Innehållsförteckning för Vol 6/ Issue 1 från Residential Tech Today

There are now more options when it comes to adjustable retrofit residential downlights, thanks to the new ASTRO 6” fixture from AiSPiRE, WAC's integrator-only lighting brand. Designed as a replacement for any traditional 5” or 6” incandescent recessed fixture, it can be aimed straight down or angled and offers a dim-to-warm luminaire from 3000K to 1800K. By mimicking an incandescent lamp's dimming appearance, AiSPiRE shifts color temperatures to create a visually comfortable and familiar experience while still benefiting from the energy savings and long life of LEDs. The ASTRO family offers several dim-to-warm options that are designed to be easy to install and use, delivering a range from a 3000K white light — the color of halogen — to a warm 1800 Kelvin. Traditional LED, in contrast to this dim-to-warm…

Josh Edge combines the simplicity of a hard button TV remote, convenient in-room device control, and near-field voice assistance in a beautiful package. Josh.ai continues rapidly innovating and increasing the power of artificial intelligence in the home. Following an earlier launch of 19 new natural AI voices, its AVA Cinema Remote experience, app enhancements, Josh Touchscreen, and Nimble DevSuite, the company revealed its “just one thing” to a select dealer audience. Josh.ai presented Josh Edge as a way to provide simple and intuitive handheld control in the home. Based on years of partner input, dealers were empowered to provide feedback and back the project if they wanted Josh.ai to build it. In the first hour, Josh.ai reached its crowdfunding goal to move forward and build Josh Edge. Machined out of…

Earlier in the year, Coastal Source celebrated its 15th anniversary with a partner event at Orlando's Kennedy Space Center and the launch of its new Bollard 1000 Speaker Series and EVO Lighting Series for outdoor installations. The new modular Bollard 1000 Series builds upon the Coastal Source's 10.0 Bollard Series by improving power handling, clarity, and tonal accuracy while maintaining bass response in two styles of sealed enclosures. The modular Coastal Source EVO Lighting Series light engine will come in three configurations — standard power, high power, and tunable. Bollard 1000 Series Leveraging their 12.0 Line Source Bollard, Coastal Source's Bollard 1000 Series uses a weatherized ribbon tweeter in all models to deliver hi-fidelity performance. The all-new acoustic suspension subwoofer design delivers 100% increased power handling over the 10.0 Bollard…

FEATURED Outfitting a backyard with weather-hardy tech built to withstand an occasional rain shower is one thing; equipping the outdoor area with products purposely designed and engineered to defy the power and erosion of gale-force winds, ocean waves, and sea salt is quite another. The integration team at Future Automation & Design, based in Redondo Beach, California, understands all too well the importance of choosing the right technology for the severity of the environmental elements. They recently completed one of their most extensive smart home projects to date, where a combination of more than 600 Coastal Source outdoor light fixtures and speakers would need to stand up to some of the harshest conditions on the California coastline while blending in beautifully with the home's eye-catching landscape and casting elegant illumination…

Multiroom audio is an interesting category. While it may seem as though most Americans are perfectly happy placing their iPhones inside a bowl for optimum sound performance, thankfully there still appear to be plenty of folks who crave a little “extra cheese on their Whopper,” as Chris Rock would say. Couple that desire with 25 solid years of architectural audio installations in new homes, and we've seen a few upgrade waves come and go. Some of these cycles involved upgrading old volume control knobs with individual streaming amplifiers capable of AirPlay and Bluetooth Audio. Others have seen Sonos take the world by storm one amplifier at a time. Enter Juke Audio into the fray recently with its Juke+ streaming amplifier, which is capable of driving six amplified zones of audio.…

REAR VIEW Myth 1: Several Devices on a Single Wi-Fi Network Causes Congestion This notion is flawed. The reality is that different smart home devices have varying data requirements. If your Wi-Fi is struggling, it's more likely due to high-bandwidth activities such as streaming, gaming, or large file downloads, not the modest demands of your smart home devices. Myth 2: Some Smart Home Devices Go Unused for Months The concern here is whether having smart home devices that aren't used frequently is problematic. The answer is straightforward: No, it's not. Smart home devices are typically low-cost and low maintenance. They don't consume much electricity and require minimal investment in time and effort to set up. Smart home devices like motion sensors or smart plugs might not be in constant use,…

Custom integrators have long struggled with managing on-call tech support processes, often resorting to piecemeal solutions that lack sophistication. Technicians are frequently asked to monitor shared inboxes or carry around a dedicated on-call cell phone. Inbound support requests route indiscriminately to these channels without consideration for the urgency level or the client's eligibility for after-hours support. These half-baked processes put unnecessary stress on technicians and result in an unpredictable client experience. Now, with ProVision Signal, OneVision hopes to make it easier for integrators to build an incident response plan that ensures clients get the level of service they need for their technology issues 24/7/365. Signal features a drag-and-drop interface that OneVision says makes building, viewing, and managing on-call schedules quick and intuitive. Customizable notification types allow on-call technicians to receive…

Lutron Electronics has introduced all-new luxury architectural downlights, the Ketra D2 and Rania D2, featuring a 2” aperture downlight, diecast aluminum trims that are honed to a nearly invisible edge, a tighter control method for making micro-adjustments, slimmer housing for installation, and lower price points than the predecessor Ketra D3 downlight line. Lutron has long sought to harmoniously bring the outdoors inside, blending natural and electric light seamlessly while accentuating the beauty of the interior — from fabric colors and textures to art and even the skin tones and features of those enjoying the space. With the launch of Ketra D2, users can now experience the characteristic elements of Lutron with dynamic lighting that adapts to various moments throughout the day and sets the desired ambiance in the form of…

