The
world is taking interior design notes from the Danish, in a style of living
called hygge (pronounced hoo-gah). Its meaning varies from person to person:
some see hygge as a warm fire on a cold winter’s night, others see it as a cup
of hot coffee in the morning. The amount of “good feelings” one gets from these
relaxing activities depends on what one values as indulgent.
But
how does technology fit into this “art of feeling good”?
We
asked Homemation marketing manager Gedaliah Tobias to take us through a fully
automated home of the future and show us how automation creates comfort and
good feelings.
“The
house is powered by Control4, which you can think of as the brain of the smart
home,” says Tobias. “It controls everything from the aircon to smart
vacuum cleaners.”
The
home of the future is secured by a connected lock. It acts like other locks
with keypads and includes a key in the event of a power interruption. The
keypad is especially useful to those who want to provide temporary access to
visitors, staff, or simply kids who might lose their parents’ house keys.
“The
keypad is especially useful for temporary access,” says Tobias. “For
example, if you have a garden service that needs to use the home for the day,
they can be given a code that only turns off the perimeter alarm beams in the
garden for the day and time. If that code is used outside of the day and time
range, users can set up alerts for their armed response to be alerted. This
type of smart access boosts security.”
Once
inside, one is greeted with a “scene” – a type of recipe for electronic
success. The scene starts by turning on the lights, then by alerting the user
to disarm the alarm. After the alarm is disarmed, the user can start another
more complicated scene.
“Users
can request customised scene buttons,” says Tobias. “For example, if
I press the ‘Dinner call’ scene, the lights start to flash in the bedroom,
there’s an announcement from the smart speakers, the blinds start to come down,
the lighting is shifted to the dinner table. Shifting focus with lighting
creates a mood to bring the house together for dinner.”
Homemation
creates these customised scene buttons to enable users to control their homes
without having to use another device. In addition to scene buttons, there are
several ways to control the smart home.
“Everything
in the smart home is controllable from your phone, the touchscreens around the
house, the TV, and the dedicated remote control. Everyone is different, so
having multiple ways to control the house is a huge value add.”
We
ask Tobias where Homemation recommends non-smart home users should start on
their smart home journey.
“Before
anything, the Control4 infrastructure needs to be set up. This involves a lot
of communications and electrical cabling to be run to different areas of the
home to enable connectivity throughout the home. After the infrastructure is
set up, the system is ready for smart home devices, like lighting and
sound.”
“For
new smart home users, the best bang for their buck would be to start with
lighting once the infrastructure is set up. Taking it one step at a time is
wise.”
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For more information, visit https://www.homemation.co.za/
