SMART HOMES
Smarten up
Y
ou know how it is with technology: turn your back for a minute, and when you look again there’s a whole new generation of devices on the market. While smartphone, tablet, TV and computer technologies have been evolving over the past few years, so too have smart home and office technologies, including advanced, yet increasingly affordable, systems that can be controlled over the internet through tablets or smartphones. Fewer smart home or office installations now require extensive, customised programming, making them easier and cheaper to install. Widespread adoption of the KNX (ISO/IEC 14543-3) standard for home
and building control data has made integration between different smart technologies more straightforward, including home entertainment, lighting, heating, air conditioning, security and fire alarm systems; as well as smart control of white goods, kitchen or garden gadgets, windows and blinds. These advances also make it easier to monitor and manage energy use efficiently, with heating, cooling or lighting technologies reacting to the presence of people in a room or a part of the building, or to changes in temperature or external light levels. Awareness of smart home technologies is now much greater among developers, the construction industry and the wider public. Wendy Griffiths, executive director at the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA), says: “When I first started CEDIA 14 years ago, the strategy was to drive awareness
of integrated home technology as a profession and work through architects and interior designers, because consumer awareness was limited,” she says. “But now consumers are often driving their architect and interior designer to wake up to this sector.” Remote control One major difference over the past five years has been the rise of tablets, smartphones and apps to control heating or lighting systems. These technologies allow consumers to remotely reconfigure lighting, heating and home entertainment, as well as monitor and control security cameras. The upshot of all this is that a growing number of electrical contractors are making good money out of installing and maintaining many of these technologies and the wired and wireless infrastructures that support them. One point of entry for contractors and for Connections Summer 2015
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Complete Home Control/CEDIA
By David Adams
Developments in consumer technology and programming standards mean home automation is now becoming a reality
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22/06/2015 14:50
