It wasn’t all that long ago that home theater represented everything people aspired to in residential custom electronics. Today, however, the network rules—both in the home and office. As products continue to utilize IP technologies, the demand on residential and commercial network speed and reliability will only increase.
The latest company to enter, or perhaps more correctly reemphasize, its presence in this highly competitive category is SnapAV‘s Araknis Networks brand. Over the past several years the custom installation market has seen a growing number of products and companies enter networking category, and during this time Araknis has assembled a team of professionals and support resources that has enabled the company to launch products that specifically target dealers in the residential and commercial electronics industries.
Focusing specifically on residential, Ayham Ereksousi, category manager for Araknis Networks, says that as consumers have added devices, home networks have evolved to become the most important electronics in the home. Understanding the burden homeowners and businesses place on their networks, he says, means the company had to examine every facet of the networking category.
“We look at networks one step deeper … we looked at switches, at access points, and routers, and this is how we think of the product line,” he states. “We know our customers need to make a profit [or else] they’ll end up going to Amazon or some other entity and make single digit profits.”
Dating back to the fall of 2014, Araknis has introduced a string of products and technologies starting with OvrC cloud-computing platform that delivers a similar experience dealers have grown accustomed to with SnapAV’s WattBox line of power management products. More recently, Araknis has announced its new line of wireless access points (WAPs) this past spring. Just as summer kicked off, the company announced its new network switches.
Rounding out its trio of network pillar products, Araknis’ newest product is its 300-series router. The first of a selection of router products from the company, the 300-series Dual-WAN Gigabit VPN (item number AN-300-RT-4L2W), has been developed for high-speed network applications in residential and commercial environments.
The company points out the router incorporates four gigabit LAN inputs as well as two WAN interfaces that support configuration options such as load balancing and failover mode. The router features an embedded firewall, VPN options, and its OvrC cloud-management technologies for remote support capabilities.
Emphasizing its goals with the full launch of its networking products, Ereksousi notes Araknis worked to ensure the products’ performance and pricing policies are inline with dealer needs.
“No public pricing is available anywhere,” he says. “We’ve gotten into a market with companies like Pakedge and Luxul and working on the same business model.”
He adds that one important element of the dealer package is an aggressive pricing strategy that will enable installers to compete with popular mainstream brands.
“Araknis has designed its routers to be price competitive with the MSRPs of retail products,” explains Ereksousi. “Our company asked dealers about pricing, and the response was $1,000 to $1,500 price points [for systems]. We will launch a kit that is $1,000, and a medium [size] kit that is $1,350 that speaks immediately to clients’ needs, while giving dealers margins.”
Further supporting the company’s pricing and performance goals is the availability of Araknis 100 and 300 switches, and 100 and 300 series access points with steps within each series to provide dealers the ability to vertically sell up and down the company’s product line. Ereksousi adds that Araknis addresses performance through gigabit products that are all UL listed, Wi-Fi certified for 802.11 a, b, g and n levels of connectivity, and it had its products tested through a third-party company The Tolly Group.
Watch: Araknis tests its products to ensure they deliver the highest levels of performance and reliability:
