Make Your Home Smarter With #Crestron #Pyng

Up early, home late, up early, home late, the Monday to Friday routine. There are never enough hours in the day, it’s time to get your home working smarter for you. Home automation with Pyng looks after the key functions in your home. From the convenience of your tablet you can adjust the temperature and set up your heating schedule, lock the front door at bedtime, arm your alarm system and even turn off all the lights. One app, complete control. 

Lighting Scenes with Pyng

Pyng doesn’t need an expert to make changes to your homes preferences. Once Customised have installed the wireless devices, the Pyng Hub and carried out the quick initial setup you have the ability to personalise your Smart Home using the Pyng app. Add a Dinner Party lighting scene to the Kitchen/Diner lights or even setup a Sunday morning scene which plays a radio station and opens the blinds a few hours later than your usual weekly routine, because with Pyng you also have control of the luxuries at home such as motorised blinds and multi-room music.

Your Music with Pyng

Boost the IQ of your home by adding Pyng and live in a more efficient, secure and relaxing home. Customised provide free Crestron Pyng home surveys, get in touch to arrange yours.

Customised #SmartHome Tech Wall at @LOTG2016

Customised are heading to Lunch on the Green this week with our Tech Wall to provide expert advice on home automation and smart home technology to the visitors of this charity networking event. Lunch on the Green is Clapham & Collinge's annual summer networking event in conjunction with Bright Yellow Marketing and in support of Break Charity. With plenty of local businesses exhibiting across all sectors, many offering special deals and delights, this fabulous fundraising event is a great opportunity to network with the Norfolk business community, whilst supporting Break Charity.

The three most common questions we are likely to face are:

What do you find people are generally asking for you to install?

Up until two or three years ago true smart home living was definitely for the preserve of the wealthy. Home automation systems carried large price tags. Thankfully those barriers are being removed by greater consumer awareness and household brandnames entering the market. Nearly all of our customers now ask for energy saving technology. With 60% of our household energy bills being accounted for by heating it seems obvious to start there. Smarter heating control from devices like the Nest Learning Thermostat, priced at £179, will start to reduce those bills. Heating your home shouldn’t be guesswork. The Nest Learning Thermostat gives you precise control of the temperature, creates a personalised schedule for your home and eliminates the need for a programmer. It gives you the tools you need to save energy. Simply.

What would you advise people to install when retrofitting?

We don’t always have the luxury of installing cables; wired systems are best suited to new build or major renovation projects. However, it would be advisable to speak with a professional installer to find out if home automation wiring is possible. A hard-wired cabled system brings superior performance over a wireless alternative. If you can’t run the cables then it is advisable to work on making your wireless performance as strong and secure as possible. Your wireless router is a prime candidate for an upgrade. Your router is the hub of your network, don’t expect the freebie router from your service provider to be fit for duty. 

Common retrofit options are made in lighting control with Crestron Pyng and HDL Wireless, curtain and blind automation using QMotion and multi-room audio with wireless music systems. Sonos has made the concept of accessing your music in every room a possibility in any home, new or old. Heos by Denon has recently appeared as a realistic alternative to Sonos, so have a listen to both before making your choice.

Are there any common errors people make when it comes to home automation?

Make the decision to have home automation in your project early; leave it too late and it may not be possible or be more expensive to install. Home automation wiring should be installed at 1st fix stage along with your electrical wiring and plumbing. Once the plasterboard is on the walls it is generally too late. Discuss it with your architect during the design phase. If the architect is not familiar with home technology seek out your local home technology installer or electrical contractor.

Customised are are your local CEDIA certified home technology professionals based in South Norfolk and provide consultation, design and installation of home automation systems.

Smart Home Industry Discussions at @Install_Mag Show with @JulieJacobson

This week saw the arrival of the annual Essential Install Live! South show to Sandown Park in Surrey. The show is the UK's leading exhibition for the smart home installation industry and attracts global exhibitors and visitors.

This year welcomed the return of the Seminar Theatre which hosted presentations and discussions throughout both days. The variety of content delivered reflected the diversity of the smart home industry. Key industry figures covered topics such as HDMI, electrical contractor opportunities, working better with house builders and the impact of SkyQ.

