Motorola Mobility, Verizon Partner to Deliver Connected Home Services

The headline above belongs to an article on Computer Business Review’s site and has to be the most under reported story of the day. I happened to catch it on Custom Retailer.

Why is it such an important development? Because last month Google announced that it is buying Motorola Mobility (I’m calling it the MotorMob). Many of us thought that this would be Google’s serious entry into home automation. Well, Verizon has wanted to get into home automation for a while as well.

Of course, Comcast is trying this as well but the combination of Verizon and Google seems much stronger than Comcast on its own.

Thank goodness I don’t work in Verizon’s territory.

“Hey Mav, what’s the number of that truck driving school….?”

CEDIA the Nexus of Electronic Systems

The Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) had it’s annual trade show Indianapolis last month. Rather than writing about the same new products as dozens of other attendees, I will share my perspectives on the experiences that the newest electronics and software provide.

One of the things about CEDIA Expo that keeps me coming back year after year is that it is my one chance to see some really great people that have become friends over the years – former co-workers, manufacturer’s reps, colleagues and competitors. Though I trade comments on various industry forum posts or social media sites with many within the CEDIA community on a regular basis, Expo takes these relationships beyond social and makes them personal. So, it is ironic that I also view such a social event with dread as I know that it will be five days of loneliness away from my family.

In years past you may have seen me taking a cell phone call in the quite corner of a cocktail party so I could say goodnight or sing lullabies to my son. This year was different. This year I had a Nexus S phone from Google. I’ve had Skype loaded on previous phones but due to processor limitations or lack of forward facing cameras, I have never been able to use mobile Skype for video calls. This year I was the guy seeing my son make goofy faces at me while I was saying goodnight! Even video calls between two mobile devices had acceptable quality, though I do recommend using the lower quality video setting when connecting via cellular networks to prevent the video from freezing. It’s not HD but it is nice to see the person on the other end of the “line”.

I have never been much of a collector of music. I love listening to music but have always been more of a radio listener than a purchaser of songs or albums. I like a variety of music but don’t necessarily want to collect thousands of titles, and I certainly don’t want to continually sync songs from my desktop to my laptop or mobile phone when I travel. Cloud based streaming was made for people like me and I love life in the cloud!

Streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, and Google Music are fantastic. Now when I am away from home, I can listen to anything I want. Music can be selected for me based on similar artists or genres, I can stream specific songs or artists, I can even create playlists in the cloud. With other services, I can even stream my hometown radio station. It’s easy, it’s mobile, and I don’t have to predict on Monday what I will want to listen to on Wednesday.

One of the features of the Nexus S phone that initially intrigued me was the incorporation of near field communications (NFC). When I got my Nexus a few months ago, there were no NFC nearby for me to test the functionality. However, while at CEDIA I found that Yale locks had a display at the Control4 booth demonstrating this cool technology. Unfortunately the man supervising the demo did not know how to configure the app to allow my phone to operate the lock, but it worked flawlessly with the phone they had previously configured. Even without configuring the app, it was cool to see that the lock and my phone recognized each other with the NFC on but there was no recognition with it off. Of course I also earned some bonus points because (other than the demo) it was the only phone anyone at the booth had seen with NFC capabilities.

Unfortunately this remains my only test of the NFC functions. I am looking forward to Google Wallet but for reasons that I cannot fathom, Google has only made Wallet available to Nexus S 4G versions of the phone. This excludes those of us on AT&T. AT&T doesn’t even recognize the existence of this model phone.

If it weren’t for the truly unlimited data plan I have been grandfathered into, I would switch carriers in a heart beat. With such large data plans available hat makes the unlimited data plan so important when there are such large data plans available? The ability to video call and stream music without searching for Wifi hotspots!

It’s all about the data people, and that cloud? Well it’s raining content…

*Portions of this blog were written using the WordPress for Android app.

i Android – a Window into my phones

I am rough on phones. About two years ago I bought a Windows phone. It did not survive the “left it on the roof of my car while driving” test. The amazing thing is that the protective silicone case kept the phone on the roof of my car for about two miles before it S slid off and was run over.
In desperate need of a replacement, I decided to try a friend’s iPhone 3G and became hooked on the apps (more later). Unfortunately, it did not pass the “dropped it face down in the parking lot” test.

