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Industry Opinion: With the 'I want it everywhere' culture growing, how do we choose which home networking technology to use? (2/8/2010)

By Yasmin Hashmi, HiddenWires

There has been much talk about the 'Connected Home', but what does it mean in reality? For some, it means connecting the PC and other intelligent devices to services outside the home, but for others, it alludes to the ultimate goal of being able to access information, entertainment and control, from anywhere in the home, at any time. This requires serious networking. But with so many options available, what solutions should installers be considering?

We asked a range of installers, manufacturers, suppliers and leading lights from the industry for their suggestions. Here are their replies:

Adrian Hicks, Technical Director, Habitech

I would always choose the technology which gives you the best chance of signing the job off and getting paid! In most cases, for me, this would mean installing a large quantity of cable to strategic points at an early stage of the build, even if this means hiding copper in the walls. Everyone talks up Wi-Fi, ZigBee and other wireless systems as simple, retrofit, get-out-of jail solutions, but you have to understand that with the latest building techniques that use foil-backed plasterboard and foam sheets, in many cases the real-life experience can be a disaster. I visited a consumer with an GBP8m house who had to stand outside to even get mobile reception!

Once a decent infrastructure is in place, any problems with Wi-Fi/ZigBee coverage can be cured with local repeaters. The installer should then select a technology which is proven, and, most importantly, is within their capabilities to install. In the most common case of a standard TCP/IP network, this is simple if the client is sending streamed music, email and some iPod control signals around. However when you are trying to install a seamless wireless network across a mansion, or send 8 streams of high-definition TV across a TCP/IP network, this is not possible with the client's BT HomeHub. The understanding of routed, high-speed VLAN-based networking, using professional kit such as Cisco, is a skill only understood by few engineers in the industry, and you don't want to be learning it on site as the client tears the cheque up.

In short, use the best systems you can which are within your skill-set. In many cases, if you have quality copper cabling in place you have the capability to support direct HDMI routing from a matrix, networked streaming, and Wi-Fi control for the magic iPad control. You also have a future-proofed system for when streamed HD over IP is simple, easy to configure, and works. In this way, you'll walk away with a cheque, and won't be sitting on site until late talking to a tech support engineer in California.

www.habitech.co.uk

Steve Moore, Director, SMC and airremote

People are bored of me saying that everything is a computer in disguise, but it is unavoidably true. Our media players, AV components, remote controls, energy monitors, lighting controllers - everything (nearly) - need a strong network connection. Even today's computers, such as the iPad, lean incredibly heavily on the network infrastructure. It all needs to work every second of every day, wherever your client is in their home or garden. And it has to start working reliably AGAIN, immediately after something has gone wrong, for example, following a power failure.

We live in an fast-paced age, with a very impatient generation buying our products and services. They don't want to know that their satellite TV signal travels around 40,000 miles to their TV, and aren't interested in how amazing that is. Remember the time before cashpoint machines - when banks were open for, say, 3 or 4 hours a day, and you had to queue up for ages like an idiot only to write a cheque to yourself to obtain some cash? Imagine if you had to do that today. That's what your customers feel like when your system falls over.

So stop relying on GBP30 wireless access points and GBP50 routers. Design and specify your networks carefully. Plan for failure by using routers with multiple WAN connections. Make sure your equipment can support open and secure Wi-Fi networks at the same time. Separating your subsystems to independent VLANs makes an enormous difference, and simplifies aftercare. Your media distribution equipment, whether as simple as Sonos or sophisticated as Kaleidescape, will place serious demands on the network - often in ways you literally can't imagine. You'll therefore want to ensure everything can be remotely diagnosed and maintained, and that you document IP addresses and other settings diligently.

This means that you want a commercial-grade network, designed and installed with the care that you take over everything else you do. If you don't have the expertise to specify, install or maintain it, stop pretending and sub-contract that to someone who does, being careful to document exactly what you need. It might cost a few thousand quid, but it'll be worth it.

www.smc-uk.com

Brian Post, VP of Market Development, Certified Cyber Solutions

I am not sure what the future holds for people getting their information when and where they want it, but if my kids are any indication, the demand on today's network infrastructure, in and outside the home, will be pushed to its limits. In any given day, my two kids will send thousands of text messages, play online games with a group of 15 or 20 kids on their Xboxes, do their homework online and spend hours chatting with friends on Facebook - all while I am trying to work and my wife is watching a movie on Netflix. A lot of information is moving in and out of my house at any given time. I am lucky, I have a robust network in my house comprised of Cisco managed switches, Cisco wireless access points, Sonicwall and a Home Cyber Shield server constantly monitoring the health of my network, computer, control system and managing all my usernames, passwords and IP addresses.

