DEN Smart Home experiences rollout first in America, Netherlands follows

Some time ago, Profile magazine had the scoop on "the smartest lock of the future. Marijn van der Wal, also director of Ankerslot, introduced his startup DEN Smart Home. A company - which, incidentally, is separate from Ankerslot - in which he worked feverishly to develop a smarthome access control system. "The concept is now fully developed and will have its baptism of fire in September at the CEDIA trade show in Indianapolis, USA. That is one of the largest trade fairs for 'consumer electronics' in America," Marijn outlines. 

A year and a half of research and development

With DEN Smart Home, Marijn wants to make the world of automated access control accessible to everyone. Users can remotely see who wants access to a front door. So one can grant access in a controlled manner. You no longer need a house key. The locking plate, the DEN Smartstrike™ and thus the lock, is simply operated via smartphone. DEN Smart Home wants to go one step further by automating everything around building access. 

Marijn explains: "Systems that are on the market now are overly complicated, whereas in this day and age the idea is to make everything easier. That led me to develop a system the way I would like it to be myself: stable, secure and easy."

No less than a year and a half went into research and development. "We researched and worked on the American market, there have been a lot of internal developments. Testing has been done, experiences have been exchanged with partner companies in America," outlines Marijn, who is now working with an American partner, Bluesalve Partners, which represents its interests in the United States.

"There was a lot of fine tuning involved, electronics and mechanics had to fit together and a lot of attention was paid to the microcontroller, the brain of the locking plate. Everything is now working, we have a model that is fully functional on batteries. We are deliberately doing the launch in September at the CEDIA trade show in America. The acceptance rate for this kind of technology is higher there than here. Our partners will market the product through installers with their own platform, which is quite normal there. Combination sales with other products are also common in America; you rarely see that with us. In short: the range is greater there and growth is strong, especially since Corona. Once the launch there is a fact, we will focus on other markets including Europe, after we have made the necessary technical adjustments for Europe. I expect to storm the European market in the fall of 2022."

The sky is the limit

This is a statement that certainly applies to the many applications where DEN Smarthome can be deployed. "We can serve the market broadly. Take, for example, DEN Smartstrike™. This system fits an American standard lock without multi-point locking. It comes with an app that works on Android and IOS. Everything is still in the Beta phase, but at the CEDIA fair we will launch this system. Of course, the app will be translated into Dutch when it is introduced here." 

Also useful is the Entrerprise feature coming into the software. "This will give you the ability to issue digital keys in apartment complexes. Air-Bnb owners can also use it and thus provide their guests with a key digitally. Administrator keys can be created digitally, one can think of providing a digital key to home care workers ... in short, the sky is the limit."

So for the Netherlands it is still some time to wait, but in 2022 patience will be rewarded.