I now have a Nexus S Android from Google and figured I would shed some insight into my experiences. Dilbert writer Scott Adams had some similar notes in a recent ZDNet article, though his Android related notes were directed towards an HTC product.

First of all, the Windows phone was great for what it was, my second phone capable of receiving email and syncing data. It was my first true smartphone. Back in 2009 I loved the hard button keyboard, and it’s ability to sync with Microsoft Exchange. My only issue was with Microsoft’s ActiveSync which was needed to sync with a local PC. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. My only initial negative about the phone itself is that the screen was small and the resolution wasn’t to great either. After a while, I came to appreciate the phone’s user replaceable battery as it became necessary to remove the battery every few days to reset the phone. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that phone and it served me well until that fateful day. That day when I discovered the iPhone.

My very first comment on the iPhone was that it was OK as a phone but it was the Apps that made it great! Mobile blogging, navigation, great display, and easy to use. The touchscreen took a little getting used to for keyboard entry but after a few days, it was second nature (and nowhere near the “fail” that Scott Adams gave it). One early disappointment was the lack of an Adobe Flash player but I got over it. I think I had to reset the phone once but otherwise never had a problem, as long as I kept it charged; the battery life was horrid. If I used it for any significant phone calls or Internet access, I was lucky if I made it half a day on a single charge. And then there is iTunes. How a company like Apple that has created so many wonderful user experiences and interfaces could think up the iTunes interface is beyond me. I think it’s a step up from ActiveSync but only because it attempts to do more, not because it succeeds.Still, other than the occasionally missed appointment or several duplicated contacts, the iPhone was awesome. I really couldn’t think of anything I wanted that it couldn’t do. Then, after several incidents where the rubber met the road, I was walking across the parking lot and the glass met the road.

I’ve been an AT&T customer for years, mainly because I am grandfathered onto their unlimited data plan. As I began my search for a new phone I decided that this was something I didn’t want to give up and that I would stick with AT&T. Unfortunately, the only Android phone that I really wanted was the Nexus S. It had the form factor I was looking for, the battery life was supposed to be good, and it had Google’s latest Android Gingerbread operating system. Unfortunately, my initial searches led me to believe that it wasn’t available for use on AT&T. BestBuy is apparently the only place you can buy the AT&T version. (Note to Google, Samsung, and BestBuy: you all need to market this phone better!)

My first experience with the phone was with Android Market as I downloaded Apps. All my old favorites were there, and even some new ones (including Google Music). The truly amazing thing is that I surfed and downloaded for hours and hardly made a dent in the battery charge graph. The Android user interface is just different enough that it took a little while to get the hang of but has enough similarities that it didn’t take long. As I plan on adding notes as I get more experience with the phone and with Android, I’ll list my other findings:

• I initially wrote the “curved screen” off as marketing hype but after my first call, I had to admit it really is more comfortable to hold and talk on
• The touchscreen actually seems a bit too sensitive and it is taking longer to using the onscreen keyboard
• Apple puts the headphone jack where it belongs – at the top.
•  Apple uses the headphone jack as a universal port that several third parties have used for credit card readers, IR remote control, and microphone input as well as headphone/line-level outputs. Hopefully this is or will be possible in future generations.
• The Nexus uses a standard micro-USB connection. Now my phone and Bluetooth headset use the same charger!
• I’m not sure if my Plantronics Bluetooth headset is old and abused or if it’s the phone/Android but pairing the  two is a pain. I constantly have to un-pair and re-pair the devices to get them to work together.
•  Front and back cameras!
• Support for VOIP and Skype (this will be truly tested while at CEDIA Expo 2011 in a few weeks).
• The camera takes good pictures and has a built-in flash but does not appear to have a zoom function.
• Flash video supported – the Adobe kind! Nice to have it again.
• One initial point of frustration was that for some reason I expected the phone to push contacts and calendar appointments up to my gmail account. While the sync is flawless with Exchange, and I receive gmail calender updates, content is not pushed to gmail. Not sure why I expected or wanted this, but it would be nice.
• It seems hard to customize apps. With the iPhone I could allow or prevent apps from having access to location and other information; unfortunately this is not possible with Android’s Apps. The list of access rights you grant an app is daunting and disturbing.
• Near Field Communications support – this will be cool once the technology has more widespread availability and usefulness.
• Call quality is fine and the coolness factor is accentuated by the fact that the phone is not widely marketed.

