The Solent Electronic Home Blog

Wireless Technologies

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Wireless technologies have been derided in the past for being unreliable as well as cheap and nasty.

They have improved immeasurably in the last few years and if certain criteria are respected then wireless technologies can provide excellent service.

Alarm systems. These are now very reliable, using signal encoding to eliminate false alarms and hacking, they are easy to install and can alert you to any incident using SMS or email.

Multi-room music. Wireless system which can do this include Sonos and Control4. While wired systems are certain to work all the time, wireless music systems will work most of the time and since they are non-critical systems anyway, the small inconvenience of losing music occasionally may be more than compensated by the lower cost of installation.

Wireless TV. Usually used for ad hoc connections which are only needed for a short time. TV and especially HDTV requires large bandwidth to be successful and wireless cannot always provide this. The technology is being developed by some high profile players and will one day be useful.

Wireless lighting. Lighting requires power and so cannot be totally wireless. There are systems which have dimmers and switches which can be added into existing wiring with minimum disruption. Control4, Rako, Lutron, Ulti, EnOcean and many more. The switches can be battery powered or mains powered. Some can be included in conventional UK wiring, and some can be put anywhere. Just look at the Schneider Electric Ulti range. You could even put a light switch in the middle of a pane of glass and it would operate perfectly and look really stylish.

The technologies vary widely. Some use zigbee mesh networks which are very robust if set up correctly and some use direct master to slave comms which can have issues with large distances or thick walls.

The real problem with wireless lighting is speed of response and consistency of speed of response. We are so used to a light coming on instantly when we press a switch that any delay causes consternation and doubt in the mind of the user. This can be frustrating and, in extreme cases, may eventually result in the system being rejected.

A wireless map should always be produced by the installer to show where any rf dead spots exist. In this way more certainty can be built into the design.

Wireless heating. There are some excellent new systems available now. Honeywell Evohome is a good example. Heatmiser also have a wireless range. These are excellent for retrofitting and provide advanced features such as web access to all heating zones and the ability to set up individual heating schemes for each room.

As with all wireless systems care is needed to ensure that there are no RF dead spots. In heating systems the wireless links can afford to tolerate some missing information since heating is necessarily a slow process, and provided the links reestablish themselves often enough then the missing information will be invisible to the user and temperature control will be acceptable.

I haven't covered all types of wireless technology, for example there are GSM based units which can control parts of your home technology, heating, lighting etc, but they are a slightly different ball game.

Wireless smart-home systems need care in designing and setting up but can provide excellent service and when being retrofitted can save lots of money. Beware also of having too many wireless systems concentrated in one house as many of them use the same frequency range and can interfere with one another.

Home Security - A New Approach

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:11:00 GMT

Alarm systems have always been separated from other parts of Home Automation. This is due to several factors.. the requirements of insurance companies, the influence of the security industry itself and everyone's fear of not installing the right thing for the job.

But technology is now available which lets security functions be more closely integrated with Home Automation and daily living.This can have huge advantages for the home owner.

For example, motion sensors can be used to turn lights on and off automatically when people are sensed in a room.

You could also have several levels of security..

Level 0 - no security

Level 1 - awareness - motion sensors and door contacts activities produce text or audible messages for the owner wherever he is in the property. This allows the owner in the garden, for example, to know what is going on in the rest of the property, which he cannot necessarily see or hear.

Level 2 - surveillance - Automated activity analysis - motion is detected in the garden but noone has previously been detected going through a connected door....the security systems should flag up something which needs investigating.

Level 3 - Full alarm - used for when the owner is away from the home and any intrusion triggers the siren and monitoring system.

This sort of solution is made possible by combining the intelligence of the home automation controller and the sensors provided by an alarm system. The two together give a much better and more secure result.

If you have any thoughts about this sort of idea please contact me and we can talk through your ideas.

Contact chris@thesolentelectronichome.co.uk or on 0800 781 3909

Self Builders

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 05:08:00 GMT

Not all customers want to do things in the same way.

Many of our customers are self-builders.....Those who want control of the way their house is built and who, very often, do a lot of the work themselves.

Smart-Home systems are sometimes complex and sometimes very simple and it is quite possible for many of the tasks involved in an installation to be completed by someone who is skilled but not specialist.

So, in the case of lighting control, for example, we wouldn't expect a home owner to be able to size and design a lighting control system, but we might be happy with the home owner connecting up the control system according to our instructions.

We can give you this possibility by producing hardware which is simple in design and operation and which comes with detailed instructions on how to connect it.

So we would take care of the design, the quality control and the compatibility of the controls with the technologies and with the customer's requirements and you the customer can do the wiring in your own time and with your own resources.

This can create huge savings for the home owner/self builder and gives him control over a larger part of the installation process.

Contact The Solent Electronic Home today to find out how this could help you with your self-build project.

What's needed for the best Home Cinema or Cinema Room?

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:55:00 GMT

The best film experience is obtained in a dedicated Home Cinema Room. This will have the acoustics needed for the best sound, the right projector or wide screen TV to suit the aspect ratio of the image, and the comfort necessary so that there is no distraction from the film itself.

