The smart home saw a rise in consumer interest in 2016, greatly in part to voice control from devices like Amazon Echo which rocked headlines and resulted in astounding sales.
In a recent U.S. survey from Coldwell Banker, 72 percent of those surveyed, who already had smart home products in their homes, expressed interest in integrating voice control. Last September, Control4 announced integration with Amazon Alexa to bring whole-home voice control to Control4 homeowners, opening the door for U.S. customers to control their entire Control4 smart home with simple, intuitive voice commands.
Now, the Control4 Smart Home Skill for Amazon Alexa is also available to UK homeowners. What exactly does “whole-home control” mean? Well, because Control4 plays nicely with nearly 10,000 consumer devices in the home—such as lights, security sensors, audio/video components, speakers, thermostats, and more—a homeowner can have virtually any device added into their system and enjoy control of anything from individual devices to entire pre-programmed “scenes” that orchestrate multiple devices simultaneously. This allows a homeowner to quickly and conveniently set a certain mood, put the house to “sleep”, or even shut down every light, all at once.
For example, simply say “Alexa, turn on Cooking,” and the lights raise in the kitchen, the shades close, and the telly turns on your favourite food channel. “Alexa, turn off Apartment,” can shut down the entire house — turning off all of the lights, lowering the thermostat, and locking the doors. The combination of smart home scenes with the convenience of voice control offers a completely personalized experience to home control that homeowners can use to make day-to-day life a little easier and lot more enjoyable.
The new Control4 Smart Home Skill for Amazon Alexa is included with a Control4 4Sight subscription (£75.00 GBP), and requires an Alexa-enabled device. A 4Sight subscription enables homeowners to connect to Control4 cloud-based services, including remotely accessing and controlling their home on an iOS or Android mobile device from anywhere, receiving alerts from their smart home, and using the new Control4 Smart Home Skill for Amazon Alexa devices.
At ISE 2017, Control4 will be demonstrating voice control with Alexa integration, as well as new product offerings in lighting, network management, and more in booth #10-N114.
Learn more about Control4 and find a dealer today online at www.control4.com.