Honeywell’s 6280i Tuxedo Touch™ touchscreen highlights the growing trend of residential security systems to become increasingly intertwined with other home systems designed to help homeowners improve comfort while saving money.
Crestron brought out its new generation MC3, the first 3-Series™ control system powered by Core 3 OS. Developed and engineered like an IT platform, rather than an AV system, the 3-Series platform is designed to provide a foundation for powerful advanced home control.
Depending on the location of electronic home system contractors, there still may be challenges with remodeling business. A sluggish economy and housing market will continue to hamper home improvement spending well into next year, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
New Orleans-based Home Automation Inc. (HAI) has a new firmware release (Version 3.9) of its Omni and Lumina products. New features include Rooms, which is accessed via PC and downloads to HAI OmniPro II, Omni IIe, Lumina Pro, and Lumina home control systems.
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va., now has the 2012 edition of its Electrical Standards and Products Guide, a comprehensive listing of NEMA electrical standards as well as an extensive directory of manufacturers and their products.
Thanks in part to technology called near field communication (NFC), the smartphone is now on steroids, with the potential to open a homeowner’s door, load a CD into the whole house audio/video system, or even “talk” with a NFC-enabled light bulb.
I was watching this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd96Jc1UWjA, on a "big box store,"a.k.a. Best Buy's Geek Squad, approach to home automation. It brought a few wiry smiles to my face.
Following a spate of well-documented forays into the home automation market by several renowned service providers, open source technology from software as a service (SaaS) partners is expected to be present in the vast majority of systems this year. In fact, of the 1.8 million home automation systems shipped during the year, approximately 1.3 million will use this technology.
Rockleigh, N.J.-based Crestron now has a Mobile Pro Control App for Android, which turns those devices into fully functional Crestron touchscreens, allowing homeowners to control lighting, thermostats, entertainment, security systems and other connected systems from anywhere, anytime.
The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) Technology Council, headquartered in Indianapolis, has its second video in an ongoing series on emerging trends. The video series aims to help CEDIA members and members of the electronic systems industry stay informed of opportunities and threats.