Episode 35 - Ted Schremp of SmartHome Ventures

On this episode of HomeTech we were joined by Ted Schremp.  Ted is the CEO Smarthome Ventures, the recently formed company behind the Peq Home Automation line of products.  Peq is intriguing to us for a number of reasons, and we were very excited to welcome Ted onto the show to discuss.  

Peq made headlines recently when rumors of the product first started circulating.  Speculation at the time centered around this product being Best Buy's answers to the likes of Staples Connect and the Lowes Iris.  While there is truth to the fact that the retail giant will carry Peq products, Smarthome Ventures operates as its own entity with ambitions above and beyond their deal with Best Buy.  With an impressive executive team, a polished lineup of products, and a business model aimed at long term sustainability, the Smarthome Ventures teams looks like they are playing for keeps.  We had a great chat with Ted.  As always we hope you enjoy and thank you for listening!

Show Notes

Episode 34 - The Box Formerly Known as Doorbot with Ring Inventor Jamie Siminoff

This week we were excited to welcome Jamie Siminoff to the show.  We have been working behind the scenes to get Jamie on for some time now.  It had been proving difficult to make our schedules line up, and now we know why! Jamie and his team have been very busy.

For those who don't know, Jamie is the chief inventor of Doorbot, which when it came out was the world's first WiFi enabled smart doorbell.  Big news broke this week when it was announced that Doorbot was rebranding and launching a new and improved version of their product, now known simply as Ring.  Jamie lays out his thought process and reasoning behind the rebranding effort in an excellent blog post you can read here.  But reading is a lot of work, and we know you're busy.  So we've made it easy for you.  Just hit play, kick your feet up, and enjoy our conversation with Jamie all about Ring, the box formerly known as Doorbot...

Show Notes

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Episode 33 - Slow News is Still News

Some last minute scheduling conflicts precluded us from having a guest on this week's show.  But no matter! We instead took the opportunity to focus on a weekly smart home news wrap up. 

First we give our opinions on the recently announced touchscreen-lightswitch combo from Wink.  Pricing for the upcoming product was recently revealed at $300, which given the target DIY customer might be a bit pricey.  We discuss a number of the challenges we think Wink will face with their entrance into the touchscreen business.  This is market in which traditional players like Crestron and AMX are losing all kinds of ground due to the near ubiquity of Tablets and Smartphones.  It remains to be seen if Wink can make this a viable product.  

Another interesting story we wanted to touch on is a recently launched Kickstarter campaign for a product called TiltMyBlinds.  As regular listeners well know, we often discuss what differentiates DIY type smart home systems from their professionally installed brethren.  For some time now automated shading control has fallen exclusively in the realm of dealer-installed technology.  TiltMyBlinds wants to change that.  It's a very unique offering, and a cool looking product.  We wish them the best in their endeavor! 

We also touched on a new miracast-enabled wireless display adapter from a little company called Microsoft (is anyone talking about these guys anymore??).  Lastly, we wrapped up the show with a discussion on the merits of managed WiFi networks.  This, in light of a new offering from Luxul in the form of a $399 wireless controller.  Traditionally managed WiFi networks have required enterprise-grade hardware often costing thousands of dollars, so Luxul's new product is very appealing for the residential networking market.

As always, thanks for listening!  Hope you enjoy!

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Episode 32 - The Unified Smart Home with Revolv Co-Founder Mike Soucie

As a listener you're no doubt aware of the pace at which the smart home landscape is evolving.  It seems that literally every week there are new solutions coming to market.  As we've discussed at length, the clear problem this creates is segmentation within the home (one app for the lights, another for the temperature, and so on).  It will not come as news to you that this segmentation is problem that many players are looking to solve through the creation of so-called smart home hubs.  

Boulder, CO based Revolv was one of the earliest entrants into this nascent market.  Self-professed to be the world's "most powerful" smart home hub, Revolv continues to makes strides towards the mainstream market.  With 7 different radios (not all of them currently active) and an impressive list of compatible devices, the product has a lot to offer its users. Co-Founder, and head of marketing, Mike Soucie, joins us on this episode to discuss what the company has cooking. Revolv has clearly been very busy lately, announcing a new Android app, IFTTT integration, a Global Cache partnership aimed at controlling A/V devices, and a new CEDIA dealer program.  Mike clearly has his finger right on the pulse of the smart home market.  We really enjoyed the conversation, and hope you do to...

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Episode 31 - MaxMyTV with Meg Trite

We were pleased to welcome Meg Trite with MaxMyTV onto this weeks show.  The company came across our radar via a recent CEPro Article.  We thought the product looked very interesting and invited Meg on for a conversation about their unique approach to home automation. 

As anyone who follows the smart home space knows, home automation hubs are the latest craze.  With new offerings popping up nearly every week, it's become increasingly difficult for startups in this space to differentiate themselves.  While most hubs focus exclusively on the use of apps to control the home, MaxMyTV allows users to leverage any HDMI-Enabled display as a primary point of control.  

We discussed the benefits of using this approach with Meg.  Additionally we cover the hardware installation process, setup, as well as peripheral devices such as cameras and smart plugs that the company will offer.  MaxMyTV will be taking their product Kickstarter soon, so stay tuned as they work to bring this unique product to market.  

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UPDATE 10/15 - 
The folks at MaxMyTV have launched their Kickstarter campaign, which you can check out HERE!