Using the ipad to control home automation was probably the highlight of my decade. Suddenly we were relieved from the shackles of custom interfaces for each of the devices we installed. Instead we could write an application (app) for a single device (the ipad) that was rapidly becoming ubiquitous in the everyday lives of our customers.
With her ipad she can start heating the pool, manage the music playlist so that “Happy Birthday” comes on strong at exactly the planned moment. The shades will open at the right time and close when the sun is in the west.
The modern home is truly automated and controllable from afar.
I became an immediate advocate and probably a bit of a terror to our employees who were expected to drop their wiring harnesses and circuit boards and focus on software solutions. No longer did each device have it’s own custom interface (and configuration). Now what we needed was a little bit of code and and understanding of how to apply it.
It was interesting to see how our vendor’s reacted. Some embraced the revolution right away. Others delayed. Guess which prospered over the past few years? Crestron was particularly enthusiastic. Virtually everything in their home automation line has an app or will soon. They are constantly improved and updated and I’ll be reporting enthusiastically on them in future posts.