Hopefully this phone lasts a while. Maybe my next phone will have this airbag app/device from Jeff Bezos.

Lighting Control 2.0

When I first became interested in home control systems and home automation eleven or so years ago, lighting control caught my attention right away. It was something familiar yet cutting edge, and it was something practical with obvious benefits. Lighting control systems can have noticeable effects on everything from energy savings to atmosphere and mood setting to safety and security.

In the most basic concept, every home has a lighting control system – the good old fashioned light switch. Home automation takes the concept of lighting control to another level. By adding a lighting control processor (essentially a computer) and “smart switches”, we are able to control multiple lighting circuits with the touch of a single button. The most commonly thought of example is the “All Off” button. When it is time to leave the house, one presses the all off button and all the smart switches connected to the house’s lighting control processor are turned off. No more wasted energy by accidentally leaving lights on, and no more running around the house to turn them off! Other applications of this type of lighting control include preset scenes based on time of the day or activity. The lights may be at one setting for dinner, another for a party, and yet another for family movie night. These lighting scenes are pre-programmed into the processor and activated at the touch of a button.

While there are many ways of configuring a lighting control system, the electrical wiring and control really hasn’t changed much. Lighting controls still control all the lights on a given switch leg the same way. If there are five lights on a switch leg, all five will be treated the same way – on, off, or dimmed. You can’t dim just one bulb or turn just one off (unless you physically replace or remove it).

All that may soon change. In the past few weeks companies like NXP and Google have announced some truly innovative concepts in lighting control technology. By moving the communication from the switch to the bulb itself, we have opened the way for control with almost limitless possibilities. If it is possible to communicate directly with the individual bulb, then it is not a far step to actually control that bulb individually. Previously, if one needed the hallway lights on in the middle of the night we could turn on the hallway lights at a very dim level but they all had to be on. But with individual light control, we could just turn on one light even though they are all on the same switch leg. Need more light, turn on every other light in the hallway. Ready for a party? Set some lights to flash on and off and instant disco!

A system like this will also affect how the electrician wires the house. After de-rating, a 20 amp lighting circuit is capable of about 1920 Watts. This is equivalent to 32 60 Watt incandescent light bulbs. Depending on the manufacturer, the equivalent light output to a 60 Watt incandescent bulb can be obtained from an LED light using as little as 6 Watts up to 12.5 Watts. (Manufacturers interpret light equivalency in different ways: some use color temperature, some use lumens, and some use the Energy Star guidelines. Philips has a press release that notes some of the guidelines and explains why their bulbs are a higher Wattage.) Following the math, 160 lights on a single circuit would save a home builder some significant money by greatly reducing the electrician’s time and wiring materials. Of course the bulbs are more expensive but they last longer and will reduce the electric bill.

The next issue with IP addressable lights is IP addresses. On any given subnet, there is a finite number of devices/addresses (256). What happens if we need more IP addresses? With the current IP structure (IPv4) we would have to use multiple subnets. However, IPv6 is on the way and that may make it easier to have many more devices on a single network. Either way, a large lighting control system using IP/Ethernet topology is going to require some tricky network configuration. This is one of the reason’s why Google’s non-IP approach is intriguing.

Some of this is real, some is theoretical extrapolation, and electrical codes are only a brief consideration. But WOW, what exciting possibilities….I can’t wait to learn more as these devices come to market!

 

Remote Possibilities of the Universe?

