Vodafone Portugal launches hands-free entertainment and Smart Home hub with UEI

Vodafone Portugal Launches Universal Electronics’ Nevo® Butler Hands-Free, Voice-Enabled Entertainment and Smart Home Hub

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Vodafone Portugal is launching the Nevo® Butler entertainment and smart home hub from Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) (NASDAQ: UEIC) to its residential TV and broadband customers.

UEI is the global leader in wireless universal control solutions for home entertainment and smart home devices. Nevo Butler is UEI’s highly secured, voice-enabled, white label hub that blends entertainment and smart home control experiences for various applications. With far-field voice control and interoperability with a variety of ecosystems, Nevo Butler allows users to discover and control virtually all connected devices in the home using hands-free voice, including set-top boxes and TVs, as well as audio accessories, security systems, lighting, thermostats and more.

Nevo Butler extends Vodafone’s existing voice assistant to allow intuitive, hands-free, far-field interactions with the Vodafone Portugal entertainment service. Nevo Butler is fully integrated with Vodafone’s Portugal infrastructure to provide a consistent user experience. Nevo Butler enables seamless discovery of connected entertainment devices in the customer’s home, compatible with the largest set of existing entertainment systems globally, and allows hands-free voice search of Vodafone’s libraries and video playback, as well as power and audio control of televisions.

“Vodafone Portugal and UEI have been working collaboratively for several years and we share a strong commitment to innovation and continuously improving the user experience,” said Luis Cardoso, responsible for content and services at Vodafone Portugal. “We are excited to bring this advanced technology to our customers, allowing them to easily set up and control our entertainment service with their voice using our customized wake word. Customers can relax on the couch and say ‘hello, TOBi, turn on the football game’ and the TV will turn on and take them right to the content they want to watch.”

“UEI is thrilled that Vodafone is the first company to offer Nevo Butler to its customers,” said Paul Arling, UEI’s Chairman and CEO. “As one of our flagship products, Nevo Butler encompasses many of the leading discovery and control capabilities of our QuickSet® platform and represents another example of our ongoing investment in technology for the future.”

UEI has been at the forefront of developing entertainment and smart home control technologies for over three decades. UEI was the first to introduce voice search and control in entertainment platforms and advanced features such as automated setup and universal control of connected devices through its portfolio of QuickSet-enabled solutions.