Episode 60 - Smarter Living

We spend a lot of time here at HomeTech talking about what it really means to have a "smart home".  This terminology does, after all, get bandied about at an ever-increasing pace. The attention of everyday consumers is a surely a welcome sign to anyone with an interest in the smart home market. There are those, however, who would take care to more accurately define what the term "smart home" really means. 

With this in mind we were interested to learn more about Control4's upcoming "Smarter Living Experience". Beyond the obvious motivation of getting their product in front of more eyeballs, this event has a larger, and arguably more difficult mission: to define the value of a truly integrated home. After all standalone solutions, like the Nest thermostat or Philips Hue lights, provide real value to consumers at a very low cost-of-entry. Few would argue otherwise.

What remains to be seen is if companies like Control4 can continue to sell the value of an overarching system, one capable of bringing all the technology together into a singular, unified user-experience. On this week's show we are joined by Control4's Director of Product Marketing Brad Hintze, to discuss that and more. 

Following our conversation with Brad, we dive into a chat about Seth's personal smart home retrofit project. Many of you have been requesting an update on his progress, and we thought now would be a great time to get you caught up. For this episode we take specific aim at Seth's choice of a lighting control system. Tune in to hear more...

We hope you enjoy our conversation with Brad. If you are able to watch Control4's event we would love to hear your thoughts afterwards. Let us know your thoughts using our feedback page or even better, send us a comment on twitter! 

Thanks for listening! See you next week.

Episode 59 - Intelligent Irrigation with Franz Garsombke of Rachio

In our main segment this week were joined by Franz Garsombke, co-founder of CTO of Rachio. For the uninitiated Rachio is the manufacturer behind Iro, an intelligent irrigation controller. Since it's launch the Iro has gained traction with several major brick-and-mortar retailers, including Home Depot, Apple Stores, and Best Buy. We brought Franz on to chat about what has lead to the product's success. Our conversation covered everything from the basics of installation and setup, to the large-scale challenges of water conservation the product aims to address.

As always we hope you enjoy the show. If you find the podcast valuable, entertaining, or both please consider becoming a patron, or leaving us a review on iTunes! 

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Episode 58 - Listeners' Corner feat. Cody Crossland

We started out this week's show by trying to settle a little internal debate here at HomeTech. Amazon made a big splash on the tech-news scene this week with the announcement of the "Dash Button". One half of the HomeTech team thinks the product very clever, and worthy of the smart home label most tech journalists are using to describe it. The other half thinks it's just a silly button to help you buy more crap. Tune in to hear the debate (and tweet us with your thoughts if you're so inclined). 

In other news this week we discuss the release of a new controller by Savant. It's Savant's first processor with imbedded I/O ports (IR, RS-232, Relays etc). This means that, for the first time, you do not need separate hardware to control devices such as TV's, AVR's, and cable boxes. Also worth noting is the inclusion of Z-Wave, an addition that could mean a move further downstream towards a true DIY solution. 

Our main feature this week is the second installment of "Listeners' Corner". We brought on Cody Crossland, who has been one of our most ardent supporters since launching the show. Cody is a fellow systems integrator and, similar to Seth, is a Control4 dealer. We had a great conversation about some of the pitfalls that end users need to be aware when purchasing new technology. Ranging from new TV's (4K / UHD) all the way up to entire smart home systems, Cody has some great insights to share. 

We had a great time recording this episode. If you are interested in joining us on a future installment of our listener-series let us know on our feedback page!

See you next week!

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Episode 57 - Cut the Cord with Tablo's Grant Hall

If we've said it once we've said it a dozen times: 2015 is the year of the cord cutter. With new over-the-top offerings coming to market at an increasing pace, consumers everywhere are finding it increasingly easy to tell their big cable providers to go pound sand. While services like Netflix, Hulu, and the newly released SlingTV provide consumers with a great deal of content to chose from, they are all missing one thing - access to local, live, high-definition programming available free to anyone with an OTA antenna.

Enter Tablo, a whole-home OTA DVR that allows users to record and stream free HDTV programming to any screen in their home. This week we sat down with Grant Hall, CEO of the Ottawa-based company behind Tablo. In addition to taking a deep-dive into the product's design and function, we also discuss some of the broader trends currently disrupting the traditional TV service provider model. 

2015 is no doubt a year full of exciting prospects for cord cutters everywhere. Tablo is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this growing market. