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I was invited by a friend to attend a
presentation
on the "Orange at Home" house tonight, hosted by the IEE. It was very interesting indeed. Some points and
quotes
as I remember them...
"Home Automation isn't the killer
app"
"Just because something is technologically
feasible
doesn't make it a commercial reality"
The example
given
was the automated bath. There's no huge engineering effort required
to do
this, but the small benefits aren't worth the substantial
expense.
Guinea Pig families hated the iPAQs they were
given
to control the house!! They complained about battery life, screen
size,
having to use a stylus and losing them! They left them in the bedroom
then
needed them in the lounge etc. They have found web tablets more
acceptable
as they stay in each room, usually on a dock.
They showed a picture of their Node
Zero. It
has FOUR 42U 19" racks! They said the vast majority of this rack
space was
taken up with analogue sources and switching them. While the ability
to
play any entertainment source in any room was regarded as one of the best
things
about the house by the families, Orange say that they see the future in
distributing Audio and Video in the digital domain from hard drives using
streaming technology.
They quoted that <5% of houses will be new
builds by 2010! This makes the HA market 95% retro fit. They
see
wireless technology reducing the need for cabling.
I asked about occupancy detection. They
said
they'd toyed with the idea of getting people to wear a badge type device
but
reckoned this was a non-started.
It's obvious Orange are looking to distil home
automation down to the bits that are affordable and will appeal the mass
market. As a group we are probably at the other end of the scale
though. They did mention certain websites where people had done
fantastic
and complicated things "mainly with X10 which is a cheap power line
technology"
:)
Interestingly one of the items mentioned that
was a
shining example of well implemented easy to use technology was TiVo!
In a
room full of Electrical Engineer (and university students) it was obvious
that
most of them had no idea what TiVo is or does.
Sorry for the rambling, but I'm just typing
this as
I remember it.
M.
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