Are Smart TV's so Smart

Smart televisions accounted for 40% of total shipments in Western Europe during the second quarter of 2012 with linear growth forecast over the next couple of years; however the market for connected television services and applications remains somewhat confusing.

Without a truly open platform to bring together broadcast and broadband media, content providers need to work with the individual television manufacturers to ensure that their services are included in the User Interface. The result is that a household with different brands of televisions will have access to different content from one TV to the next and are unable to access all of their content via a single device. Not to mention the need to get to grips with a multitude of user interfaces.

Billed as an open and business neutral technology platform, HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) is providing an alternative to proprietary technologies and will hopefully bring about the long promised, but as yet, undelivered interoperability for connected television applications.

As more content providers adopt HbbTV the goal of having all our content be it IPTV, broadcast digital or internet multimedia content delivered via a single device with one remote control could be just around the corner.

http://www.hbbtv.org/pages/about_hbbtv/introduction.php

Total Control

Spanish integration company, Future Lifestyle, had this project featured by home automation manufactures Control4 in their magazine Smart Home. This beach side holiday home near Marbella was refurbished and the client was all up for the idea of some cutting edge technology.

Armed with the mandate from the client, Co-owner of Future Lifestyle, Murray set about designing a system that integrated, in addition to the usual multi-room audio and video components, all aspects of the heating and cooling systems, DMX lighting, shutters, door and gate entry/exit, and chose Control4 automation to do the job.

The first challenge I faced as system programmer was to implement the vision that spaces should be subtlety altered through the use of standard lighting and DMX colour mixing. As no readily available driver could be found to control the equipment installed by the lighting designer, I needed to create over 120 lighting scenes to achieve this. One touch control ensures that the ambiance can be tailored to suite the occasion or mood.

By far the most interesting aspect of the project was the control of the air conditioning system. We could not find any readymade solution to bolt on to the Daikin water based unit so decided to use the Control4 HC1000 as the HVAC controller and Card Access contact sensors for temperature sensing. Lots of variables and a good many lines of programming later we had the temperature at the required set point.

 

With an eye on energy efficiency and cutting utility bills, when the owner is not here enjoying his holiday home, water heating, Air Conditioning, under floor heating and certain lighting functions are de-activated by the client when he leaves. Service providers like cleaners, garden and pool services can only access functions that are required for them to complete their work. However, the client can easily set the temperature of the house and turn on the water boilers remotely to ensure that conditions are at their optimum for when they arrive.

 

For more info





Why Home Automation?

As more and more regulations come into force requiring that new buildings achieve certain criteria regarding carbon dioxide emissions, the argument for installing a control system into a house is shifting towards the benefits of being energy efficient.

In order for us to help our clients make a change towards a greener, cleaner environment and reap the benefits of lower utility bills, we need to understand which factors can bring about a reduction in energy consumption.

Energy Monitoring

Most people get their energy bill on a monthly or quarterly basis by which time there is no link between specific activities and energy consumed. In a study carried out by the University of Bath, it was found that of all the feedback groups, the installation of computers to monitor energy use helped reduce consumption most markedly. Furthermore, people with positive environmental attitudes, but who had not previously been engaged in many conservation actions, were more likely to change their consumption subsequent to the feedback period.

This would be a good start, but does not go far enough as the onus is on the occupants to turn off appliances, lights or heating when not required.

Climate

In the UK, heating accounts for 61% of the average annual bill, making it a prime candidate to try and achieve savings. The same can be said of cooling in the warmer climes. The optimal condition in a room requires an understanding of the relationship between temperature, humidity and circulation of air. Getting this balance right can normally be implemented directly from our home automation system without the need for third party thermostats installed by the HVAC contractor or bolting an additional layer of control onto the system in the form of LonWorks or Modbus.

Lighting

It is well publicized by the lighting control manufactures what sort of energy savings can be achieved by installing their products, but a home automation system can milk these savings further by adjusting lighting levels according to the amount of ambient light, ensuring lights are off when the room or house becomes unoccupied to simply opening blinds or curtains to achieve the desired level of light.

Standby Power

By the middle of the decade, standby power had risen to, typically, 10% of the average households energy use. To put this into context, a microwave oven that spends 99% of the time in standby can use more power to drive its digital display than it does to cook food. This needless waste can easily be reduced  with a few relays and bring about a real saving on utility bills, preventing tons of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere.

So why home automation?

It just makes sense.

New builds in the future will be required to reduce their consumption by some means. We should take the time now to learn the skill sets required to ensure our industry is a dominant player in the future market place.

Mid-Priced TV Room

 
The requirement for this project was to take an un-used area in the basement of the house and turn it into a TV Room.

Our client was keen on the idea of having some lighting control and would like to be able to control the AV equipment with his iPad, while keeping everything simple to use.

The main issue that we needed to overcome was the dimensions of the space we had to work with, so straight away we decided that bulky floor standing speakers were not an option and decided to build a false wall along one side of the room to incorporate in-wall speakers. We also decided to build a box section along three sides of the room's ceiling to house the down lighting.

 

We wanted to keep the front wall as clean as possible, with nothing to detract from the flush mounted 60” plasma, so we chose Stealth for front speakers and subwoofer so that the wall could be finished off with a wall paper of the client's choice. A pair of Revel in-ceiling speakers were mounted in the rear box section

 

 

 

5 Channel amplification and a Blu-Ray DVD player from Integra, Stealth's subwoofer driver and the HC800 Home Controller from Control4 were housed in a mini-rack which was then located under the stairs.

 

 

 

For the lighting, we used Puck Dimmers from Control4 and added the Control4  Multi Room amplifier for stereo audio in the Office and Lounge with the             possibility to add the patio and kitchen at a later date.