I recently read an article in the New York Times, Universal Remotes: Not Remotely Possible by Farhad Manjoo. In the article, he slams URC’s lower end consumer grade remotes on the lack of critical buttons the author wants as well as the difficulty he had in programming. Sony and Logitech suffer similar fates. Unfortunately, the author bashes the remotes for things that are not even the fault of the remote: “…it might forget to set the television’s input to my CD player, or it might turn my TV off instead of on.” Programmable remotes don’t “forget” things – we in the industry know the causes of these issues and know how to fix them. It seems that Mr. Manjoo’s biggest complaint is that he is looking for a single remote that offers “enough buttons to mimic all functions of all devices.” When a customer asks for that degree of control flexibility, they have gone way past the retail/consumer grade type of remote control that he has tested. He is not looking for consumer electronics, he is looking for custom electronics (but at a consumer price tag). Most consumers looking for universal remotes in the lower price range of Mr. Manjoo’s test are not only seeking to consolidate the number of remotes but also simplify the number of buttons to those they use most frequently.

When I hear that a client truly wants to have control over all the functions of all the audio/video devices in his entertainment system, I know the only way to accomplish this is with a customizable and programmable touch screen remote. Though there are many excellent products in this category, my first choices for this case would be URC’s MX-3000, -5000, or -6000 with RF base station option. The exact model preference would depend on form factor as well as additional feature and control preferences. It is also necessary to know how many devices need to be controlled and will eventually need the manufacturer and model number as well. Now, please be aware that all the added functions and flexibility are going to add costs as well. We have entered the realm of the $1200+ device. What we are providing at this level isn’t so much a universal or programmable remote as a control system. In addition to full control over every audio/video component in his home theater, Mr. Manjoo also wants to create “macros”. As he notes, macros are programs written to automate the process of turning on equipment, selecting inputs and outputs, and any other functions supported by the manufacturer’s remote control. These are incredibly powerful devices with large feature sets and they require programming that takes training and experience by the installer to make it easy for the end user. Unfortunately, Mr. Manjoo “found it too much of a hassle to set up these macros” and decided to condemn the product at that point instead of asking for help.

After reading several posts by my industry peers I can see that, as a few people have pointed out, there is a positive way to view this – as valuable feedback. Resellers and manufacturers need to do a better job of marketing and describing the capabilities (or limitations) of these remote control products. A consumer grade product is not intended to replace every single button on every one of the end user’s remote controls. These are designed to provide basic control over the most commonly used features. We must do a better job of setting expectations in this category as we do in other control categories throughout the home.

My son loves a cartoon called “Phineas and Ferb” and we recently watched an episode where they scoffed at so-called all terrain vehicles. Can they really drive on “ALL terrain”? No, no they can’t. (And most are never even taken off pavement anyway.) In the same fashion, universal remote controls are not really universal. However, when the proper remote is sold based on the client’s expectations most of the desired functionality can be achieved.

The other aspect of educating the end user needs to focus on programming, unfortunately there is a drive in our industry to make programming so simple an end user can do it. As manufacturers and resellers we need to explain that it is not all “drag and drop”, “plug and play”, or whatever the latest misleading jargon we use is. There is a big difference between can and should – “a man’s got to know his limitations.” When the back-flow preventer on the water feed to my house cracked and flooded the basement closet, I hired a professional to install a new one and a different pro to put in new drywall – sure I could have saved money at the local DIY hardware store. I can change the oil on my car but choose not to – there are people who can do it faster and better than I can, and I chose to pay them for their service. Is it expensive? Hell yes it is, here in the ski resort area a basic oil change costs $50 even at the local quick lube but I know that if I did it: it would take me twice as long, and still have to drive to (and pay) the quick lube place to dispose of my used oil. I don’t work on brakes either!

My primary complaint regarding Mr. Manjoo’s article is that he issued such blanket, damning statements as “not remotely possible” and “these devices remain more appealing in theory than in practice.” I do not use my bad experiences with oil changing and plumbing as a chance to say that indoor plumbing or automobiles are not ready for everyday use. To mix in another automotive metaphor, he wants the performance features  of both a Hummer and a Ferrari but only wants to pay for a stripped down Honda.

*Note: Ted is a big fan of indoor plumbing, automobiles, programmable remote controls, hardware stores, writers, newspapers, and Clint Eastwood. This post is not intended to slander or discredit these or any other trades or persons. No animals were harmed in the writing of this post.

Listen to the Mustn’ts,child,
Listen to the Don’ts
Listen to the Shouldn’ts
The Impossibles, the Won’ts
Listen to the Never Haves,
Then listen close to me –
Anything can happen, child,
Anything can be.

