The Philadelphia Inquirer

Price is a key to the new systems’ success, according to Tom Kerber, director of research for home controls and energy at Parks Associates, a Dallas research and consulting firm.

Kerber says companies such as Control4, Crestron and AMX, have for years offered high-tech systems that control lighting, home-entertainment systems and other functions. But with installation costs “in the tens of thousands of dollars,” they have reached only the top 2 percent of homeowners, he says ...read more

Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst for Parks Associates, a Dallas market research and consulting firm, said Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. already offered tech support services and that Comcast now joined them.

According to a 2010 Parks Associates survey that Comcast cited, more than 50 percent of U.S. consumers with Internet service look to their broadband provider as their first or second choice in solving home-computer technical issues. In additi ...read more