The acoustic quality of a room is determined by the amount of echo in the room and the distribution of loudspeaker sources of sound. Soft furnishings are largely used to make sure that the level of echo is kept to a suitable level. If the architectural design of the room is regarded as too important to allow it to be hidden by the furnishings, there exists magic sound absorbent paint which will achieve the same result.

Quite often a cinema projection system in the home has to cope with different aspect ratios of the media. Standard Definition TV is 4:3 or 1.33:1. High Definition TV in the UK is 16:9 or 1.78:1, but is 1.66:1 in most of Europe. US Cinema projections are often in 1.85:1 and current wide screen projection ratio is 2.39:1

What does all this mean? Well, if the projector or wide screen in the cinema room has a native aspect ratio of 16:9, when standard definition TV is shown there will be black bands at the side of the picture and when a wide screen film is being shown there will be black bands at top and bottom. Unfortunately this means that the viewer does not benefit from the maximum resolution of the screen or projector and available detail will be reduced.

There are two ways of getting round this: electronic resizing of the image to use the full resolution of the screen or projector chip, or the use of projector lens systems to reform the image size.

3D is being talked about in a big way now and we get lots of questions about whether it is worth it, should we wait etc. Well, quite honestly the results are stunning. 3D projection gives the best results with the images seeming to live in the space to the screen.

A by-product of 3D technology is that 2D images are better than with a 2D system. The increased power of the electronics to cope with 3D provides better images in 2D.

The seating arrangements in the home cinema should be comfortable enough to allow full concentration on the film being viewed. This can be anything from a comfortable armchair to fully specialised leather upholstered seating with reclining parts and cup holders etc etc.

Another facet of Home Cinema design worthy of consideration is security. If the whole family is watching a film and there is a knock at the door or an intruder in the house, we can arrange for discreet alerts to be activated so that someone can go and investigate without disturbing the film for the rest of the family.

If you are interested in a Home Cinema System - a television upgrade to a complete home cinema room - then Contact The Solent Electronic home today

Lighting Control

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:37:00 GMT

Why do it? Security, energy savings, mood lighting, make rooms look good, convenience, latest technologies, good looking wall switches, fancy lighting effects, bling.

In the traditional sense, lighting control has meant using numerous light switches and dimmers wired in the traditional way, however this cannot offer the very real benefits offered by an automated lighting system that fixes lights to suit different lighting schemes in different rooms at different times of the day.

This is done by grouping lights together appropriately, specifying the best intensities for each fixture and programming a system that can be controlled via wall switch, touch control, PC or even voice.

Specifically we are talking about things like:

Being greeted by feature lighting as you pull up to your front door
Enhancing the appearance of your room by intelligent highlighting of its architecture and features
Creating the desired ambiance according to your changing requirements for example softness or warmth, quietness or even excitement.
Providing intelligent night lighting from a low level in your children’s bedrooms to subtly light paths to bathrooms or down the stairs.

Besides these benefits to daily life, there are real security advantages to automated lighting, these range from external lights being triggered by movement or ambient light up to the very latest systems that replicate the exact lighting pattern of the previous two weeks if you go away — far better than using a plug-in timer switch.

Lighting can even be integrated with the home's security functions so that all of the house lights come on if the burglar alarm is triggered. This is often enough to deter a possible intruder.

Finally, as well as improving the quality of your life, a carefully designed lighting system that dims lights selectively burns less electricity, making your home more environmentally friendly and less costly to run.

Home Automation - The Future of Home Technology?

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:35:00 GMT

Technology should be an enabler. It should not be there foritself, but to make the lives of its users easier and more convenient. In the home, the ongoing and rapid advances in home automation are expanding the possibilities.

If I want to listen to music, within a few seconds I can choose a well worn playlist or choose the tracks for a new one. I can access online subscription services or radio stations.

Most mornings I listen to the news while eating breakfast. A single dedicated button press gets this up and running without having to think about it. When I leave for work another single dedicated button press turns all of the lights off, all of the media off, the alarm on and beeps for confirmation as I slam the door. I know that if some incident should occur while I am out of the house I will get a text message alerting me to the fact.

I don’t have to worry about regular tasks such as the above, the electronic systems do it all for me. And this is not science fiction. All of this home automation technology exists now. It only requires your lighting, alarm and media to be connected and configured to your needs.

However, as these advanced home automation systems increase in power and flexibility and ease of use, they can actually become more complex to specify, design and install. This is where a professional home automation installer can help. By working with you and focussing on your needs, your home can be made to suit your lifestyle, not the other way round.

Welcome to The Solent Electronic Home

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:18:00 GMT

This is the new blog for The Solent Electronic Home. We are going to be adding information and news on new products and developments in home automation, multi-room music and video, smart home control systems and equipment for assisted living.

If you have any questions regarding any of the current products in the market, please let us know; the best questions will appear in the blog.

Regards
The Solent Electronic Home