Umberto Paracchini, Global Sales Manager, Eelectron, reflects on the company’s evolution into a globally recognised leader in KNX-based home and building automation. In this interview, he discusses Eelectron’s growth journey, its commitment to seamless interoperability across the smart home ecosystem, and the innovations and strategic vision shaping the future of intelligent automation.
Eelectron S.p.A. has built a strong reputation in KNX-based home and building automation. How would you describe the company’s journey and evolution over the past three decades?
Eelectron has consistently grown over the years with an enthusiastic and entrepreneurial spirit, always remaining focused on delivering high-quality products, strong customer value, and a consistent ethical approach to business and relationships.
The early years were marked by foundation, technological development, and specialisation. Feedback from customers and partners helped guide the company in the right direction, sometimes through non-linear paths, but ultimately building the experience and awareness that today allow Eelectron to stand out.
Over the past decade, the company has further refined its positioning, clearly identifying its role as well as its core customers and target markets, and successfully pursuing its strategic vision.
More recently, Eelectron has entered a phase of strong multinational and financial growth, highlighted by the acquisition of outstanding companies in the KNX automation space such as IPAS GmbH and XXTER BV. These are market-leading organisations that fully share Eelectron’s values: passion for products and innovation, and the ambition to build a unified organisation where people feel part of a larger family.
With interoperability becoming increasingly important, how does Eelectron ensure seamless integration with third-party systems and the broader smart home ecosystem?
The Eelectron group is a market leader in integration. It has long been at the forefront of bridging the KNX and DALI worlds through its products, and today it continues this path by expanding into additional technologies.
At the field level, it integrates protocols such as Modbus and BACnet through flexible and efficient solutions. At the integration level, Eelectron was the first manufacturer to certify compatibility with Apple voice assistants and now offers a broad portfolio in this area. It also natively integrates other brands and technologies, including MATTER wireless protocol, audio systems (e.g., Sonos, Bluesound), intercoms, photovoltaic systems, and more.
Eelectron solutions—from bridges to gateways to servers—are fully compatible with MQTTS, ensuring a strong connection with the IT world, granting robust security layers and encryption to meet current and future requirements, while enabling secure communication with cloud platforms and third-party systems.
Finally, Eelectron products also implement KNX Secure, guaranteeing high levels of protection within the automation environment itself.
The OL-U series has attracted attention for its combination of aesthetics, user interaction, and functionality. What inspired its development, and what sets it apart from conventional control interfaces?
The OL-U series was inspired by the idea of combining strong aesthetic and design identity, deeply rooted in the company’s culture with high-end technological performance, developed with the mindset of true KNX specialists, and with a level of quality customers can rely on over time.
In essence, it is about merging beauty with functionality, while not limiting the product to a purely elite segment. The range offers multiple finishes, extensive customisation options, and compatibility with different socket standards across various geographies.
Energy management is becoming a key priority in residential and commercial projects. How do Eelectron’s KNX solutions contribute to sustainability and intelligent energy optimisation?
Today, the XXTER controller is probably the product that best manages modern energy management systems. It enables extremely flexible handling of priorities and time schedules, integrates seamlessly with third-party photovoltaic systems and EV chargers, and combines data from external sources such as weather services with locally gathered data across multiple protocols, together with fully configurable logic.
At the same time, Eelectron systems have always delivered significant energy-saving benefits, especially in commercial and mixed-use environments (such as hospitality and student housing). They optimise building behaviour through advanced sensing, HVAC management devices, and supervision software, ultimately enhancing occupant comfort while reducing energy consumption and waste.
The OL-U range serves as a sophisticated interface between users and their smart environments. How is it being applied in luxury residential and hospitality projects to simplify control while enhancing the overall user experience?
The flexibility of a complete product range allows Eelectron to deliver the highest levels of comfort to end users—from environmental control to humidity and air quality management, as well as energy efficiency and sustainability.