Shel Silverstein

RealNetworks to Unifi People with their Content – in the Cloud

I recently came across a blog post on the Wall Street Journal’s blog site that discusses an interesting new services they are developing.

RealNetworks…demonstrated a new online service called Unifi that is designed to store users’ photos, music and videos so they can be accessed from any Internet-enabled device, be it a PC, Mac, Android phone, or iPhone.

“You can browse all of your media across all of your devices,” said Robert Kimball, RealNetworks’ chief executive

I looked on the Real Networks site but didn’t find any additional information other than a link to a similar article on ZDNet.

There could be some interesting applications for the custom electronics industry but as one commenter on the WSJ blog notes, Real Networks will most likely face some big hurdles in their endeavor to place owned/purchased media content on-line.

Of course re-uploading content that has most likely already been downloaded is a terribly inefficient means of accomplishing cloud based media distribution. Disney (and others) were working on various means of purchasing and downloading the “keys” to content stored on-line as opposed to purchasing the content itself. Disney’s project was called “KeyChest” and as far as I can tell it has been shelved. Too bad, it seemed like a much faster and more economical way of achieving what Real Networks is now attempting.

Whether Real Networks succeeds or not will remain to be seen (no pun intended) but I encourage them and others whole heartedly in the attempt to break down the various DRM related walls which prevent people from accessing their media when, where, and however they want.

What are your thoughts?

Ted

Video Conferencing From Your Home

All over the blog-o-sphere today I heard about a new product from Cisco called the “umi” (as in you-me).  Marketed as a “telepresence” device, it allows friends and families to get together (virtually) via this black box and an HDTV.  It’s video conferencing (with a few added features) in your living room.

I’ve been setting people up with Skype in their living/family rooms for awhile now at a greatly reduced equipment cost when compared to the umi, however these setups did not have anywhere near 1080p video, January’s Skype update only brought their video resolution to 480.

While the $599 retail price of the umi seems like a premium price to pay for a networked HD camera with microphone without any memory or added functionality, maybe it actually isn’t that bad a price point for a consolidated unit. Logitech and Microsoft (and others) have $100 1080p web cams but they don’t have direct HDMI connections to the TV so there needs to be more stuff. I like to sell more stuff but there is something to be said for the aesthetically pleasing shape and small form factor of the umi.

One of the nice things about Skype is that it is versatile. With Skype, I can text, voice or video chat to Skype or non-Skype users and Skype to Skype calls are free. Skype to non-Skype calling can be billed on a per call basis or you can buy the unlimited plan for $14 per month. The Skype package only includes voicemail while umi has video mail capabilities. It looks like umi can only be used between umi customers and while it can be used on a computer, google video chat must also be installed.

Cisco has been in aquisition talks with Skype for months now. Meanwhile, Skype is trying to decide between being aquired by Cisco and issuing its own stock IPO. Cisco’s release of the umi is obviously meant to intimidate Skype a bit. Either way this plays out, we are going to be seeing some game changing technology coming into the living room. As a case in point, Skype recently released version 4.2 in which added 720p video support. Game on!

Ted Sprague

Energy Consumption – Gridlock on the False Peak

Much has been written on how smart grid technology and how home energy monitoring can potentially help save consumers money on their energy bills.  Years ago, I worked for a corporation that actually implemented this theory into practice and I was able to see firsthand how the system worked.

The company was one of two on the local power grid that were the predominant consumers of electricity. Most of the electricity consumed by these companies goes towards powering various electric motors. Both companies were able to go to the local electric company and sign up for real time monitoring of their electricity consumption and plot it on graphs comparing it to total usage on the power grid.  When the total electric consumption on the grid reached its peak, the electric company would implement a higher rate for us as one of the top consumers.  And so the game began, every morning we would watch the graphs and if it looked like our peak electric consumption was going to coincide with the peak across the grid we would shut down the electric motors and switch over to diesel power to dodge the peak.  Sounds simple right?

The problem is that none of this is done in a vacuum.  When we took our equipment offline, there was less consumption across the grid as a whole so the peak would change shape. If the other company went offline at the same time, what would have been a peak could easily turn into a trough. The net effect could easily be that by attempting to dodge the peak, we actually created an earlier peak while we were still on line.