One new addition to the timetable were two panel discussions hosted by revered journalist and CE Pro co-founder Julie Jacobson. Joining Julie were past CEDIA EMEA Chairman Kris Hogg from Konnectiv and Customised director Kris Gamble. The two Kris’ faced questions from the host and the audience during both sessions and in a lot of cases shared very similar views on the current state and future for the industry. Similarities in their business makeup included the use of subcontractors to cope with peaks in workload, a clear separation between home automation and home entertainment.

Kris Hogg discussed his own business success in introducing maintenance services to his client base and explained the assets required to provide a high level of proactive and reactive service. Kris Gamble revealed his role as a main contractor for technology to his clients with management and supervision of subcontractors the demand on his resources.

Both Kris’ highlighted the enormous benefits their business gains from being members of CEDIA and the outstanding benefit appeared to be the ability to deliver CPD presentations to designers of buildings and interiors. Kris Hogg enthusiastically endorsed it as a game changer for Konnectiv when they became members.

Julie raised the subject of Brexit to the panel and the audience and there was great participation from staff members from Wyrestorm, HDL Automation and Archimedia. It became evident that the recent political changes were already making an impact with price increases, staffing issues and project delays.

New technologies were discussed and the Amazon Echo hogged the limelight as expected. Voice control is an exciting interface for the smart home industry and it is starting to appear in installations of all budgets.

Customised were honoured to be part of this panel discussion and would like to send a big thank you to the Event Director David Kitchener, host Julie Jacobson and fellow panellist Kris Hogg. See you all at Essential Install Live! 2017.

Have You Got A Lifestyle Request? #5YearsOfCustomised #LiveInstall #CEDIA

This week Customised celebrated five years in business. To mark this milestone we will be launching and announcing five initiatives and events to continue our Smart Home efforts in East Anglia.

Over these five years, technology has evolved hugely both inside and outside the home. We are constantly reviewing our products and services to follow and anticipate these changes. What hasn’t changed so frequently are the requests we get from clients. We call these ‘lifestyle requests’, clients don't always follow technology trends, they follow living habits and react to obstacles in the home that they think tech may overcome.

Classic lifestyle requests over the past five years have been;

• Can you get rid of the mess of cables behind the television?
• Can you improve the coverage of our wi-fi?
• Can you declutter my armchair of remote controls and replace it with one?
• Can you setup cameras so I can see what’s happening at home?

We know that these are the most common home technology requests and we have a strong lineup of products to service these requests. We have been working hard to prepare for the next generation of lifestyle requests. We have anticipated these being related to key services in the home such as lighting, heating, security and energy.

Emerging lifestyle requests are;

• I want to control my heating from my smartphone.
• I want my lighting to work around events such as sunset, sunrise and motion detected.
• I want to get alerts from my security system to notify me of invited and uninvited visitors.
• I want my home to be more energy efficient and for it to adapt to my living habits.

For the classic requests we typically use point solutions, specific devices to service the request. The benefits of a point solution are lower costs and easy installation but if a homeowner has several point solutions they can quickly end up with several apps to interact with their home. If we then layer on the emerging requests with more point solutions we have simply created another obstacle and aren't doing a very good job at being a home technology professional.

For the emerging requests we have to turn to a home control system. A system that is going to manage, control and automate all the key services in the home. At Customised we use HDL Buspro as our choice of home control system, it has a product lineup that is adaptable to either new construction, renovation or retrofit projects.

Any home control system worth its salt will hide most of the tech from view. It will leave you with a intuitive control panel in each room, a well presented, easy to use mobile app and various sensors around the property monitoring movement, temperature, brightness, humidity and many other variables needed for automated operation.

Recently we attended a seminar where the speaker raised the concept of your home having an autopilot setting. It’s a great concept that is easy to achieve with home control systems. It may seem futuristic but it is starting to appear in most forms of travel e.g Tesla, Docklands Light Railway etc. It has been commonplace in large commercial buildings for decades and automation is even being added to our purchasing habits by online retailers like Amazon.

