ESSENTIAL CEDIA

THE ASSISTED LIVING MARKET

Chris Thorne of Imperium examines the complexities of the assisted living market.

Assisted living is a complicated market for home technology integrators. On the one hand, we can all see that it presents a huge market opportunity. Around one-fifth of the UK population (19%) was aged 65 or over in 2019, that’s around 12.3 million people. The number of people in this age group increased by 23% between 2009 and 2019, at a time when the whole UK population only increased by 7%. The older population in the UK is projected to grow, with people aged 65 and over making up 24% of the population by 2043 (17.4 million people).

At the same time, the UK Government is keen to reduce the capacity and financial burdens of an ageing and less able population on the NHS and social care providers. Their ambition is to create the right housing environments that can keep people safe and healthy, whilst allowing them to live independently.

Our industry and its skill sets are attuned to delivering technology that can be part of the solution for the ‘assisted living’ market. Typical requirements to help the elderly and less able may include automatically turning the lights on and off, opening curtains, windows and doors, moving furniture and controlling access safely to the home. The technological change from installing home entertainment and home automation systems for our current client base to designing and installing solutions for assisted living is, in many ways, a small one.

We speak from recent experience following our work on the Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation (QEF) project which won the Life Lived Best At Home and the Best MDU Categories at the 2021 CEDIA Awards. The QEF provides care and neurorehabilitation for people with acquired brain injury and was seeking to provide accessible technology for a new 48-room Care and Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey. Their goal was to increase residents’ independence by enabling them to control their own home environment and entertainment; where they would otherwise be reliant on care providers or family.

We integrated all the core systems including AV, intercom, lighting, HVAC and shading onto a Crestron platform with Amazon Echo/Alexa the primary user interface. The voice control has been enhanced to include alternative options such as eye-gaze solutions and text to speech apps, like Speak4Me, which enable Alexa voice commands to be triggered via a touch-pad.

As each resident has unique needs, automated changes of environmental conditions are unsuitable for the facility. Our solution is easily customisable for each individual. This is achieved via the Alexa app and has the advantage that it can be carried out by the client, family or QEF within minutes. The scalability of the system means that additional components such as motorised windows, door controllers or smart sockets, can be added in the future, if required.

We’re very proud of this project. And it’s been incredibly rewarding for the team at Imperium to work on it and deliver technology solutions that are so important and meaningful to QEF, its staff and its residents.

However, the business model does present key differences to the luxury residential sector. Primarily, the budgets are, on the face of it at least, much tighter and the procurement process itself can be more challenging to navigate. It takes longer and demands plenty of patience when working through that process to unlock the routes to funding.

From our side, we also need to be patient in the way that we present the nature of our solutions and the lifestyle, as opposed to the medical, benefits they bring. Our industry is not about wearable devices, for example, that might alert a family member that someone has had a fall. Our technologies are much more about the way that the elderly and less able can interact with their environment in terms of lighting, blinds, audio-visual services and temperature control to make their lives comfortable, easier and as enjoyable as possible.

This is a really exciting space. But we need to educate ourselves about how to approach it and we need to educate the market about what our industry can provide.

CEDIA has recently been appointed as a member of the cross-party public policy think tank, Policy Connect. As part of its membership, CEDIA has become an associate member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Assistive Technology and will help oversee the Smart Homes and Independent Living Commission. This is an important step in that education process and one I’d encourage all members to learn more about and support.

Together, we can make a positive difference in the assisted living space.

imperium.uk

Together For Cinema is an AV industry good cause enterprise with a focus on designing and installing home cinema rooms in children’s hospices and other deserving locations across the UK. These rooms not only benefit the children and young adults, but also their families, carers, staff and volunteers.

The recycling of second hand and B-stock is in plan and some items have already been donated and installed.

Together For Cinema has excellent support and backing from the AV industry, but more can be done. Please contact us to donate product, to assist with an installation or to consider becoming a sponsor of this AV industry good cause.

Spearheaded by founder Ian Morrish, Together For Cinema has so far completed 29 cinema rooms at a normal installation value of over £620,000. Our target of 50 rooms and £1m worth of installations is scheduled for completion by 2026.

Essential Install are proud to support this great cause and be a lead Media Partner.

“Together For Cinema – together for better”

Show your support today by visiting www.togetherforcinema.co.uk

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