The smart home is on the rise, with more people adopting advanced technology for home automation and integrating it into their lives. The home of the future used to be a remote concept. It was the subject of imaginations running riot, of sci-fi concepts and outlandish furnishings.
It could be an idealised space, or a stark vision of cold, impersonal interaction.
The smart home is different. It takes the internet of things, where everyday devices can offer personalised responses to their users, and uses this to transform people’s living spaces. This form of home automation is very much about what is happening now. That is why the smart home is not the home of the future. It is the home of the present.
What is Home Automation?
For many households, they are already working, in part, with the daily tools of home automation. These include devices that control room temperature, lighting and home entertainment systems.
YouGov reports that almost a quarter of Britons now own some form of smart home device.
As more consumer goods become smart, they will readily integrate into a complete home automation system. The most immediately obvious smart appliances are devices such as thermostats and voice-activated systems for internet searches.
However, home automation also extends into essential areas such as home security, including cameras, video doorbells, smart locks and smoke alarms.
The Personalisation of Technology
There was a time when, if you bought a piece of technology or home equipment, it was only yours in name. You switched it on to use it, but if it served your particular needs, this was only because they were the same as everyone else’s.
Smart technology is different.
It is an advance on what went before in the way that a bespoke, tailored suit feels very different to something mass-produced as a ready-to-wear garment. In essence, smart technology becomes much more an extension of you, because you can easily adapt it to fit your specific lifestyle requirements.
It is the result of the phenomenon of mass customisation.
What Mass Customisation Means for You
The concept of customisation used to apply to something that was designed pretty much as a one-off. You could not simply buy it off the shelf, and anyway, its price point might typically be out of reach.
Smart technology has changed this. Now manufacturers can mass produce items that the end user can customise once they purchase them. Therefore, the smart devices and appliances you install in your home become truly yours, because they perform in a way that is unique to you.
What are the Benefits of the Smart Home?
A persistent feature of the imagined, automated home was that it involved inventing solutions for non-existent problems, a bit like the Wallace and Gromit breakfast contraption.
The reality of the contemporary smart home could not be more different. It means you can manage all your devices in one place, in a home that is fully interconnected. You can control home functions such as heating and lighting remotely, managing your energy much more efficiently.
Home automation allows you to maximise your home security and retain full control of it when you are not at home. Smart technology can do much of the hard work for you, including running your appliances more efficiently and finding new solutions to problems and issues for you.
It is a way of managing your home better, with less effort but full control. And it is adaptable and scalable, so you can keep adding to or upgrading your network of integrated smart home devices.
Enjoy Your Smart Home Today
Kino AV specialises in home automation solutions, offering personalised, adaptable answers to better living.
Call us on 0161 951 5625, email hello@kinoav.com, or complete our online contact form, and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.