Central Coast Audio Visual

Opening and closing your blinds is a trivial process that you may never have thought about automating it, but it can make your home more energy efficient and secure. A new device allows users to automate existing blinds and control them via an accompanying mobile app. The FlipFlic lets people maximize the amount of natural light in their home, regulate its temperature, give the impression of someone always being at home, and save lighting, air conditioning and heating energy. The app connects to the device via Bluetooth and allows users to open or close their blinds at the push of a button or based on sunlight, temperature or schedule. Read more: http://www.gizmag.com/flipflic-smart-blinds-controller/42520/

Automated shades can be a great feature for any living space, but when you start looking at the market, you might be surprised how expensive outfitting a whole home can be. That said, smart shades and blinds have a lot of potential. They can make windows in hard-to-reach places more accessible, and can be important tools for the disabled or elderly. Serena Shades are pretty easy to set up. With a power drill and a couple screwdrivers, I was able to set it up within 30 minutes. The good news is, besides the Caseta Bridge, you'll only have to buy shades. No extra hubs, no extra remotes. In fact, the only reason you need the bridge is to cut down on battery usage. Read more: http://www.cnet.com/products/lutron-serena-remote-controlled-shades/

Elite Media Solutions tied the home’s lights, thermostats, audio equipment, and surveillance cameras to a Savant home control platform, and loaded the Savant mobile app onto the owners’ iPads, some of which are mounted to the walls, and smartphones. Tapping a single button on the app, for example, triggers a housewide “All Off” command. Lights turn off, the thermostats adjust, the audio system turns deactivates, and the surveillance cameras maintain their vigil over the home and property. The app also enables the iPads and smartphones to function as intercoms. When the doorbell of the Mobotix door station is pressed, an image captured by the nearest surveillance cameras is passed to the app, and the owners can converse with the guest directly from the app. Similarly, if any family member hears a noise in the middle of the night, he or she can turn on all the outdoor lights via that Savant app. Read more: https://www.electronichouse.com/smart-home/savant-system-carves-quality-time-fam...

The new owners of this ultra-modern Harbor Acres showplace never have to fret that their 2,000-bottle collection of fine wines will go bad. A built-in monitor in their floor-to-ceiling glass-walled wine cellar keeps the right temperature; they’re notified immediately by email if it varies by a degree. They never have to wonder, either, if their visiting college-age kids are helping themselves to a favorite chardonnay. A series of secret keypad codes gains entrance to one of the wine cellar’s four doors—each door allowing access to a different level of wine—all of them controlled via magnetic locks, and all of them on camera. “There’s a guest door, the wife door, the master of the house door, etc. Read more: https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/articles/2016/7/29/a-harbor-acres-house-showcases-the-latest-in-smart-home-technology

It is important that we keep our homes safe, and we do everything in our power to ensure the same. Automated lights that can be toggled with our iPhone, fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors to warn us of incoming danger, cameras to keep a pair of eyes upon us as we sleep, there is so much that technology has to offer in terms of safeguarding our fortress. However, such efficient techniques of home automation also come with a certain amount of vulnerability. Such vulnerabilities can be plugged, leaving us free to enjoy the myriad advantages of home automation. Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-stark/is-it-safe-to-be-smart-th_b_11234416.html

Smart home connectivity is a confusing muddle for the average consumer. Works with Nest, HomeKit, Wink, Z-Wave, Zigbee, SmartThings, Brillo… These are just a handful of the platforms and standards of the smart home. But don’t worry about them. Apple, Google, Samsung and many other big tech names all want a piece of the smart home pie. And, as the genre is still finding its feet, no-one has really set the standard yet. You’ve no doubt read how the fragmentation of the smart home will be its downfall… but that’s not really the case. Many of the devices work across multiple platforms. Philips Hue lets you control your smart bulbs, officially, using Android and iOS and there are a number of third-party apps... Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/paullamkin/2016/07/29/building-a-smart-home-from-scratch

Home automation systems that allow an owner to control lighting and shading, heating and cooling, music and video, security cameras and other functions can definitely increase the appeal of a home, said Zachary Vichinsky, a real estate sales agent. “The last home I sold, the purchaser came out and told me that his decision to purchase the property was based largely on the technology that was incorporated into the home,” Mr. Vichinsky said, noting that the house had a fully integrated Crestron home automation system. “As a second home, it was very appealing to the purchasers to be able to be coming down the highway and turn the air-conditioning and lights on in their home, or raise the temperature of the pool.” Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/garden/home-automation-systems-can-boost-market-value.html