Customised are East Anglia’s obvious choice to service your lifestyle requests. We are twice winners of the HDL Buspro UK installer of the year award, Norfolk’s only certified Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) members and have a five year trading history. Look out for our five announcements to celebrate our birthday on Twitter @Customised with #5YearsOfCustomised.

Home Technology with Professional Install. @HDL_UK at #GDLive #LiveInstall #CEDIA

There is nothing more exciting than discussing an individual's self build or renovation project with them at the home shows Customised annually exhibit at.  The enthusiasm they have for their very own "Grand Design" is infectious and this week at ExCel London we are enjoying discussing new and exciting home building plans with people from across the UK.

It's our fourth consecutive year participating at Grand Designs Live with our supply partners HDL UK, a global leader in home automation.  Year on year we see the demand for smart home living increasing and this year we are seeing the first signs of home technology being specified or expected as a standard fixture.

Isn't it about time our homes became equipped with central locking, intelligent heating controls and one button press actions to turn all our lights off as we leave the home?  It seems this current crop of self builders agree and without any prompting we are being told that they are going to pre-wire the project to make it future ready.  They want to have much more control of their home in comparison to their previous house.

Customised encourage this approach, but recommend a wiring scheme is designed by a home technology professional to ensure the building is prepared for technology.  The key services homeowners want to control are their heating and lighting; they also want to be able to check on their home via internet connected cameras and have whole house wi-fi to service the plethora of tablets and smartphones found in the modern family home.

When you break those must haves into which trade will take care of them you might be faced with the electrician doing the lighting controls, the plumber managing the heating control, your alarm company setting up the cameras and a computer/IT firm deploying your wireless network.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster.  Each is highly competent in their individual roles but how can you guarantee that all your devices will integrate with each other to give you the seamless user experience you desired at the beginning of the project.

This is where professional Home Technology installers like Customised become a valuable addition to your construction team.  We're experts at integrating multiple services and technologies on to one platform or system for ease of use.  You always run the risk of having a fractured setup by choosing multiple brands to control the home as opposed to a single brand setup and this is why we choose HDL to take care of the essentials in every home.  HDL handles lighting and heating control with ease and combines a light switch and thermostat into one UK switch sized keypad.  The HDL system also has a range of sensors for energy saving, motorised blinds and curtain tracks for window treatments and a powerful multi-room audio amplifier for whole house music.  The HDL range has dozens of other devices enabling integration with alarm, air conditioning, ventilation, security and energy monitoring systems.

You can find HDL at Grand Designs Live on Stand L289 until 8th May at ExCel London.

HDL Automation at Grand Designs Live 2016 #GDLive @HDL_UK

HDL UK are exhibiting at Grand Designs London for their fourth consecutive year at London Excel.  HDL UK can be found in Grand Technology, Stand L289.  On the stand will be technical and sales staff from HDL supported by several of their award winning smart home installation partners.

Customised will be assisting HDL throughout the show to provide visitors the best advice on how to plan, design and install a HDL Automation system in their homes.

HDL Buspro is a whole house control system which takes care of the control and management of your lighting, heating, audio, energy management, motorised curtain and blinds and air conditioning.  The system is controllable by attractive keypads and iOS and Android mobile apps.

For 2016, HDL are showcasing their new wireless Buspro system at Grand Designs.  This system highlights the possibility of having home automation in any home and not just new build or renovated properties.

National Outbreak of Wall Acne - Cure it With @HDL_Automation #LiveInstall

As I spend most of my working week in an out of new and old properties, I’m not a burglar, installing smart home technology you start to notice trends and consistencies in all these buildings and I have started to see a rise in a term I like to call wall acne!

You cannot walk into a living room or kitchen in a new build home now without being faced with a bank of three or four switches for the combination of lights, a thermostat for the underfloor heating, an audio system controller, possibly an alarm system keypad and even a mechanical ventilation controller controller.  It can sometimes take up to 30-50cm of wall space!

For the interior design conscious home owner it is not going to fit in with their modern minimalist styling and equally for a period property, it is going to look the opposite of period if there are four faceplates in reception rooms and kitchen.