The home has become a very complicated network infrastructure, some more complicated than a small- or medium-sized business. The importance of proper network design and hardware has become increasingly important as systems within homes demand faster bandwidth, more reliable uptime and the ability to manage them efficiently. Unless you have an IT background, this area of the AV industry can be puzzling. What equipment to use? How do I manage it? What staff do I need to bring in house to deploy such networks? As integrators, how are we securing not only the hardware in a client's home, but also access to the network? How do you manage password schemes? Are you using an Excel document with hundreds of clients' different passwords and IP addresses to equipment? Do you have default usernames and passwords for all of your clients? Or does the owner have them locked in a safe and when a technician needs them he/she needs to find the owner? Unless you take a look at your present way of deploying IT networks, managing security and access into your clients homes, it is only a matter of time before a client's network is compromised because of a rogue employee that had all the IP addresses, usernames and passwords.

I think as an industry we understand about securing the wireless network and using strong password schemes, but what we are lacking is a secure and easy way to access a client's network that also provides accountability so that not only are your clients protected, but your company and employees are too. With a properly-deployed password solution managed by an administrator, you can grant your employees access to specific clients and even just specific hardware within a client's environment. And when an employee becomes disgruntled or decides to leave, the administrator simply removes granted access to the employee, without the employee ever having known the IP addresses of equipment nor the username and password to equipment.

Proper hardware consideration to support both present and future needs involves a lot of moving parts. There are companies such as AccessNetworks in California, USA that focus on nothing but educating integrators on the advantages of proper network equipment design as well as building and deploying robust networks for integrators. There is even money to be made deploying robust networks, as well as cost savings from truck rolls. At the very least, managed switches should be the norm in every project.

www.CertifiedCyberSolutions.com

Godehardt Schneider, President of KNX Association International

As President of the KNX Association and with my long-standing career at one of the pioneering companies in KNX, Siemens, I might be suspected of being prejudiced, but there is no questioning that my first choice as home networking technology would be KNX, and for the following reasons:

KNX is the worldwide standard (ISO/IEC14543) for home and building control solutions, allowing any manufacturer to step into the technology with minimal effort. With its Association, KNX not only rigorously keeps its standard up to date, but also obliges its manufacturers to have their products tested at third parties, if these manufacturers wish to brand their products with the KNX trademark. Thanks to this, the KNX trademark has become a token of quality and a visual sign of the ability of products to interwork with KNX products of other manufacturers in the same installation.

In spite of the fact that the birth of the KNX technology already dates back 20 years, the KNX community has ensured that with every extension of the standard (e.g. adding new media such as RF and IP), backward compatibility with previous solutions is guaranteed. Thanks to this, any home and building installed with KNX for some years now, can still be extended with new solutions today. Linking of KNX products is possible via one single multi-vendor and multi-application design and commissioning tool, ETSTM, which, in October 2010 is already in its fourth generation. The tool does not require any programming skills from the user, making it accessible to building designers and contractors.

www.knx.org

Mark Warburton, Technical Sales, Ivory Egg (UK)

With the KNX-IP protocol becoming a reality over the last three years it is now possible to integrate all aspects of a smart home using a home network. By having mission-critical systems such as lighting, security and heating on a reliable, decentralised KNX system, and systems that require higher speeds and are more tolerable on a Gigabit home network, you can control your home as a whole, from any computer, mobile device or AV system, such as Creston or Control4, that is on the home network.

As AV manufacturers realise the potential of this, we will see AV control systems with native KNX/IP support. This will reduce the cost of integrating different control systems, remove an expensive interface, eliminate a point of failure and fully merge the world's largest building control standard into the AV world.

www.ivoryegg.co.uk

Lance Escobar, Product Specialist, Invision UK

As is often the case it is not just a simple question of which home networking technology to use. As professionals in the AV industry, our job is to understand how our customers need to use networking within the home environment to provide all of the services reliably.

A typical high-end installation will require an IP network to cater for phone communication, home automation, streaming media as well as transferring computer files. To achieve this requires not just one technology but a convergence of technologies to create a strong, dependable and secure infrastructure.

Hi-end home networks often resemble those in the commercial sector. These are often very expensive, complicated and tend to require third-party programmers. In the ideal world, you would have one network that has been segmented into VLANs, with home computers including telephony systems separated from the home automation equipment, AV servers on another, and finally your networking equipment including wireless access points on the fourth. This scenario keeps all of your systems separate so services will not clash and network traffic is reduced. This can increase wireless performance as less bandwidth would be taken up from 'broadcast' services on your network. By segmenting the network in this way, it is possible to prioritise access to the Internet to ensure quality of service for streaming content and VOIP systems.

www.invisionUK.com

Allan Staig, Director, AVCOMM.TV

I recommend opting for smart-home cabling throughout the home. In my experience, wireless is still too hit and miss with certain buildings - especially older ones with solid walls - to be used on its own. With a CAT6 smart-home network, you can have HD, TV, audio, telephone and broadband anywhere. Wireless can be an option, if you have the cabling in place, by using access points. We have installed this type of system in many of our installations. So I suppose you could say that a combination of both types of technology would be best.

www.avcomm.tv

Fraser Campbell, Commercial Director, Hometech Integration

When we look at the type of technology we want to offer our clients, we have three criteria at the forefront of our thoughts: can it deliver what is required today as well as being able to handle what we ask of it tomorrow; will it continue to be supported and evolve as the market changes; and is there a market for it?

