Blog
A Look Back at 2011, and Looking Ahead to 2012 in the World of Home Technology 12/30/2011 | Leave a Comment
2011 has been really great for home technologies and the momentum will only increase in 2012. In June, ABI Research released a report that predicted that more than 12 million home automation systems would be in use by the year 2016, up from approximately 2.8 million in 2011. That’s some pretty huge growth and we can’t wait to see what’s in store in 2012.
Here are some of the trends we are seeing as we move into 2012:
Home Automation and Home Entertainment for the People – Probably the biggest and most important trend we are seeing is the affordability of home technologies for the average family. In the past, home control and home automation technologies, including lighting control and security control, and home entertainment technologies, such as home theaters, streaming media servers, and smart TVs, have only been accessible to those on the wealthier end of the spectrum. This is no longer the case. Home control and home entertainment technologies will continue to become commoditized and accessible to the majority of people.
Greening Your Home – More home owners and businesses are looking to both save money on utilities, including electricity, and are more conscious about decreasing their carbon footprint. This trend will only increase as more home control technologies that provide cost savings become available and more affordable.
More Control Than Ever – Home control and automation systems are becoming more and more sophisticated than ever. Home and business owners can control virtually every aspect of their properties, including lighting, security, and environment, from a tablet or smartphone. Providers, such as Control4 and Crestron, are also increasing the number of apps that make all of this possible. This is only going to continue to be the case as the technologies and applications continue to be developed for the home technology market.
Cooler Technology and Fun Gadgets – There is just a lot of cool toys out there in the market. Smart TVs, including 3D TVs, that meet all your family’s home entertainment needs are one of the coolest developments in recent years. They are only going to improve, becoming more user-friendly and interactive, as the market develops. Also streaming and stored media systems that can hold all of your movies, music, TV programs, and more are a huge hit with consumers.
We are looking forward to 2012 and what it holds for home technologies. We’re hoping for increased interoperability and integration between vendors so that we can help you make your home a more efficient and entertaining place to be.
As always, please contact us with all of your home automation and control and home entertainment system questions. Learn how a custom system from Certified Connection can change your life.
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Additional Reading
Lower Energy Costs and Increase the Value of Your Home by Making it More Energy Efficient
Easy Being Green: Get Out of Your Hybrid Car and Into Your Green Home
Control Your Home from Your iPad
Have All of Your Media Available in One Place with a Media Server 12/19/2011 | Leave a Comment
Imagine having all of your music and movies, or all music and movies for that matter, available at the touch of a button. Media servers do just that. All of your digital media, including music, movies, and pictures, can be stored and kept easily accessible on a media server. Recently, media servers have started to do more than simply hold a collection of music files. They now can stream music or movies through services like Pandora and Netflix. Media servers, like your Xbox or Playstation, can make unlimited amounts of media files available at your fingertips.
Also check out the review of this new media server in Sound + Vision magazine, which would be great for any home or business, the MMS-2 Mirage Media Server.
To incorporate a streaming media server into your home entertainment system, all you need is an Internet connection and an Internet-ready TV or an Internet-ready Blu-ray player. We’ve discussed some of the more popular ones in a past blog post, including Apple TV, iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Rhapsody, etc.
Enjoy music, movies, and TV the way you want it in your home or business with one of Certified Connection’s custom solutions. There are plenty of media servers out there that can simply store media, stream media, or do both. Contact us today to learn more about your options and decide on the one that’s right for you.
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control, home automation systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Vampires No More? NCTA Moves to Make Cable Boxes More Energy Efficient 11/30/2011 | Leave a Comment
A few months ago in our post, “Afraid of Vampires? You Should Be. Energy Draining Appliances Could be Costing You a Fortune,” we talked about how your cable or satellite DVR set-top boxes are the most energy consuming appliance in your home. Cable boxes are basically running at full power all the time, even when switched off. Well, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), this could soon change!
The NCTA and CableLabs are forming an Energy Lab facility, which will concentrate on improving energy efficiency and promote the development, testing, and deployment of technologies that will enable users to reduce and manage energy consumption in the home. They will work on manufacturing set-top devices that have sleep capabilities that will reduce power consumption when subscribers are not watching television.
And according to the NCTA, 90% of all new set-top boxes purchased and deployed by top cable operators will meet Energy Star 3.0 energy efficiency standards for set-top boxes.
A recent article in Electronic House explains more of the details of the plans for the Energy Lab.
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control, home automation systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Additional Reading:
Afraid of Vampires? You Should Be. Energy Draining Appliances Could be Costing You a Fortune
Easy Being Green: Get Out of Your Hybrid Car and Into Your Green Home
Is Violet3D the Surround Sound Wave of the Future? 11/28/2011 | Leave a Comment
Surround sound has always been a tricky technology. To be truly immersed in the surround sound experience, one has to place the speakers in specific (and strategic) spots in a room, and then position the seating in the audio sweet spot. Aside from advancements in the quality of the sound itself, this has been the status quo for years.
Enter Indian company Violet3D, with a technological innovation that’s looking to change surround sound forever. Violet has developed a wireless surround sound system that allows for speakers to be placed anywhere in the room and still deliver the surround sound experience, irrespective of where you’re sitting. In Violet’s own words, “By using omni-polar speakers, [the Violet sound system] creates unique wave-fronts – one wave-front from one direction for one channel – using ALL the available speakers.”
The range of the speakers is approximately 150 feet, and the system uses digital signal processing along with a uniquely designed amplifier to provide a high-fidelity sound and loudness from small speakers. Violet3D replaces wires of conventional home theater systems with a phase accurate and power adaptive wireless technology that beats the best cables.
So is the Violet3D system a game-changer? At close to $1,300, it’s definitely on the high end, but if more companies adapt and improve upon the basic idea, surround sound could be looking at a whole new ball game.
Have you got a Violet3D system? Let Certified Connection set it up for you!
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Have You Texted Your Grandma Today? 11/10/2011 | Leave a Comment
You’ve probably heard someone say lately, “I just can’t live without my smartphone.” According to a recent Nielsen study, that person is probably in the 25- to 35-year-old age range. People in this age range are the most dependent upon their mobile devices. Another interesting piece of information came from that study. The group adopting smartphone technology faster than any other is the 55- to 64-year-old age group.
This is exciting news because as the people in this group get older, they’ll already be familiar with smartphone technology and it can be very helpful to them. Not only are smartphones important in an emergency situation, they can play an important role in home automation, which can help a senior with decreased mobility remain independent or help another just show off for his golf buddies.
We’ve discussed in the past how many home automation systems can be controlled by an iPad, a touch screen installed in the wall, or a smartphone. Security systems, lighting, temperature, and entertainment in the home can all be controlled by the push of a button. For seniors, an Internet connection and familiarity with a smartphone would allow them to do all that from a comfortable chair, as well as set up medication reminders or other alerts. Concerned family members can set up motion detectors that will provide fall alerts or video cameras that will allow them to check on their loved one throughout the day.
Baby boomers adopting smartphone technology now is a great thing because as this group ages, home automation combined with smartphone technology will give them a greater chance of staying as independent as they’d like for as long as they’d like.
Certified Connectionis the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
