is to enable our mobile app to manage multiple locations, authorize privilege access to multiple users, and establish a leading edge video integrated platform where users can get greater awareness and peace of mind by seeing their video, taking the appropriate action, and having the ability to share video profiles simultaneously. And we use all this in conjunction with the Internet-of-Everything device, so you can have both video and sensor collaboration at the same time,” MivaTek CEO Joe Liu explained.
Liu, who hones years of experience in the field of optical switches, dubbed the video-sensor integration as one of its leading capabilities that other solution providers have yet to out-compete.
A spin-off from Oplink Connected in May 2015, MivaTek is a turnkey collaborative, protection, and control company that offers both an innovative software as a service (SaaS) and a platform as a service (PaaS) to service providers (wireless, ISP, and MSO) and ODM/OEM customers. In addition to its B2B business model, MivaTek has a consumer brand called Home8 TM.
“What makes us unique is our video-integrated and multifaceted IoT system architecture that enables connection of everything, from anywhere to anyone, with a single app, mobile cloud, switching-hubs, and dozens of video-integrated devices,” Liu said.
Ultra-secure security shuttle
Although there are those that continue to cast doubts about the safety of cloud adoption, such as weak data encryption and breach of data, MivaTek is among the few that has taken a step further by prompting security measures to the highest level possible.
According to Daniel Wong, Worldwide VP of Sales, Marketing, & PLM, MivaTek's Home Security System can provide triple security protection that extends down to its Security Shuttle, cloud platform algorithm, and user's home router; a feat that is not often seen among other competing solutions on the market.
“We are the only company in the business bold enough to say that our platform solution is virtually free from hackers,” Wong stated, adding that its ultra-secure “Security Shuttle” can offer the best integrated protection, including anti-sniffing, anti-hacking, and S/W firewall protection.
Moreover, as an added value, the Security Shuttle is a multi-functional router that can work as a siren, NAS, router, and home controller. MivaTek's HD cameras can store video recordings into microSD drives with the option for automatic backup to Dropbox. This means that MivaTek cannot store or access users' recorded videos, thus ruling out the possibility for data breach.
Multi-tier, multi-location collaborative protection
MivaTek's Home Security System is an integrated home intrusion detection solution for multiple locations to provide mobile push alerts to multiple tiers of users. This provides great protection against home intrusions and burglaries, enabling instant push/email/SMS alert notifications to you and family members upon triggered events.
“Our comprehensive 6-in-1 app, the 30-plus device/sensor ecosystem, and the zero pairing device installation are just some of the features that help make MivaTek smart and unique. Hardware firewall is a built-in feature of our Security Shuttle to protect video privacy from hackers, and we offer local storage and access to cloud storage for free,” Wong added.
This multi-tier, multi-user application is part of MivaTek's group monitoring feature that allows the owner to give access to other users (such as family, friends, neighbors, or caregivers) to monitor and manage the system and its devices. In addition, the owner and its authorized users have the ability to reach out and call directly to emergency contacts (whether it be a neighbor or the local police) if warranted. If the owner and its authorized users do not respond to a triggered system alert notification within 5 minutes, then the emergency contacts will be sent a SMS text message.
“Our platform can accommodate what we like to call 'mission critical' and 'non-mission critical' scenarios, where in the case of emergencies such as a burglary or fire hazard, our system would send out warnings via Wi-Fi or RF, while for situations in the latter scenario such as simply switching lights on/off, the transmission protocols used could be either Z-Wave or ZigBee,” said Wong.
When asked if there are other competing solutions that rival MivaTek's ecosystem, Wong responded that so far none have yet been able to provide such “multiple” integration capable of handling over a dozen sensors at one time.
“Our mobile cloud manages multiple gateways, so users can add or remove devices from different locations instantly. Most importantly, you have the ability to view, control, and interact with the devices in multiple locations via just one app. This is very helpful for those who have second homes or vacation houses in different countries or regions,” Wong added.
Unique mobile app
Dubbed the distributed network, other unique advantages of the company's platform solution include the ability to automatically record and push live video streams to all authorized users when a sensor-triggered event occurs. This software solution also offers eight unique in-app, in-view controls. These enable users the ability to contact first responders, archive and share video for police reports or social media, remotely operate audio, perform home automation and energy controls, activate the home siren from remote, and more — all while viewing live video using MivaTek's mobile app. What's more, as an official IFTTT partner, its solutions are also capable of adopting IFFFT for the smart home.
“What differentiates our mobile app from other competing services lies within our 'real-time' feature,”said Wong. “Our mobile cloud manages multiple gateways, so users can add or remove devices from multiple locations instantly. The ability to protect multiple locations can also be achieved through the use of our app.”
Meanwhile, its user-based subscription is growing at a steady pace. With over 22,000 active users worldwide – of which 50 percent of its coverage is based in North America, 25 percent in Europe, and the remaining in Asia – MivaTek is looking to further expand its portfolio through its C2Protect TM brand, which targets the reseller / installer market in both the CEDIA and security sales channel.