At Customised we identified this rise in wall-acne and needed to find an antidote because we always aim to design a clutter-free solution for our clients, especially in new build properties where wiring is simple, efficient and affordable.  In 2013 we chose HDL UK as our main supplier of smart home control and automation products.  They have dozens of products available such as relays, switches and sensors to fulfil all the control, monitoring and automation a household would require.

How does HDL de-clutter your living room entrance?  On one panel you can control the lights in the room you are in and all the other lights in the property; a popular feature is the “All Off” function that turns off all the lights in the house.  Scroll to the next page on the panel and you have access to the room underfloor heating and access to temperature readings from inside and outside the property.  The next page will bring up automation options for opening and closing blinds, curtains or skylight windows.  With another scroll to the right you are faced with your complete music collection stored on a network hard drive and radio station selection.  The systems are also able to offer control of regularly used items like TV’s, set-top boxes and DVD players by using remote control signal emitters built into the panels or discrete in-ceiling sensors.

We are also able to give our clients a high level of control over the property when they are away from home.  By making use of the extensive range of HDL modules and sensors, we can build a true smart-home that will know when a room has been empty for a while, and turn the lights off automatically.  A home you can send a text message to when you are leaving work in the winter, so that it heats up just in time for your return.  This extra level of control and automation introduces valuable energy saving benefits to our clients.

Customised are the HDL UK installers of the year for 2014 and 2015. Get in touch to discuss your antidote to cure wall acne, HDL BusPro.

Hello! Is it me you're looking for? #HomeTechPro #CEDIA #LiveInstall

Hello! Is it me you’re looking for? A Lionel Richie classic from the eighties and also a question we ask our new customers.

New builds, renovations and home improvements have involved the same group of tradespeople for decades. Builders, roofers, plumbers, electricians and decorators are just a few of the usual suspects but how many projects use the services of a Home Technology Professional? What is a Home Technology Professional (HTP or Home Tech Pro)?

It’s probably easier for me to describe the kind of services a HTP can provide using scenarios our customers tell of everyday.

TV

“I need my new super-slim TV mounted on the wall, I want all the wires hidden and one remote control to control everything.”  Contact a Home Tech Pro, they’ll advise on screen height, type of bracket and set up remote and app control of your entertainment devices.

Music

“I have all my music stored on my PC, I stream music from Spotify and Apple Music. How do I unleash this music to every room in the house and have control of the track and volume using my smartphone?”  Bread and butter task for a Home Tech Pro which normally involves no wires.

Wi-Fi

“I have decent broadband speeds but the signal is not reaching everywhere in the house. I’ve tried those plug in extenders but the internet is slower now.”  Time for a HTP. They’ll provide secure, far reaching wireless access points to create one big wireless cloud in your home.

Security

“I’ve got an alarm system but I would have no idea if it’s going off when I’m at work, I’d also like to see what’s happening at home via a camera I can view on my tablet.”  Your Home Tech Pro will setup notifications from your alarm system and install and setup cameras around your property, viewable from anywhere in the world.

Mood Lighting

“I’d like something different from the boring downlights and pendant fittings. I want colour changing LED lighting with control using my smartphone.”  Home technology professionals can install and setup mood lighting in one room or your whole home. It can even be combined with your music and TV setup for different room scenes.

Motorised Curtains and Blinds

“I’m fed up with tangled cords and also want the blinds and curtains to close at the same time in the evenings for privacy and security.”  Your HTP will measure, provide fabric samples and install your automated window treatments.

Future Ready Home

“I’m building my new home for today and for the future. How can I ensure I’m putting in the right cabling, in all the right places?”  A Home Technology Professional must be involved at the early stages of your project. They can work with your architect, lighting and interior designers to ensure that your Grand Design is built to last.

Local Professional

Customised are Norfolk’s only CEDIA certified home technology professionals and have extensive experience in designing and installing technology into new build, renovated and existing homes. Follow us on Twitter @Customised to see our installations across the UK.

@HDL_Automation Keypads at #ISE2016 with @RavePubs and @HDL_UK #LiveInstall

The favourite product in all our HDL BusPro installations, the amazing keypads, are thrust into the limelight at ISE 2016.