With applications spanning across social media, email, video communication, streaming media, and AI chatbots, the profound influence of cloud-based AI is undeniable. However, as we witness the ongoing expansion of the home security market — forecasted to surge nearly 20 percent annually through 2030 — critical inefficiencies within cloud-based AI become apparent. The solution lies in processing AI at the edge, a transformative approach that enhances efficiency and responsiveness by bringing intelligence closer to where it is needed most: within the confines of our clients' homes. The Benefits of Home Security at the Edge Smart home integrators understand the concept of “the edge” better than most. It's where much of their technology has always lived: IP cameras, occupancy sensors, alarms, and access controls. Once network-enabled, these smart home devices become…

I have a confession to make. Don't tell anyone, but I've become a bit of an eero fanboy. Ever since they launched their first Wi-Fi systems eight years ago, things seemed to calm down in my CI business, Livewire, almost overnight. Much like its audio cousin in the audio world, Sonos, eero has existed in the “things that just work” space since Day One. Needless to say, when I saw their announcement touting a new Wi-Fi 7 solution, I quickly reached out to get my sweaty paws on a demo system. I didn't have to wait long. Unboxing The bulky eero Max 7 box arrived and the first thing that struck me was the sheer size of the new units compared to previous models. The top of the box lifts…

As more energy and lighting options are flooding the market in recent months, it's starting to resemble one of the AV world's original “raisons d'etre”: Replacing coffee tables of clutter with universal remote controls. Instead of having apps for solar, EV charging, energy management, and backup generators, Savant is riding to the rescue by offering an integrated approach leveraging the same appeal to simplicity that many homeowners have gotten accustomed to with their other home technology systems. The Hyannis, MA-based company sent me a Savant Power System demo pedestal kit to test drive their solution firsthand. Would this be a bunch of complicated space junk or truly deliver on the promise of energy independence? I was about to find out. Local Battery Storage A combination inverter and battery storage tower…

DEPARTMENTS Protocols Matter, the open source, IP-based protocol, was created to be a unifying standard that will help people create a reliable and secure IoT ecosystem in a smart home. It is also designed to help smart home device manufacturers by allowing them to build products based on a single protocol instead of products for each smart home ecosystem, including Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and others. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has released version 1.3 of the Matter protocol specification, adding support for energy management, electric vehicle charging, and water management, as well as support for microwave ovens, ovens, cooktops, vent hoods, and laundry dryers. Finally, version 1.3 adds enhanced support for media players and TVs, scenes where commands for multiple devices can be triggered by…

On the eve of the third-annual Lightapalooza conference in Phoenix this past spring, I pulled my last incandescent downlight bulb out of storage. The next time a bulb burned out in my home's builder-grade can lighting, I would be stuck without a replacement. For many years, I had resisted the transition to LED or even halogen for my home's in-ceiling lighting fixtures, but I now knew I needed to start planning for that inevitable switchover. Several trips to hardware stores and big-box retailers had left me without an acceptable LED replacement for my 6-inch can lights. Though most of the bulbs I tried looked OK during the day, none dimmed down warmly (via my Control4 lighting control system) into the amber color range that I loved about incandescent lighting. So,…

While the benefits of residential energy solutions are far-reaching, with direct benefits to the household's energy bills, getting consumers to adopt and participate has been a challenge in the energy industry. Familiarity with and participation in utility rate plans are low nationwide, despite their relatively long history. Energy devices such as smart thermostats, used in coordination with the right incentives to drive program participation, can deliver insights to utilities on how energy is used in the home. However, despite the universal need to control electricity budgets, a minority of households consider themselves to be highly familiar with energy devices. The current state of the energy markets has not yet delivered on the potential, and utilities don't have much insight into household energy usage behind the meter. • Currently 16% of…

Along with the NextGen TV set top boxes, it is worth noting that there is another very reasonably priced option for off-air tuning and DVR. Tablo, a long-time fixture in the market, updated their product line last year with the introduction of the totally redesigned 4th Generation Tablo product. Eschewing the black, squarish look of their previous models, this white, circular design is different in many ways and is worth a look as another option to view and record free, ATSC 1.0 broadcast channels without any subscription costs. Available in two- and four-tuner units, at $99.99 and $139.99 respectively, the new models keep to Tablo's original model in that they have no remote but rather simply connect to your antenna and home broadband network with viewing and control being done…

The Wi-Fi-enabled Abode Lock, priced at $129.99 MSRP for the lock and keypad bundle, is designed to transform any latch-style deadbolt into a smart lock. The included keypad connects to the lock via Bluetooth and enables exterior access via PIN code or fingerprint recognition. It boasts a 4,000 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery that provides prolonged operation of up to 12 months with average use. Low battery warnings are issued to users via the Abode app to help ensure continuous protection. The ClareVision Smart Video Doorbell is a simple surveillance and security upgrade that combines 1080p video capture, AI-based smart analytics, 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi connectivity, and two-way voice calling into a slim device that uses existing doorbell wires for power. Users can view the live feed from the ClareOne Wireless…