Show Report

[Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

We went to the shows yesterday - the SmartHomes one was small but
good,
and the Homebuilding' one was larger than we remembered, and also quite
good.   We were there from about ten-thirty' until a bit before five',
with all but two-hours of that spent in the SmartHomes part ... very
interesting -  well, I thought so, 'wife was a bit less keen !

Home Automation

Siemens seem to have got their act together on EIB - actually had a
sensible conversation in their stand, with a guy who had lots of
experience & really knew his stuff & understood what HA could be.  
The
Merten stand was also good, with some guys who knew their stuff.
'didn't get to talk with the people on Ivory Egg, who were displaying
Gira, because they were always too busy.   Jung were there too, but
seemed less knowledgeable.   And Konnex had a stand, too - though it was
pretty bare.   So the EIB presence was really quite strong this time,
and we got to see & try lots of buttons & switches, too (some were
better than others).   And it put EIB, and particularly Siemens, back on
my list !

Idratek weren't there (but are still on my list), but several others
with interesting, well-developed & capable systems were - Niko &
their
Nikobus (looks good quality & comprehensive), smart-house / Dupline (a
development of an industrial system that's been around a while), Cardio
IQ / Qbus (details less clear, but seems 'could be comprehensive), and
sensible heat / Honeywell Hometronic (intelligent & very sensible
wireless system, ideal for mainstream retrofit).

More limited, but still impressive in their way, were tektouch
(touch-screen driven automation of house equipment), IntHouse (ditto).

More niche', but still interesting, were Helvar (lighting control),
Centralock (house locking), singlepoint (Cat8 1.2Ghz multimedia
infrastructure), TriFusion Toca (finger-print access control, at a not
too-stupid price), and Mirror Media (LCD & a few plasma screens which
become mirrors when they're off, in various sizes, small to very big, at
problematic prices).

Remote's

Also looked at Logitech Harmony (remote's, for MIL, but not what we
expected - still too complicated !), and amina (plaster in the wall
'speakers - might be good for vulnerable situations, as in kids &
bathrooms).

Labelling

And programmable Rhino label-printers, for all those cables & panels we
are about to run (60GBP for the Pro3000, plus tapes at about 10GBP for
about 5m, depending on type - narrow, wide, clear, opaque, tubular,
whatever - also available as a kit in a box, which looked a good way to
buy it) - the sales-lady did a good job on me, but then she called them
boys toys, so I walked away !