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Industry Opinion: What Will Excite the Home Automation Market? (2/1/2009)

By Yasmin Hashmi, HiddenWires

When I explain to non-industry folk what residential custom install means, I naturally mention terms such as 'multiroom audio', 'home cinema' and 'home automation'. While my audience usually has a reasonable idea of what the first two mean, their expression goes blank at the latter.

So what has prevented home automation from becoming as mainstream as home entertainment? Is it seen as nice but not necessary - a plaything for the rich? Is there an untapped market out there, just waiting to be educated? Has the industry yet to find a persuasive application for the technology? Or is the technology still too complicated?

We asked a number of manufacturers, suppliers and installers of home automation systems for their perspective on what technological hurdles inhibit the wider adoption of home automation, and what they see as the 'killer app' that will excite the market. Here are their replies:

LY Chiu, Managing Director, Cytech Technology

New studies and reports seem to appear by the week, forecasting explosive growth of home automation and related home technologies over the next few years. A cynical reader may conclude that what is proliferating are the studies and reports themselves!

Actually the barriers to widespread adoption may not be in the availability of technology itself, but the perception and positioning of products. At the low end, there are the DIY products such as X10 (powerline systems) which appeal mostly to enthusiasts. The rest of the market consists mainly of expensive homes with home theatre, lighting/dimming with designer switches, and colour touchscreens, that belong to the likes of football players, lawyers, doctors and (perhaps previously) bankers.

The potential of home automation lies in average homes costing below GBP250,000 where the benefits are not so much for entertainment, but for convenience, energy savings, comfort and security. Advances in technology and globalisation have made practical systems affordable enough, in the range of 2% of the cost of the home, but integrators have been slow to reach out to this market. Perhaps the recession may have the paradoxical effect of changing mindsets and leading to a wider adoption of smart home systems.

A killer application which comes to mind which is waiting for a technological breakthrough is a reliable (99% error-free) voice recognition system which does not depend on a computer. Voice is the ultimate user interface, which would also benefit the disabled and help them to live independently.

Aleksandrs Bindemanis, Managing Director, Smarthouse SIA, Latvia

A couple of years ago, the cost of quality components was prohibitive for most home automation enthusiasts, but nowadays prices are dropping. In fact the cost of installation labour and the cost of educating electricians in this field are becoming the most inhibiting factors.

Hence the future lies in self-learning and self-configuring wireless- or PLC-based home automation systems - systems that can be installed by electricians and which will configure themselves thanks to network intelligence.

While I don't think that there is any one 'killer app' for home automation, I do think that home security is one of the most important applications. This would include burglar alarms, surveillance, occupation simulation, various leakage sensors and care for the elderly.

Mats Nordahl, Business Development Manager, Tekniska Byrån, Sweden

I think that we programmers and technical professionals should think about how to create the best solution for the client. The technology is here, so it's a question making the best of it. We need to be more efficient in our programming when it comes to addressing the customer's needs and providing them with a user-friendly interface.

There are too many new applications and technologies popping up, that are not properly developed and which are released at too early a stage, all too often resulting in the customer being left with an application that is hard to manage and that doesn't work properly.

So, while we are always appraising new systems, we are careful not to implement them before they are fully tested. We tend to work with KNX because it has the greatest number of users, and we expect to see even better products in future that will further enhance home automation applications, especially in the area of cost-effective systems that offer smart integration and a good user interface.

John Guyatt, Managing Director, WebBrick Systems, UK

The adoption of home automation is being inhibited by cost, largely due to the lack of a de-facto standard communications infrastructure within the residential sector, including an appropriate wireless technology. Of course this is not the only story, but is one of the major contributors in slowing the growth of the home automation industry - just as 'islands of information' was the challenge in corporate IT systems during the late 80's and early 90's. The 'island' paradigm changed when TCP/IP became the technology of choice because it worked and allowed heterogeneous systems to talk to each other.

Identifying a killer application for home automation is like trying to agree who's the best player in the England soccer team... getting agreement would be difficult. The more interesting point is achieving a successful robust integration in a home brimming-over with potential killer apps, including the monitoring of domestic appliance energy use, tariff-based use of domestic appliances, efficient management of renewable energy sources, distributed audio and video to different rooms, smart security and lighting systems and convenience packages.

Phil Solomons, Head of Residential Design, Crestron UK

Over the past few years, home automation has really been the big area of growth in the market, and it certainly looks as though we are facing interesting times in 2009. Clients are very interested in HD and installers are very interested in establishing reliable methods of delivering high-quality HD content all over the home. Technology never stands still, and the wider adoption of home automation is really only inhibited by the skill of the designer and installer, and the budget of the client.

Products are being developed which will really take advantage of digital technology and deliver astonishing experiences to the user. Some are already available now, but while we see digital media applications as presenting fantastic opportunities in the future, this is going to be impossible if the current bandwidth restrictions remain. The new next-generation broadband network will allow for speeds of almost nine times higher than the current UK average, and when the vast majority can access this, we’ll see a raft of new and improved products come onto the market, transforming the way we entertain ourselves.

Not only that, but we see the current trends for more performance from one integrated system (i.e. controlling all entertainment and environmental elements in the home from one system) and the desire for touchpanels that are beautifully designed and easy to operate in one hand, continuing, with more and more people opting for devices which are functional, stylish and easy to use.

Jay McLellan, President & CEO, HAI

The most popular applications for home automation are security, energy savings and remote access. Security and energy are of particular importance in today's world. With ever-increasing Internet access, remote control and notifications of events in the home on mobile devices are a feature consumers are increasingly expecting. Cost-effective systems are available today, and there are no major barriers to high-value home automation. As always, technology will likely reduce installation costs and increase connectivity.

Tim Ellert, Technical Director, e-Home AUTOMATION Group, Dubai

The current hurdles in the marketplace that prevent wider adoption of home automation systems include the lack of a reliable, two-way retrofit system at a reasonable price. Until now, most automation systems have been installed into new builds and the retrofit market has been largely ignored, but we intend to help jump this hurdle with the release of a new Zigbee wireless retrofit solution.

The next killer app will be control of your automation system via mobile devices and set top boxes through iPhone and Windows Mobile applications. Bringing home automation to the masses via consumer set-top box technology is also going to be very popular.

Overall, 2009 should be an exciting year. We see the market growing, especially as energy bills continue to rise, and home automation is increasingly seen as an effective way of saving energy.

Yasmin Hashmi is the Editor of HiddenWires magazine. If you would like to comment on this issue, or to be included in future opinion pieces, please send an email to opinion(AT)hiddenwires.co.uk.