Residential Tech Today September - October 2019

“They had done just what they expect their customers to do: ‘Entertain the best that they can.’” In August, I flew to Southern California for visits to prominent audio products manufacturers Sonance, in San Clemente, and Harman International, in Northridge (see my story about JBL on p. 16). Traffic challenges on the 405 freeway make getting anywhere in L.A. less than efficient, and my drive from the LAX airport to San Clemente, at rush hour, was a perfect storm. As I sat in crawling 405 traffic, with 30 minutes left to my destination, Sonance’s director of residential channel marketing Mike Cleary popped up on my caller ID, phoning in to check on my status. “We’ll have a cold beer waiting for you when you get here,” he said before we hung up. Such…

Lisa Montgomery is a home-tech journalist whose work has been published in a variety of magazines and websites. She makes it her mission to provide thoughtful insights on how to integrate technology into a home without compromising its aesthetics. In this issue, she writes about the challenges of selling lighting fixtures as part of smart home integration. Jordan Wills is the marketing director for Cloud9 Smart, a New York City-based systems integration company that handles all things technology for homes and offices. This month, Wills tackles the ever-changing voice control category, focusing on the latest features from the top four platforms. Heather Sidorowicz is a freelance writer, CEDIA volunteer, and president/owner at Southtown Audio Video in Hamburg, NY. In this issue, Sidorowicz documents the smart-home renovation of her own residence. Dennis Burger is…

To say that much of our daily lives revolve around smartphones is somewhat of an understatement. Taking the train, walking around the city, or even sitting down for a meal, you will most likely witness people checking their smartphones on a nearly compulsive level. Seeing eyes consistently glued to smart devices can definitely make one ponder about the stats behind our favorite addictive tech, be it the time spent surfing the web or the companies that make everything from the iPhone to the Galaxy. Whether you’re reading this on paper or, funnily enough, on a smartphone, here are the numbers behind our favorite pocket-sized supercomputers. Worldwide Daily Time Spent on the Internet (Mobile Devices) Fastest Average Mobile Internet Speeds by Country (Measured by Mbps) Mobile Data Traffic Globally (Measured by Exabytes per month) Global…

I think the feature that dazzles our customers the most are the oneapp solutions from our integrated control systems. The specific feature that our clients appreciate is off-site remote control of their house environmental systems, including monitoring of security systems, cameras, lights, and temperatures.. –Barry Reiner, InnerSpace Electronics, Mount Kisco, NY Nothing seems to bring a smile to clients’ faces like a properly designed and installed audio system. At times it feels like a low bar: a proper music source, a good amplifier, and decent speakers (and subwoofers) that all consider the room. We always hear initial feedback of, “I’m not an audiophile,” but no one ever regrets having great sound in their favorite room. –Bryan Mills, Mills Technologies, Skokie, IL The ability for the client to interact with their lighting through the Savant…

Imagine you walk into a room and every device instantly adjusts to your preferences. You didn’t touch anything, you didn’t ask your voice assistant to trigger a routine, and you didn’t have your face scanned by a panel on the wall. You simply enter the room and watch it come to life, perfectly personalized for your preferences. The dream is now a reality, thanks to an ingenious and deceptively simple device created by CEO Oren Kotlicki and his team at IntelliThings. It’s called the RoomMe and it looks like a smoke detector. It’s slim, beige, and sort of… unimpressive in appearance. But, that’s how it was designed. Aesthetics The goal of the RoomMe sensor is to disappear into the surroundings and seamlessly integrate with all of your smart devices. It detects the Bluetooth…

Harman knows that no other audio company can match its D2 compression driver and High-Definition Imaging (HDI) waveguide technologies and components. So, the company is leaning into its proprietary and patented ultra-performance tech by integrating it into just about every loudspeaker in its premium JBL Synthesis home theater line – even if it seems impossible to do. For the SCL-5, Harman took the same compression driver technology used in previous SCL models and squeezed it into a round footprint, alongside a 6.5-inch woofer for use as overhead height channels in immersive audio (Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Auro-3D) room designs, or as an overhead LCR (left-center-right) surround (if the design requires all speakers to go in the ceiling). “From a performance standpoint, there’s no in-ceiling speaker that can do what this can do,” said…