A truly smart home is a harmonious home, one in which all devices have a place and purpose and work seamlessly together with few disruptions and no stress.
The beginnings of a smart-enabled home can be set up for less than a EUR*1,000, which can be added to as budget allows, and there are aspects which tech-savvy consumers can link up themselves and control through a Windows operating system.
Then again for fully digitised homes you could be investing tens of thousands of euros and would be wise to get your system designed, created and installed by teams of automation specialist who know a thing or two about what should go where. Whatever investment you are able to make to smart enable your home, you’d be wise to get some advice, get the basics right and begin to enjoy the benefits from initial set up.
Section 1:
Entry level automation and entertainment
The Windows way
Through a Windows Media Centre interface with the assistance of some clever third party applications such as HAI (http://www.homeauto.com), you can smart-enable the lighting, heating, and security in the home and all can be controlled via your television using a single Media Centre remote control.
A Windows Media Centre is an easy-to-use integrated digital entertainment centre that can play, pause and rewind live TV, play DVDs and CDs, store your digital music, videos and photos, browse the Internet, e-mail and run Windows XP applications.
Buying a Windows Media Centre PC as a boxed commodity with a remote control and software, counting in recent reduction in prices, is a realistic option for many Irish consumers. If you’re in the market for a new PC, a Windows Media Centre would be a sensible prospect if you want to integrate various appliances in your home.
Call in the experts
HP’s Imelda Cahill recommends when installing a Windows Medias Centre into the home that there is definite value in getting a media centre specialist to install the solutions in the home, simply so the user can learn how to use and get the most out of the system.
The main thing consumers have to adapt to, she says, isn’t the setting up of the PC itself but realising that the Media Centre completely changes the way you use the PC. When setting up the Media Centre, users need to lose the standard preconception of having to sit down in front of the PC to use it; the easy to use interface and remote control allows access to the Internet and viewing of media from the couch or armchair.
Dell has been instrumental in driving Microsoft Media Centres in the marketplace and many Dell media systems come with the Media Centre operating system installed. Dell’s belief is that MS Media Centre makes it easier to for home users to play and manage digital entertainment such as music, pictures and movies, and is also an ideal platform when integrating a TV tuner and as part of a home digital hub.
Dell recommends taking advantage of the service solution packages the company offers when installing Media Centre and offers installation and wireless connectivity start up service packages for every customer requirement.
Look to an installer
Developments in technology have changed the entire landscape for the audio visual and IT industries and the coming together of these two industries has resulted in a raft of new products for the home consumer. The range of products, from hard disk-based storage devices that can store entire collections of CDs, DVDs, photos and CCTV images, to the wireless devices to play back all of this content, makes choosing what is right for who a near impossible task.
As the worlds of Sony and Philips and those of Microsoft and Dell collide to bring all of these new products to market, consumers can sometimes struggle to understand how they can harness these products to make their homes more comfortable and entertaining.
Throw in lighting control, heating control and security features, and the choices become even more difficult to get the head around – and that’s before you even consider the range of emerging services that can be brought to a new home: broadband, satellite, cable and wireless carriers can currently deliver streamed audio from radio channels from anywhere in the world, paid for music downloads, video on-demand, home security and remote access control, integrated office and home PC capability.
Keep in control
There are custom installers on the Irish market who can look after all of your digital entertainment and home automation requirements. Incontrol (www.incontrol.ie ) is a company in Ireland that has been designing systems for homeowners and property developers for the past decade with engineers and IT programmers who constantly look for new products which can be integrated together to deliver improved ease of use.
Incontrol’s managing director Robert Hallam advises that, while some of these systems can be integrated by the home owner themselves, companies such as Incontrol Home Automation offer a range of services to home owners, either by working with property developers to install a wiring backbone to facilitate these features when required by the homeowner, or directly to the client through architects, interior designers and electrical contractors.
Incontrol offers clients not only design and installation of individual systems or entire Home Automation suites, but integrated audio/visual, IT, lighting control, security and heating control.
Hallam says while many products are delivered to the market with the promise of the ‘ultimate’ solution, the reality is that most individuals need assistance in designing and installing the very latest cutting edge technology solutions. Installing a standalone audio or IT system offers certain challenges and extending the coverage of a system into multiple rooms with integration to other sub-systems poses a multitude of challenges.
Incontrol offers a range of systems that can harness the latest technologies from Ipod music management and streaming, to Media Centre PCs, to home theatre systems. By understanding the dynamics of audiovisual and control systems, it is possible to deliver a solution that provides the ultimate in control and performance.
Section 2:
Triple play powering the home
Broadband, phone and digital TV from one pipe
As the concept of digitised homes begins to permeate, providers that offer triple play services like Magnet Entertainment, Digiweb and now NTL are attracting attention as people realise how a single connection for all your communication and media needs is a crucial link to constructing the future home.
These services which offer broadband, phone connection and digital television through a single provider and through a once monthly bill make sense in a digital home not just because of the convenience but, because the services are bundled, they can offer considerable savings to the end user.
Take the Metro
Digiweb’s head of strategic development, John Quinn, says the company intends to aggressively address this market in the coming months with the expansion of Digiweb’s successful “Metro” platform with the “Metro 20” project, local loop unbundling beginning in the third quarter of this year and the rollout of Wideband mobile data services this year too.
