Paul Mac talks to key players in the world of smart home control systems to find out what’s happening, and what’s pushing whose buttons at the moment.
Smart home control systems sit at the heart of things when it comes to systems design and installation. They are a critical part of the infrastructure and how far they reach into the land of interoperability can be a major consideration, alongside several others. We polled several players on the current state of the art for residential systems control, what the most significant developments have been, and what factors impact choice...
State of the art
Michael Short, Crestron’s senior director of marketing operations and residential, says that integration of AV sources has been a significant area of development in recent times: “We’re seeing a move towards systems having all their audio and video sources on the network, and there’s been a definite trend toward audio becoming the top AV-over-IP category. With that comes the need to make every source available on the network, and that’s exactly what is driving the demand for our DM NAX Audio-over-IP solution. The goal is to make sure that all of your ‘entertainment everywhere’ solutions are on the network, and we see an ever-growing demand for that as the technology evolves.”
For Lars Granoe, vice president of product development and international sales at Universal Remote Control (URC), it’s integrated automation and voice control that have had the biggest impact: “Our goal has always been to simplify everything for the end user - press one button and it does everything. I refer to it as the Tony Stark House. One of the big things in this is voice control: say ‘good morning’ and all the shades come up. This is especially true with things like Alexa technology - there are many smaller companies that are Alexa enabled and we can bring those into our ecosystem.”
At SnapOne and Control 4 it’s all about the interface - both for the client and for the installer. Jason Girardier, senior sales manager UK, Ireland & Nordics comments: “The user interface is becoming a lot more intuitive. It’s customisable now, which makes it a lot easier. The whole user experience is a lot easier to get around. And now with remote access, being able to give the installers the ability to maintain these projects wherever they are and whenever they are makes a big difference to their business.”
RTI Control also says the control - the interface - has been the focus most recently: “It's what the customer is holding or touching when he or she is controlling the system,” says Bill Hensley, RTI’s head of global marketing. “So let's get that hardware right. Let's make sure the ergonomics are exquisite so that you absolutely want to pick up that remote.
He notes that the development of the ‘button’ should never stand still: “Integrators and their customers share an expectation that control systems should always be adapting to changes in lifestyles and advancements in technologies. What seemed like magic ten years ago is expected today.”
Suzanne Fitzgerald, founder of KNX partner and leading integrator Dmoti, has noticed arise in demand for intelligent energy management: “People are starting to ask more about analytics - the need to fit energy metering and water metering, for example. And people are asking to connect their heating and cooling systems, whereas previously they were more interested in lighting and audio. We're getting a lot more requests now for people wanting to manage their energy, obviously because of the increasing energy bills.”
Fitzgerald thinks this will lead to more developments in energy management in the home, and in the community, particularly when it comes to the integration of solar power: “This means making sure that you are using maximum amount of your production at a time when you've got it and minimising consummation when you're having to buy at a high rate. You might find differential tariffs from providers, when people are feeding in lots of solar during the day, so somebody who hasn't got solar might get a better lower tariff during the day. At night time, the tariff might be higher because there's no production at that point. You might find people starting to stock energy and sell it back and release it in the evening to cover those costs.”
The interop imperative
Possibly the biggest challenge in the residential smart home market is the burgeoning number of peripherals and smart home devices on, and coming onto, the market. Compatibility, range, and choice are major factors in the relative success of control systems. “There is such a large range of things that can be controlled now,” says URC’s Granoe. “It’s really only limited by your imagination. There’s no area of the home we can’t help automate. Every time we talk about this, a new idea comes up.There's so much opportunity.”
Manufacturers need to keep up to date with the latest product additions and make commercially-savvy decisions to prioritise development of drivers and integrating those products into their arsenal. “We have to make sure we are up to date,” continues Granoe. “We've been doing this probably longer than anyone else out there and probably have one of the biggest databases out there. When we go to trade shows, we have several people and all they do is go to the individual booths to make sure that they have contact information, and find out what's new.”
"We have a team that that's all they do,” says Hensley. “They are software folks fully focused on working with all the different manufacturers. And we're talking to our integrators all the time, finding out what's important to them so that we can prioritise the work that we're doing. We also have external parties that write drivers. We've got our own open API. So if an integrator has something they want to connect to an RTI system, that's no problem - we've probably already made the driver.”
Simplicity in home control | Image: Crestron
Products and control systems have their own APIs, which can be used by other manufacturers to ensure compatibility and interoperability. How far this goes is up to individual need, and just how open is an ‘open’ system. The necessity works both ways, too. That is, a relatively new brand or product might go to the control system manufacturers to ensure they have the best chance at becoming one of the options in that system. On the other hand, a control system manufacturer might consider specific popular brands to be essential and commercially advantageous, so the approach would work the other way. Granoe says: “URC is one of the few companies that have Ring doorbell integration where we actually react to the ring doorbell faster than the app does. It pops up immediately in the video on our keypad, or even on the wand handheld remote control. Built in microphones mean the client can start talking to the visitor instantaneously, as opposed to digging around for their phone and starting the app.”
