Parade of Homes

Avanti Custom Homes - 32 Big Sky Drive Many of today's show homes feature completely integrated systems incorporated from the planning stages. Lights, thermostats, doors, windows, blinds, locks, home entertainment, security and monitoring systems — just about anything electronic can be automated. Many individual electronic products come with their own apps. Honey- well and ecobee3 have thermostat apps. For lighting, Phillips offers the wirelessly controlled Hue system, and Belkin's WeMo is a line of smart products ranging from light switches to air purifiers and adapters that can turn just about any home appliance into a smart appliance. De- layed at work? With a WeMo-enabled Crock-Pot you can change the cooking time or activate the warm setting remotely. And GE has in- troduced a line of wi-fi connected appliances that will send you a text message or email when a dishwasher or laundry cycle ends, or let you preheat the oven on your way home from the grocery store. In homes with multiple smart features, the easiest way to maximize their potential and use them in concert is to have one app to control everything instead of indi- vidual apps to control one feature at a time. "Everything has an app, and what's very useful is you can control anything from your phone. The challenge is they all work independently, there's no intelligence behind it," says Laurence Rosenberg, president of The Accurate Technology Group. "So what you can do is take those same devices and run them on a home integration platform; it commu- nicates to all these devices but like a symphony." Popular platforms currently in use at local companies that specialize in home automation are Control 4, Elan-G! RTI (Remote Technologies Incorporated) and the newly introduced (to Manitoba that is) Lyric. Having the ability to control your entire house from one app is a luxury of convenience. A platform can program various settings and combinations of set- tings called "scenes." With an integrated platform and its accompanying app, various scenes can be activated from one button, says Sean Banks, president of k&S Electronics. "I have a bedtime mode in my house. It shuts off all my TVs, audio video, lights, arms the alarm system, makes sure the doors are locked, makes sure my garage is closed, all in one shot," Banks explains. Though home automation technology has been in use for more than 15 years, some of the most popu- lar smart features remain audio-video consolidation (goodbye remotes!), lighting and motorized window shades or blinds. Parade of Homes FALL 2016 103 Cont'd on page 104

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