NEW TECH
Co-owned by CEDIA and its commercial audiovisual counterpart
AVIXA, ISE has become a fixture in the calendar of every major
smart home and home entertainment company and is an annual
pilgrimage for the systems integrators who serve the market.
Jan/Feb 2020 | Residential Tech Today 53
International, the organization responsible for
the open connectivity standard for commercial
and domestic building automation. “Many
experts link the increasing demand to the rise of
voice control and interoperability in the smart
home market.”
AI Becomes Real World
“Voice control is very much still top-of-mind,”
added Tabatha O’Connor, global president and
CEO of the industry organization for
technology integrators, CEDIA. “It will,
ultimately, change the way we interact with our
environment for good. With the likes of
Amazon Alexa and Google Home making
headway, devices such as these are leading
artificial intelligence into the real world with an
increasing number of integrations and
partnerships.
“In addition,” she continued, “the number of
IoT-enabled devices and powerful, higher
bandwidth networks are set to be a big talking
point. We also expect higher resolution audio
and video innovations to make an impact on the
show floor, including examples of 8K projection
delivering new levels of detail for the high-end
home theater.”
The move in direction toward AI-empowered
solutions is not the only change that’s happening
in the rapidly growing smart homes market.
Evolution
“It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of
the smart home consumer throughout the
years,” noted Kordon Vaughn, senior director of
product marketing for Control4 at SnapAV.
“When smart home adoption first hit the
ground, homeowners gravitated toward home
security devices, thermostats, smart locks,
speakers, and so on. Now, as their sophistication
and knowledge has developed, consumers are
able to move past the security-only aspect and
envision how much more their smart homes are
capable of.
“Since starting out in the AV industry, it’s been
amazing to see how far music streaming has
come, especially in terms of how important
high-resolution music has become,” he
continued. “We used to have to shrink our
music to make it fit onto our devices, but now
with higher internet speeds and more advanced
streaming services, people can access high
fidelity music without sacrifice. Other trends
we’re seeing impact the smart home market
include IP video distribution, 4K, HDR – and,
of course, voice control.”
O’Connor also noted two other related
themes that will be significant for the smart
homes industry in the near future: “wellness”
and “human-centric” lighting, which posit that
lighting isn’t just about illuminating spaces and
objects but can – and should – reflect our
natural daily rhythms.
Relax and De-Stress
“Now,” said Greg Andrews, VP of marketing
and sales at Legrand AV Residential Solutions,
“homeowners can come home and create a
space that allows them to heal, relax, and destress
– not only through lighting but also audio
and many other technologies. Wellness is a key
focus.”
There can be little doubt, then, that smart
homes continue to evolve with the ability to
seamlessly combine home entertainment with