Interview – Invisible tech is the KBB designer's secret weapon, says Amit Ravat

Amit Ravat, the co-founder and director of Lithe Audio and Retrotouch UK, talks to Nicola Hanley about his mission to ‘help designers avoid the tech fear factor’. 

If you ask someone what they love most about their new kitchen, the chances are they will name their steaming hot water tap, walk-in pantry or new quartz worktop. Not for much longer, according to Amit Ravat, co-founder and director of Lithe Audio and Retrotouch UK, who says that invisible tech is set to pique people’s interest. “The 2 things that make the biggest impact to people in their experience of their new kitchen is lighting and music. They genuinely transform the space.”

Ravat says that although consumers are “100% receptive” to smart home lighting and audio, KBB retailers haven’t yet fully realised their full potential. “When designers are creating kitchens, appliances and other components are all thought through but things like speakers, switches and sockets are kind of left to consumers. At the moment they’re not fully embraced by the designer as part of the full-tech experience of a kitchen and bathroom, and that’s what we want to change.”

Founded in 2008 by Ravat and his business partner Wesley Siu, Retrotouch UK specialises in switches, sockets and smart lighting solutions that are designed to combine contemporary aesthetics with smart engineering. Despite the recession, the company quickly evolved and in 2016, the pair, who had met while working together at Dualit, used their understanding of lighting circuits to develop the Lithe Audio Bluetooth ceiling speaker. “There was nothing like it on the market,” says Ravat.

As it began winning industry awards, Ravat and Siu decided Lithe Audio needed its own identity and established it as a sister brand to Retrotouch UK. “We now sell Lithe Audio to 78 countries,” Ravat says. “It’s a good product that people resonated with.”

All products are designed in-house at the brands’ Surrey HQ while manufacturing is done in the Far East. “The brains are here, the hands are there,” says Ravat. Sales have mainly been through the brands’ websites, electrical wholesalers and distributors that specialise in smart home solutions. However, now Ravat is turning his attention to the KBB sector. “We’re currently working with 10-15 KBB retailers, which buy regularly from us.

“For us, people don’t know our product exists. We’re an afterthought,” Ravat continues. "But we know KBB retailers are the right people to promote our products so now we’re doing the work to build the awareness. That’s our objective – to get in front of as many showrooms as possible.”

Although Lithe Audio has a Pro Series that creates cinema-level sound systems, it is its Bluetooth Ceiling Speakers that Ravat says are particularly well suited to kitchens and bathrooms. Discreet and easy to install, the All-in-one Wireless Bluetooth Ceiling Speakers have a built-in amplifier and allow users to stream audio from a smart phone or tablet. They can also be voice controlled through Amazon Echo and Google Home devices.

Ravat also believes the Retrotouch Friends of Hue Smart Switches and its new Aura range, which comes in a choice of brushed finishes such as Bronze, Nickel and Brass as well as Matt Black, offers KBB retailers good opportunities to capitalise on add-on sales. “There are really good margins to be made on these products and they’re not as complicated as people may believe. They’re no different to a spotlight. Integrating them into a design will make a massive difference to the customer. I hear it all day long, people saying this is the best decision they made in their new kitchen. They [Lithe Audio Bluetooth Ceiling Speakers] may be invisible but they make a massive difference to the user experience. That to us is what technology is about. Not to be seen but to enhance the lifestyle of people.”

Ravat says both brands have plenty of resources that retailers can utilise to better understand the products and how they work. “For some people, if you don’t live and breathe technology, you can fear it. We all have our areas of expertise and for us it’s about giving KBB retailers that confidence.

"We have our tech guys who go out to showrooms and help retailers get hands on with the product so they fully understand it. We want to help designers avoid the tech fear factor.”

Technology is evolving fast and Ravat says the Matter protocol, which leading brands such as Apple, Google, Amazon and Phillips Hue support, will continue to make smart home devices easier to use and more accessible. “The rise of invisible tech is coming,” says Ravat. “It may take 5 -10 years for mass adoption but it will come. The future world will be a much smarter world."