Over the last 10 to 15 years home automation has grown from something you only saw in films and the homes of millionaires to being all around us all the time. I say all around us all the time, because home automation solutions have evolved into smart home products. Almost every household with an internet connection has some sort of smart home product connected to perform basic home automation tasks.
In all fairness, the term smart home automation is a little daunting and possibly misleading. Some would argue that smart homes and home automation are two different disciplines and yes, up until recently this was very true.
Where did it all start?
Early smart home products were essentially standalone internet-connected devices. Each device or system would be controlled through its own interface or smartphone app and didn’t really do a nice job – if any – of talking to other devices. For instance, a voice activated smart speaker from one manufacturer would only control other devices from the same brand or devices within that manufacturer’s ecosystem of sub-brands.
This effectively created lots of little ecosystems, each with their own app and interface for control. Think of it like the iOS versus Android debate – you’re either tied into one system or another.
On the flipside, traditional home automation systems – the ones I mentioned you only see in films – were able to tie many and almost any devices together into one single system. The downside being that they required highly specialised equipment, computers and a team of installers.
You may be familiar with home automation systems like Crestron, RTI or URC, for instance. These were some of the early innovators. With one of these systems you could make almost any third party device play along with everything else and control it all through one interface.
Competition drives innovation
As with all branches of technology, more and more home automation systems were developed like Control4, Savant, Elan, etc. With more competition between these automation system manufacturers came even more innovation. So much so that modern home automation systems can all perform the same tricks in their own unique ways.
Technically, smart home devices and home automation systems are two sides of the same coin. Two very different sides.
Realistically, smart home devices are consumer devices – they are marketed for and targeted squarely at the end user.
What we are seeing in modern times is a crossover of the two systems. Home automation systems are integrating with consumer smart devices from multiple different brands and making it all work together through a single interface.
Smart home meets automation
And that’s where smart home automation comes in. Or should that be smart home integration? Smart home automation allows different devices to act on the input and events of others. For instance, now you can have a video doorbell from one manufacturer that triggers a display from another and plays a chime or sound on another.
To make it all work seamlessly though, it still needs a home automation system at the heart of it all. And above all else, a decent network to serve as the backbone for all these systems and devices to talk to one another.
There are some downsides, however – things change. Ideas, technologies and manufacturers change.
When the Pros need professional help
More often than not, a smart home automation control system manufacturer might be hard at work getting their own systems to “talk” to a certain consumer device. Then out of nowhere, in the finalising stages, everything stops working as a result of something changing on the consumer product manufacturer’s end.
A recent example of this is the acquisition of Ring – the video doorbell manufacturer – by Amazon. It’s great for the consumer, because it will inevitably mean the product becomes more affordable. However, for a certain automation system manufacturer who was on the brink of integrating with Ring to create an intercom solution, one day it just stopped working.
What happened behind the scenes was that the video doorbell’s API (application programming interface) had been updated and completely changed. This meant the integration work carried out by the automation system manufacturer had to redo a whole heap of work just to get the devices talking again.
Another example is Apple, who in the last few years blocked IP (internet protocol) control of its Apple TV interface. What this meant for end users with a home automation system was an inability to use or access their Apple TV.
The workaround was to add an infra-red emitter to control it, old school like.
The advantage of integrator specific equipment
This is where products manufactured specifically for use and installation by custom integrators have an advantage. Regardless of how the device is controlled, it’ll be using a tried, tested, documented and stable control protocol.
By “stable” I mean that updates to the system will not break the control integration. The API is defined and adhered to. Future changes are generally additive in control capabilities so as to not break historic control integrations.
Better still, the accompanying documentation usually means that even if a way of controlling a device doesn’t exist yet, it can be created by someone with the right know-how.
So what is a smart home automation system?
Unlike the voice controlled virtual butlers, home assistants and such from films (think Richie Rich, Home Alone 4, etc.) modern home automation systems are much more toned down in their basic form. It is likely that most such systems only integrate 3 or 4 different sub-systems, like CCTV, video distribution and lighting control.
The beauty of such a system is that they’re almost infinitely expandable. The more that gets added to a house, network or existing system the more features it is capable of offering.
Think everything from door locks to sky lights, intruder alarms and sprinkler systems, central heating and even your Tesla, all tied into one platform, providing simplified control from a unified user interface.
The real magic seen in a carefully installed smart home system can then be made to happen through custom actions based on events. This is where you will need a pro to make everything as automated a possible – don’t be afraid to ask! If a device is connected and controllable, it can be automated.
After all, automation is the name of the game. You want to be able to walk into your TV room, Den or home cinema, press one button and the projector turns on, the amplifier powers up, the Blu-ray starts spinning, the lights dim, the blinds draw to a close and the underfloor heating is set to your liking,
That’s smart home automation.