This will not only give Digiweb a triple play offering but a full Quadruple (Voice, Data, TV and mobile services) play portfolio.
He says Digiweb will also be offering a fifth element to customers with professional hosting, e-mail and offsite backup of data as standard later this year but Digiweb is keeping details of the new services under wraps for a full commercial launch later in the year.
NTL goes national with triple play
NTL Ireland, owned by UPC Ireland, recently announced the first phase of its national roll out of triple play; digital television, broadband and digital telephony to be delivered over cable infrastructure. The new triple play bundle service, initially launched to residents in Adamstown, Lucan, Co Dublin, uses VoIP technology to enable future services like video telephony and integration of mobile and fixed lines.
Strong attraction to Magnet
Magnet Entertainment is a company that’s been offering and pushing the benefits of a triple play service for some time, and offers really reasonable sign-up packages with free wireless modems and subscriptions to a number for pay television channels.
Magnet aims to change consumers’ views of home entertainment and digital living by transforming conceptions of digital living in Ireland and say with triple play service offers the company is offering consumers more.
These types of high-quality and attractively priced multi-use services represents a real alternative for consumers to existing telephone and broadband services and seem to be being welcomed by Irish consumers as they look to simplify their lives and home-accounting practises.
Section 3:
Wireless finally arrives
High Definition video and more over the home network
The modern home today is one fully connected to the Internet via broadband, and with internet usage in the average home on the rise, homes need to be networked so any number of devices, PCs, laptops, handheld devices and gaming consoles can share one internet connection and run simultaneously.
Wired or wireless
When networking a home the consumer’s first choice is whether to choose a wired or wireless infrastructure. Both approaches have advantages with the wired systems offering speed, reliability and security. A wireless set up delivers greater portability and the safety and attractive absence of wires. A large proportion of home networks setup today use wireless solutions as no longer is the cost of wireless products prohibitive.
Quality of service improved
When wireless connectivity first became fashionable, there were frequent complaints about inadequate range and spotty coverage, and wireless capabilities were limited to low bandwidth applications like music, phone and small file exchange. Performance fluctuations, often masked by the ‘burstiness’ of data applications like web browsing, become immediately apparent when the network was asked to support applications where instantaneous and uninterrupted bandwidth was critical.
Speed increases
But as demand for wireless connections to support higher bandwidth applications grew and people wanted to stream video and television across their wireless home networks, speeds have increased and to meet this demand hardware vendors such as Netgear have released ranges of high bandwidth wireless networking products. Netgear’s RangeMax NEXT ADSL Modem router for example, provides ADSL subscribers with whole home, maximum coverage, and bandwidth, enabling household members to simultaneously connect to multiple Internet services, including online gaming, video streaming, and MP3 downloads, wirelessly.
With the Netgear RangeMax NEXT router, one member of the family can watch a High Definition video on a flat-panel TV in the living-room, another can be browsing the Web on a PC in the study while a third and fourth can be playing online games in the den. All of this can be achieved over a wireless home network.
What’s required for wireless?
To create a home network you will need a number of separate devices. What and how many devices you will need simply depends on the number of devices you want to network together.
To begin with, you will need a broadband connection and a broadband router. A router is generally a small box connected to the Internet and wireless, and wired broadband routers are very similar. This component shares your broadband Internet connection with all PCs, games consoles or laptops in your household, routes information to all the computers on your home network and out onto the Internet, securing your network by acting as a filter between the outside world and your home.
Next you’ll need a network card for each PC or laptop that will connect them to the Internet. Some computers have Ethernet or wireless connectivity already built-in; if not, or if you require faster connection speeds a variety of internal and external devices are available.
Also from Netgear’s RangeMax range is the Wireless Internal PCI adapter and notebook adapter. With the RangeMax NEXT PCI desktop PC adapter inserted, your PC will maintain a steady, constant connection (when used in conjunction with the WNR834B Wireless Router), with high bandwidth availability, while the RangeMax NEXT notebook adapter ensures that your laptop can connect from anywhere in your home, with maximum coverage and bandwidth.
To share data between devices and allow multi room access to the Internet wirelessly, though, you then need to set up wireless access points. The access point is simply a method of connecting computers together. A small home wireless network will typically only require a wireless router with a built in access point, as this will provide enough signal to reach all the rooms in your home and possibly the garden.
Adapt to the applications
Finally, you may choose to have a number of other components such as gaming adapters and VoIP adapters. With a gaming adapter you can connect any games console with an Ethernet (RJ-45) port to a wireless network that will enable you to play gaming opponents over your home network or over the Internet. A gaming adapter is another type of bridging device – linking a wired connection to a wireless home network – and again enables you to avoid trailing cables across your home.
One of the recent incorporations into networked homes is VoIP which allows users to make phone calls over a broadband connection, in many cases resulting in cheaper or free phone calls and further validity for your new laptop and fast internet connection. To do this, though, you’d need to purchase a special VoIP broadband adapter.
Whatever lengths you’d like to take your connectivity to, a networked home gives you expansive internet access, remote control of your devices and in many cases can save you time and money. It is also a way of future proofing your home and lifestyle and quite simply keeping up with the times.
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers