Birmingham-based technology group Light-waveRF (www.lightwaverf.com) has announced a collaboration with Internet giant Google. The UK company has developed an app to control and monitor lighting, heating, power and security functions through an extensive range of electronic devices.

LightwaveRF, based at the Innovation Birmingham campus, has spent the past few weeks working with Google on achieving Google Assistant voice-control functionality for its product range. This has now been achieved. As a reward, Google allowed the company to launch the new feature at Google I/O, the annual world-wide developer festival that took place 17-20 May in Mountain View, California.

Andrew Pearson, who was appointed chief executive of LightwaveRF in March, said: “We are continuing to invest in building our cloud platform, and our innovative approach allows us to quickly integrate with major connected home brands and devices to achieve high-quality results.

“Voice control is now widely accepted as a key enabler for ‘smart’ home solutions and drives both new customer acquisition and new device sales to existing customers.

“The expansion of LightwaveRF’s voice control through this addition greatly improves the user experience for Google and LightwaveRF customers. It is a testament to the quality of our technology that LightwaveRF is among the launch group of ‘smart’ home partners for Google Home.”

The company recently released its latest trading update, for the six months to the end of March, which shows revenues were up 46% to £1.17 million.

Pre-tax losses were down 13% to £333,000. LightwaveRF’s chairman Barry Gamble said that “much progress has been made in the last few months”, pointing out the group had seen “higher sales volumes and more regular orders, as well as the potential from its integrations with Google Nest and Amazon Alexa.”

He added: “We have seen a significant improvement in sales via multiple distributors and continue to develop our technology, most recently as a partner of Google. Later this year, we are launching a new range of devices, which we expect to be Apple Homekit certified.”