Using an automation system enhances lifestyle and wellbeing, maximises the impact of lighting design choices, and represents a conscious, responsible approach toward both personal comfort and environmental care.
System control is enabled through the differentiated functionalities of the OL-U series, allowing, as an example, precise lighting management, intuitive scene setting, detailed gate control, outdoor lighting control, and integration with music systems.
All key functions can be managed seamlessly without compromising on premium finishes and extensive customisation options. When combined with voice control, OL-U makes interaction with the entire system immediate and highly satisfying.
With cybersecurity becoming a key priority in connected buildings, in what types of applications does the OL-U KNX Secure range offer the greatest advantages, and how does it help ensure secure and reliable building automation?
Cybersecurity is a top priority—not only to protect personal data and privacy, but also to ensure safety in an increasingly connected and complex world.
Third-party access must be carefully managed, as it can originate from a wide range of sources—from smartphones to cloud connections linked to external services such as weather systems. Even functionalities often perceived as secondary—such as ventilation, heating, cooling, or access control—must be considered critical in many environments.
KNX Secure is now one of the safest, if not the safest, protocol in the Building Automation sector. Eelectron, placing great emphasis on these aspects, is developing a range of certified KNX Secure systems, robust software layers across its devices, and cloud connectors with high and certified quality standards, ensuring state-of-the-art encryption levels within the industry.
Intelligent sensing is playing an increasingly important role in modern smart spaces. How are Eelectron’s Multi Sensor KNX solutions being used in real-world projects to improve occupant comfort, energy efficiency, and automated building management?
Eelectron’s Multi Sensor KNX solutions have effectively introduced a new approach to environmental management, particularly in shared or high-traffic spaces, setting a direction for both customers and the wider market.
A single, compact, and aesthetically refined product—recognised with major European design awards—integrates advanced sensing capabilities, including presence detection (to manage HVAC and related functions), light levels, temperature, humidity, sound detection (for unexpected event monitoring), and the calculation of occupancy and activity rates.
These data points provide valuable insights for building managers and operators across sectors such as hospitality, student housing, and healthcare. They enable full awareness and control of environments, supporting faster and more efficient decision-making processes that typically lead to reduced energy consumption and minimised waste.
Eelectron has become part of the Bemsiq Group. How does this development strengthen your innovation roadmap and global growth strategy?
Joining Bemsiq—one of the most forward-thinking groups in creating people-centric workplaces and promoting ethical, sustainable business—has been both a source of pride and a powerful growth driver.
It enables ambitious investments, strong synergies within the group, and supports a structured and credible plan for both organic and inorganic growth.
Since becoming the majority shareholder of Eelectron Group in 2024, the Swedish fund has strengthened not only financial capacity but also introduced a more structured approach, expanding focus beyond industrial objectives to include sustainability, environmental responsibility, and, ultimately, people.
India is one of the fastest-growing smart home markets globally. How important is the Indian market for Eelectron, and what opportunities do you foresee in the coming years?
The Indian market is highly important for Eelectron and represents a significant opportunity for the future—especially in a global context where traditional economic dynamics are rapidly evolving.
Eelectron has been active in India for many years, strongly believes in its growth potential, and aims to further structure its presence in close collaboration with Technovo. This partnership represents a transparent and market-oriented synergy, full of exciting challenges to embrace.
Looking ahead, what are Eelectron’s key priorities for product innovation, market expansion, and customer experience over the next five years?
Eelectron remains firmly focused on maintaining its leadership position as an innovation-driven company. Product development has always been a core passion across all the companies within the group, now united as a single team with the ambition of creating the best products on the market in terms of flexibility, quality, and intelligence.
Significant efforts are being made in this direction, and tangible results will soon be shared with the market.
The company aims to continue serving multiple vertical markets—residential, hospitality, and commercial—while further refining its positioning and providing partners with the right tools to effectively represent its value proposition.
Ultimately, the end customer, along with their needs and the specific applications required across different regions, remains the central challenge and opportunity for Eelectron.
