Prior to Parks Associates’ 14^th-annual CONNECTIONS™ Europe: Strategies for Security and Smart Home, Charlie Kindel, Chief Product and Technology Officer, SnapAV shared his insights on the industry. 

Charlie will present the keynote The 5 Levels of Smart Home on Tuesday, 19 November at 11:30. 

What new channels are driving growth in the smart home industry?

The smart home market is inevitably headed towards professional installation and management to alleviate the complexity of device management from the homeowner in order to provide them with the ease of comfort, entertainment, and security experiences they desire without all the headaches. With a local professional helping with installation, configuration, and ongoing upkeep members of a family can just enjoy the benefits of home technology without having to constantly battle it. True integration is made possible by bringing control of all devices into a singular app, as well as through voice command, remote, touchscreen, and more. A professionally installed smart home also incorporates sophisticated “scenes” and scheduling of multiple devices, making the home truly smart. It offers the homeowner complete peace of mind knowing all of their devices are being monitored and managed properly.

We expect machine learning and other advanced computing technologies will also continue to drive growth and the capabilities of the smart home, where it could predict and adapt independently for individuals in the home. For example, the use of occupancy sensors that recognize when a specific person enters a room that can then communicate with the smart home system to automatically adjust the lighting, temperature, or other aspects of the home to suit their individual preferences.

What efforts are needed to alleviate consumers’ security and privacy concerns associated with connected devices?

It is clear that the age of smart home DIY has failed consumers, especially in terms of their privacy. Often, we hear about data breaches within the home and hackers making their way into these failing systems. What happens in the privacy of your home should stay in your home and consumers should feel confident their systems are protecting them both physically and digitally. Privacy concerns are alleviated when homeowners go the professional installation route. Professional smart home installers partner with companies, like SnapAV, that are committed to strict and proactive standards for data privacy. The Control4 Smart Home OS, to illustrate the point, was built from the ground up to honor the tenet “What happens in the home, stays in the home.” In addition, pros take the necessary steps such as regularly changing network passwords, to ensure their customers smart homes are safeguarded from privacy breaches and potential hacks.

What solutions can ensure a seamless convergence between smart home and connected entertainment solutions for consumers?

As the smart home market continues to grow it is important for consumers to be able to distinguish between disparate smart products and a truly smart home.

Perhaps the most robust differentiator is the presence of an operating system for the home. A smart home operating system, like Control4 Smart Home OS 3, sets the standard for the home, intertwining all smart products, under the comfort, entertainment, and security umbrellas, together to build out the technology infrastructure of the truly smart home.

With an operating system, homeowners can also guarantee seamless convergence for their entertainment solutions. With Control4 OS 3, homeowners can set and modify various scenes based on their entertainment preferences. For example, someone with OS 3 can simply tell Alexa “it’s movie time” and their system will know to turn on the TV, dim the lights, and close the shades.