The figure above is an arbitrary representation of the energy consumption (kilowatt hours over time) to which I am referring. The red line represents what peak consumption would have looked like had we not gone “off line” by switching to diesel – it ends as it rejoins the actual consumption line. The green line represents the actual energy consumption across the grid when we (and then the other company) switched from electric power to diesel.  The black line indicates our consumption on the grid – notice the second (smaller) peak when our equipment switches back to electric power.

Over all the peaks shifted to earlier than they would have been so our peak consumption still coincides with the grid peak but it does so for much less time than it would have if we had stayed on line. That’s where the money is saved, not by altogether dodging peak times but by shortening the length of time that the peaks overlap.

A recent article by Matthew E. Kahn titled “Only People Can Make the Smart Grid Smart” describes how energy monitoring and shifting consumption to off peak times should work in residential applications:

“The theory is that as consumers receive real-time information about the cost of electricity and their consumption, and utilities introduce dynamic pricing linked to demand, people will respond by reducing their use and shifting it to times of day when electricity is cheaper. They’ll reschedule flexible activities (such as when to do a load of wash or recharge an electric vehicle), and cool their houses more during the cheaper morning hours so they can turn their air conditioning down during the pricier afternoons.”

It’s a great theory but again, none of this occurs in a vacuum. What happens to the energy peaks if a whole neighborhood decides that 2am is the perfect off-peak time to charge their electric cars, and run all of their electric appliances?

Mr. Kahn goes on to make other excellent points regarding how peoples energy consumption habits vary in different parts of the country as well as how the pricing structures differ.

Ultimately the consumers need to be smarter than the grid because we can’t all consume less than the average and we can’t all consume at off-peak times.

Bendable Video Displays

If you attended CEDIA Expo in Atlanta, hopefully you saw the bendable video display at the Future Technology Pavillion. A company called NanoLumens was showing a 152″ display capable of bending on both axes with a curve radius of about 30 inches. Built for outdoor digital signage applications, there are some great application possibilities for residential applications as well. The only current detractor from the product is the pixel spacing, but I have a feeling this will improve soon.

Once I started poking around this technology, I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Paper-Thin Screens With a Twist” which references technology being developed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute.  ITRI has developed a display using Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (AMOLED) (scroll about halfway down the page). It’s also interesting to note that ITRI has licensed the technology to display maker AU Optronics Corp. of Taiwan.  So even though we didn’t see any OLED displays on the floor this year, it is not a dead technology and people are still working on making it available to the Custom and Consumer Electronics channels.

Netflix Streaming via Your Wii Gaming Console (PS3 and Xbox Also Available)

Good news or those of you with a Netflix account and Wii console, you can now instantly stream Netflix movie or TV episode through your Wii.  While this service has been available to Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 for some time, Netflix just recently began shipping the disk needed to enable this function on the Wii console.

So what do you need to make this all happen?  Well, for starters you need to subscribe to Netflix (http://www.netflix.com) and you need to have broadband internet service and a wireless network.  The Wii can be adapted to work with a wired network, but comes pre-configured to connect to wireless networks with no additional hardware.  Netflix recommends broadband download speeds of 3 Mbps (Megabits per second) to achieve DVD quality video.  Slower speeds may work but the video quality may suffer and/or you may experience delays in the video streaming while the system buffers the video.  Unfortunately, movies can only be streamed from the internet; Netflix will not allow you to store video content to any of the gaming consoles they support.  This isn’t actually Netflix’s fault, it’s a constant battle that the Motion Picture Association of America, Digital Content Protection, and various other legal entities wage against those of us who would like to store video content electronically.

The Wii Console does not support full high definition (HD) resolutions so DVD quality is the highest you will be able to stream.  The PS3 and the Xbox 360 can both support HD with HDMI capabilities up to resolutions of 1080p.  Netflix’s current maximum streaming resolution is 720p (requires 5 Mbps download speed) and they expect that 1080p full HD streaming will be available by the end of the year though they aren’t commenting on what bandwidth speeds will be needed.  Personally, I‘m guessing this will need at least 8 Mbps, and possibly higher depending on the audio side – newer surround sound formats will need more bandwidth.