LANARS

Case study · LANARS × Defigo

Smart intercomAccess controlPropTech

Eight years building every layer of Norway's smart intercom — and now scaling to the US.

Since 2018 LANARS has been Defigo's engineering backbone — shipping the Flutter app, Node.js + WebRTC backend with sub-second video latency, Angular Webadmin, MDM platform and C++/Qt firmware on the Control Unit. Today Defigo serves 65,000+ daily users across 3,000+ installations, has opened 55M+ doors, and is entering the US market.

At a glance

  • Since 2018LANARS as Defigo's engineering partner
  • 65,000+daily active users
  • 3,000+installations across Norway
  • 55M+doors opened cumulatively
  • < 1 svideo call latency via WebRTC
  • 2 continentsNorway live · USA expansion underway

Context

Norwegian housing needed a smarter front door

Norway's housing stock — thousands of borettslag and sameier — ran on analog wall-mounted intercoms that offered no video, no audit trail, and no way to grant access remotely. Property managers had no visibility into who entered when, and residents stuck at work could not let in a delivery without calling a neighbour.

At the same time, property management companies were under growing pressure to document access events for insurance, compliance and resident safety. The industry needed a system that worked like a modern consumer app, while meeting the reliability and audit requirements of commercial real estate.

Defigo set out to replace the analog intercom with a PoE-powered Display Unit and cloud-connected Control Unit — no extra wiring, no electrician, instant install. LANARS joined as the engineering partner from day one, taking on the full software and firmware stack.

  • Multifamily residential building in Norway with Defigo smart intercom installed at the entrance
  • Defigo Display Unit installed at a Norwegian residential building entrance, close-up shot
  • Defigo intercom in operation at a Norwegian office building entrance

Multifamily homes · Norway · 3 000+ installations

Three teams, one product

Who owned what

LANARS

Resident-side software

  • Flutter app (iOS & Android)
  • In-app video call (WebRTC)
  • Keyfob & visitor management
  • Push notifications
  • GSM fallback for legacy phones
  • Salto / ARX integrations

LANARS

Building-side infrastructure

  • Webadmin (Angular)
  • Node.js + WebRTC backend
  • MDM platform
  • OTA firmware pipeline
  • C++ / Qt firmware on Control Unit
  • Multi-building data model

Defigo in-house

Product, design and GTM

  • Product vision
  • Industrial design
  • Dealer network
  • USA market entry
  • Investor relations
  • Regulatory compliance

How it works

Doorbell to door, in under a second

A visitor presses the Display Unit touchscreen. The ring travels over PoE to the Control Unit, which relays it via the LANARS-built Node.js + WebRTC cloud to the resident's phone in under a second. The resident sees live 1080p HDR video, speaks, and taps Unlock. The Control Unit opens the door — or falls back to GSM if internet is unavailable.

  1. 01

    Ring

    Visitor taps the 10" touchscreen on the Display Unit. 1080p HDR camera activates; PoE powers the whole unit — no extra wiring

  2. 02

    Cloud relay

    Control Unit dispatches the call via LANARS Node.js + WebRTC backend. European data residency. Sub-second connection time

  3. 03

    Resident decides

    Flutter app rings on iOS or Android. Resident sees live video, speaks two-way, reviews visitor history — or ignores and lets GSM fallback ring a landline

  4. 04

    Unlock

    One tap opens the door. The Control Unit logs the event with timestamp and operator ID. Salto and ARX integrations extend to third-party lock hardware

  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building
  • Defigo-equipped entrance in a Norwegian residential building

Inside the platform

Engineering decisions, on the record

  • 01

    WebRTC sub-second video

    LANARS tuned the Node.js + WebRTC backend to deliver live 1080p HDR video to the resident's phone in under one second. No proprietary relay — open protocol, auditable latency.

    Measured end-to-end on Norwegian 4G and home broadband

  • 02

    OTA firmware fleet rollouts

    3,000+ Control Units receive firmware updates over the air, staged by property and rolled back automatically on failure. No on-site visits required.

    C++ / Qt firmware, LANARS-authored OTA pipeline

  • 03

    PoE-only operation

    A single Ethernet cable powers and connects the Display Unit. No extra wiring, no electrician — the installer plugs in one cable and the unit is live.

    Eliminates the main barrier to retrofit in older buildings

  • 04

    GSM fallback for legacy phones

    If internet is unavailable, the Control Unit places a standard GSM call to the resident. Elderly residents without smartphones can still open their door from a landline.

    Critical for Norway's mixed housing stock

  • 05

    Salto / ARX / open-API integrations

    Defigo integrates with Salto and ARX access control hardware out of the box. The open API lets property managers connect third-party systems without bespoke development.

    Used by Stor-Oslo Eiendom and Vestenfjeldske Eiendom

  • 06

    Multi-building data model

    A single Webadmin login gives a property manager live visibility across their entire portfolio — multiple addresses, multiple buildings, multiple entry points — in one view.

    Designed for Norwegian property management groups

From the founder

Eight years, one engineering partner

Joachim Stray, Co-founder and CEO of Defigo, sat down to explain what a long-term engineering partnership actually looks like in practice. The video covers how the relationship with LANARS started in 2018 when Defigo was just a prototype, how the team has scaled together through firmware, app, backend and Webadmin, and why Defigo chose to deepen the partnership rather than build an internal engineering function.

What stands out is the specificity: Joachim points to concrete product decisions — WebRTC tuning, the OTA pipeline, the multi-building Webadmin — where LANARS's engineering choices directly shaped how Defigo operates at scale. Eight years in, the engineering team in Kyiv is not a vendor; it is part of the product organisation.

Joachim Stray · Co-founder & CEO, Defigo

Built by LANARS · Official Flutter agency partner

The new Defigo App, rebuilt in Flutter

LANARS is an official Flutter agency partner. We migrated the resident-facing Defigo app from native iOS and Android to a single Flutter codebase — same look on both stores, faster feature rollouts, and a UI that's been redesigned around the moments residents actually use it: a doorbell ring, a one-tap unlock, an audit of who came and went.

  • Official Flutter partner
  • iOS + Android, one codebase
  • Live on the App Store & Google Play

Measured, not promised

Outcomes

  • Since 2018continuous engineering partnership — firmware, app, backend and Webadmin shipped together since the first prototype
  • 65,000+daily active users across Norway, with US onboarding underway via ROC Supply, Wesco and NYSS
  • 3,000+installations live — borettslag, sameier and commercial buildings across Norway
  • 55M+cumulative door-open events logged with full audit trail
  • < 1 send-to-end video call latency achieved through LANARS WebRTC tuning — no third-party relay
  • 2 continentsNorway fully live; US distributor network established and first installations in progress

From the founder

"Eight years in, LANARS is not a vendor — it's an extension of our product organisation. They built every layer of our stack with us, from the firmware on the door to the app in the resident's hand. That's why we keep scaling together."

Joachim Stray, Co-founder and CEO of DefigoJoachim StrayCo-founder and CEO, Defigo

Tech stack

  • Flutter
  • Node.js
  • WebRTC
  • Angular
  • TypeScript
  • C++ / Qt
  • Embedded firmware
  • MDM
  • OTA
  • iOS / Android

Looking to ship something this hard?

We do firmware, Flutter apps, Node.js backends, MDM platforms and the Webadmin dashboards that tie it all together. Tell us what you're building and we'll come back within a business day.

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