Re: Introduction

["David Yeend" <david.yeend@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Colin,

Based on your point of view, which I believe I have an appreciation for, I
would say that no the market has not moved on much at the consumer end. I
am
not working in HA at the raw end and am probably not as qualified as others
on this list to comment but I will have a go! If any of those actively
involved on a day-to-day basis want to put me straight then I welcome any
comments to correct my view of it all.

At the money is no object end, as you know yourself, anything has been
possible for considerable time. Taking and integrating technologies from
the
professional entertainment, building management, industrial control and
manufacturing industries covers most situations. Ignoring the wealth aspect
I think the market has grown in this area based on the packaging of these
systems / components aimed at domestic situations combined with better user
interfaces and easier to implement logic. With growth in the market there
has been growth in the number of professional installers who service it.
Growth in the market stimulates competition......and so the usual
commercial
factors come into play. However the subject is still 'custom installation'
requiring specialists with a broad spread of knowledge and integration
ability far beyond people who have problems 'setting the video'. At this
level I think CEDIA do a lot to help development of the market and the
professionalism of its membership who are professionals in their own
right. I still think that at this level the automation aspect follows from
an initial interest in high end AV or security rather than as a direct
requirement.

The availability of reasonably priced off the shelf products oriented for
the domestic market, combined with a general increase in technical savvy
due
to the proliferation of computers and IT has made it easy for more to
embrace HA as a DIY activity. As such lists like this exist and show
reasonable activity with growing membership numbers. However I agree that
HA
is still a niche market but never-the-less it appears to me to be a healthy
one. Four years ago I could only name 2 companies with consumer focus that
sold HA components. Now there are 6 which spring to mind without much
thought - I am sure there are probably more. That said I can still recall
Maplin and PC World previously offering X10 and B&Q with their Home
Control
packs, I don't think any of them have such products anymore but then to my
understanding the focus on education of their customer base was never
really
there.

It seems to me that at the consumer end there is very little to stimulate
the imagination of the typical home owner. When the interest exists I think
there is a lot of confusion which is not helped by some of the very poor
attempts I have seen to introduce the subject to the general population! A
lack of easy to implement/integrate products aimed at the consumer level
does not help, but then perhaps the whole subject is just too complex for
this to change?

Some fantastic things have come from members of this group. Developments
such as xAP and xPL as an attempt to generate some glue have shown real
success with adoption in commercial product. Also developers adding
integration solutions to systems such as Home Vision and CBus have been
very
active. I would be interested to hear how those involved in these areas
would answer the original question.

I have had personal involvement with a number of developments where
anything
from a handful to several hundred dwellings have been equipped with
structured cabling and RF based TV distribution systems which have been
installed at very low cost to the developer. I regularly get asked by those
taking occupation questions like 'what is this for?'. To me this indicates
that not enough is being done to pass the message on.

Very few of the developers are even slightly interested in pre-wiring for
alarm systems, curtain / blind automation or lighting control, even if it
is
offered in the form of a 'no brainer'!

Anyway, enough of my ramblings!

Regards,

David



On 3/17/06, colin7598 <colinblake@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Hi, I have been watching this group for about a month now.
>
> My main reason for joining was to see what progress had been made in
> the HA market.
>
> In 1988, I started automating my own home, electric curtain tracks,
> distributed HiFi, centeral heating/hot water, lights on-off-dimmer
> and motorised up-down control.
>
> The real automation came about when I designed the telephone
> controller. This allow me to call into my home and find the status of
> each appliances and then control they remotely. The telephone
> interface was 'Human speech' stored in EProm, which gave prompts and
> stutus messages. The control was via DTMF tones generated by the
> telephone. So I communicated in a form the electronics understood and
> it 'spoke' back to me in 'true' speech (uncompressed at the time, it
> used 1M EProms for 1 minute of speech).
>
> In 1989 I started a company called "Phone Control Services",
which
> designed and built the telephone controller. Soon I had contracts
> with clients who anted 'their' own products enhanced. But never
> wanted to interface with other products.
> I ran the company for 4 years then sold it.
>
> I have since got into video transmission systems, over POTS ISDN IP
> MOBILE and run a consultancy company advising on TeleVideo.
>
> In my opinion the HA market has not moved much in the last 17 years,
> it is still a niche market. ...... or am I wrong?
>
> Colin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]