Controller, bridges & Matter/Thread networking

It keeps running. The controller is on your network, on hardware you own, with its configuration backed up automatically, and the automations are built on Matter and Thread rather than on a licence from us. Admin access is yours from handover, with a written record of what is installed and what each automation does.

No. Devices get a network segment of their own, with the rules written down, and cameras get a segment with no route to the internet at all. Thread devices do not use Wi-Fi: they form their own mesh and reach the network through border routers. Where walls are open we run wired backhaul to the access points.

A HomePod mini and an Apple TV 4K are both Thread border routers, so you may already have a Thread network. Whether it is enough depends on where they sit, because coverage follows the radios, not the furniture. We place border routers for coverage and add them where the house needs them. That is the part that usually gets skipped.

Its configuration is backed up automatically, so a replacement is restored rather than rebuilt from memory. Meanwhile the house does not go dark: wall switches still switch, shade remotes and wall controls still work, and the water valve can be turned by hand. You hold the admin access needed to restore it.