We are in this business because we like our technology, so we look at everything first as a consumer. The technology that catches our eye has done so because it has something the rest doesn't - a better finish, a cool feature, etc. After that, we adopt technology based on analysis and research. Not just by looking at its features and benefits or whether or not it hits a price point, but also how well it is supported through investment by both the manufacturer and the distributor.

If those behind the technology are providing technical assistance when problems arise, such as running training programmes, listening to our feedback, adding new components, upgrading existing features, developing new features, interacting with other systems or preparing for the next evolution of technology, these are all signs to us that this is a healthy product line that isn't just going to be set aside should they get interested in the next new thing. Very often, the features and benefits are pretty much the same between various technologies - for instance, which multiroom audio system doesn't include an iPod dock? So we believe speaking to the manufacturers and the distributors, and getting a feel for their take on the technology, is an important factor in the selection of a home networking technology.

www.hometechintegration.com

Hartmut Henzler, Managing Director, DIVUS

The fact that everything is now possible and available, has made the connected home a reality. The homeowner wants to be able to monitor their home, regulate it and ensure that it is energy-efficient. Moreover, additional Apps that provide increased convenience, such as weather, traffic and stocks/shares reports, are also desired as an integral part of the connected home.

A home automation/networking system should therefore be constructed so that it is easy to extend tomorrow. For example, although three years ago no one knew that the iPad would be on the market, it should still be able to be integrated within existing home automation systems, so that it can used for control and information. Supposing also, that during the construction phase it seems that networking of the garden is not necessary, it should nonetheless be possible to do so later, without great effort. So, even though we do not know what tomorrow will bring, we should still think about future possibilities. A system should be able to grow with the residents and their needs.

www.divus.eu

Ercüment Erdem Soruşbay, Co-Founder, Interkontrol

More and more devices are now supporting IP and XML, and there are some controllers that are IP-enabled which provide conventional RS232 and IR. Using little freeware or shareware applications, one may construct a nice wireless control system, even without requiring any professional help, using smartphones or similar devices as the human interface.

On the other hand, using the same hardware, IP and XML, with the help of a general-purpose programming language, higher integration and very complex automation and control systems can be made much easier, with the latest tablets as the human interface.

www.interkontrol.com

Marco Argenton, Electronics Project Manager, Zoppas Industries

The technical choices in home networking must be made with the final user experience in mind. From a technical point of view, there are a lot a different and valid possibilities, but nowadays, business developers and engineers know that the majority of features and details should be transparent to the user, and facilitate their life, not interfere with it.

Obviously, in the business model there are other aspects that should be taken into consideration, such as the possibility of expanding services and the need to be open and interoperable with other devices in order to give an added value in terms of optimisation.

This is why we, at Zoppas, have a 'user-centric design' approach in the development of new products and business opportunities, and base our products on four key criteria: interoperability, usability, energy savings, and comfort. To achieve this, we use KNX as one of the best solutions available as it is a networking worldwide standard, well-known, mature, easy-to-use and available on the market through thousands of different products and applications.

www.needo.eu

Petar Tomić, Managing Director, TAPKO Technologies

As modern mobile phones offer personal interfaces for systems within our homes and offices, the surrounding infrastructure, with KNX as a backbone, can respond to our individualised requirements. KNX in a building acts like a central nervous system by connecting sensor inputs such as the smart phone, over a 'brain' (controller), to control 'limbs' (the building actuators), to provide distributed AV for example.

I use this analogy between technical and biological systems because there is a structure and symmetry in nature that we tend to copy in our solutions. Indeed KNX is a very good copy of a biological system: we have sensors for various physical influences such as temperature, brightness, movement, presence, quality of air, and so on. Then we have actuators that control the light, movement, temperature etc. In between there is always either a local function controller that performs a reflex action of the system that works in the background, or a central controller or a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) that behaves like a brain and initiates appropriate actions.

www.tapko.de

Yasmin Hashmi is the Editor of HiddenWires magazine. Additional comments on this issue can be found at the HiddenWires LinkedIn Group where you can also participate in the discussion. If you would like to be included in future opinion pieces, please send an email to opinion(AT)hiddenwires.co.uk.