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Caavo Intelligently Simplifies Home Entertainment

Caavo aims to be to your home entertainment set up as Marie Kondo is to your closet: an all-on-one eight HDMI input solution that magically tidies everything up at the touch of a button or using a voice-activated remote or using an Alexa-powered Echo or Dot connection.

So what exactly problem does this 4K-compatible device solve? Engineered by the minds behind Slingbox, Jawbone, Harman, Dish, and Xbox, the handsomely wood top finished media controller box is an AI/Android-powered gatekeeper, automatically unifying the disparate components normally connected to a television into a singular experience – streaming media boxes, consoles, Blu-ray players, cable television.

Anything connected to Caavo automatically becomes accessible and controllable via a streamlined interface and single remote control – regardless whether your binging preference is served via Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO, Hulu, or one of the myriad of streaming services. Caavo hopes to seamlessly serve content in plug-and-play fashion, an experience further supplemented with a voice-activated controller that operates like a microphone. Just ask it to watch a program and Caavo’s Android-powered AI will find and deliver content.

Launching with Alexa compatibility, Caava’s voice activation will later invite users partial to Google Assistant and Siri. The remote shares similarity with Apple TV’s remote, with the addition of more controls.

One of four different wood finishes cover the underside of the remote, complementing the main device top. Caavo’s designers seem to have been inspired more by furniture than the usual tech gear design language.

  • Auto Detect. Plug in whatever device – AppleTV, Roku, FireTV, cable and satellite and gaming – into any port and Caavo configures it.
  • Unified Control. A single simple remote controls pay TV, streaming and gaming (plus, compatibility with game controllers and old remotes).
  • On-Command TV. Speak into the Caavo remote, and your TV turns on, finds what you want to watch and plays from wherever you left off.
  • Universal Search. Search once for a show or movie and find it across all your content, including pay TV.
  • Universal Watchlists. See everything you’ve recently watched, organized onto one screen sorted by service.
  • Total access. Find all your favorite apps and services together in one place. Everything from iTunes to Netflix to Amazon Prime is there, side-by-side.

Ultimately, Caavo is a niche premium neutral node aimed at discerning home theater enthusiasts seeking to streamline their viewing experience to its most simple and accessible conclusion (and willing to part with $399). Caavo recognizes which streaming services are attached to which device, allowing for easy stop/continuation viewing), thus eliminating the need to juggle between remotes and streaming services.

Whether viewers will prioritize simplicity at this premium is yet to be determined, but it’s undeniably Caavo’s team has identified the need to unify what we watch into a unified experience in a time when many of us subscribe to numerous services, ultimately reserving viewers with the nightly perplexing question only they can answer: “What should we watch?”

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.