For RTI the control interface is the focus
Talking to the neighbours
Choosing a control system, or even a control protocol, is somewhat, but not wholly, a technical decision. Rather, it can be a commercial decision based on a number of factors. Many installers have an advantageous or commercial loyalty to a brand. For those brands to stay competitive, they have to stay relevant, have a wide compatibility, and support installers with competitive products, marketing, training, technical support, and product reliability. One of the biggest liabilities in the residential market is after-sales support, so reliability and the advent of remote systems management, are important factors here.
RTI aims for exquisite ergonomics
“At SnapOne, the main thing we do is manufacture and distribute Control4,”says Girardier. “Since it was founded, we’ve seen exponential growth in the number of installers out there using it. Everything we do is to support the Control4 ecosystem. The products that we sell or the networking brands, the surveillance brands, the power distribution brands that we sell are all manufactured with Control4 in mind. A customer - an installer - doesn’t necessarily need to look elsewhere for the majority of what they're going to use for any given project.“ However, the main thing that Control4 brought to the market, way back in 2005, was that they were interoperable with over 10,000 different devices. At the time, the systems that were available on the market were very proprietary and very locked down. And you had to use a very specific set of products to make sure that you were going to get it to work.”
Crestron sees all the same advantages to a control protocol managed by a single company. “Having a single control protocol and infrastructure that then operates with not only that manufacturer, but also other third-party brands offers flexibility to both vendors and clients,”says Michael Short. “However, it's vital that the control platform used is built on the strongest of foundations.
“You need to work with a company that's got a history of creating control solutions, and a tradition of creating both software and hardware to deliver the best customer experience. It's important that a control platform works with other manufacturers to create ‘official’, vetted and tested integrations versus those that fall outside of official channels. As software continues to adapt and change - and as updates happen to a platform - if the manufacturers aren't working together, the system can fall apart.
“It's also vital that the key components of a home are based on that control platform. In our view, when you think of things like controlling entertainment or lighting, those elements should be from a single brand. If you mismatch too many brands across the system, there are more points of failure and that's a risk for both vendors and clients.”
Crestron prioritises flexibility for vendors and clients
KNX in the house...
On the other hand, KNX is an open communication protocol managed by the KNX Association. The KNX website shows over 500 manufacturers and just shy of 130,000 ‘partners’. Fitzgerald’s company, Dmoti, has been a KNX partner since 2013. She sees many plus-points to the KNX route, not least of which is its proven longevity and stability: “With KNX we have an ethics agreement to say that we give the client the project file so that any other integrator can come in and pick up the project.
“I often pick up other people's installations - I've got villas that have had KNX installed for 15 or 20 years where the owner has moved, and the installer has retired. The new owners are the new clients. You can just pick it up and quickly reprogram the project to the needs of the new customers. If the relays that have worked for 15 years stop working and the bathroom lights no longer turn on, I can take that module out, put another one in from another manufacturer. There’s no issue with backward compatibility or interaction - it just works.”
Future feelings
For the future of the smart home, while most agree that automation, voice control, remote management, and energy will continue to be important and developing stories, all agree that AI might be the biggest thing coming over the horizon. “The next leap will be broader adoption of AI into the smart home,” notes Crestron’s Short. “To be clear, I don't mean using AI to talk to the system and have it talk back tome. I think the answer is using AI to revolutionise how the data from your home is making suggestions on how you should use that system. It's important that this is a carefully thought-out process - not some gimmick. It's important that it involves more than just the control platform. It's important that it's managed, secure, and actually adds value - and not automation that isn't needed or requested.”
Granoe says: “Every day when I get home, I open the door, I turn the lights on, I go into the kitchen, turn those lights on, then I turn on the TV and I go to a certain news channel. If the system recognised that and asked ‘would you like me to create a macro or a scene for this?’, that would be a great thing to do with AI.”
URC's goal is to simplify everything for the user
All grown up
It’s also true that control of smart and automated devices in the home has matured somewhat over recent times, going from a novelty on gadget and popular tech shows, to a reality that can enhance life. Girardier notes: “Over the last few years the ‘novelty’ conversation has dissipated a little bit and become more about an actual lifestyle product that can be part of the fabric of a home rather than a gadget on the walls.“ The control panel doesn't have to be a big statement anymore. It can just be there - a very discreet, modern looking switch on the wall that can do multiple different things.” The wisdom seems to be that however you choose to control a home, equally mature consideration for commercial imperatives, longevity, support, and so on should all be part of the equation.
Main image credit: Who is Danny/Shutterstock.com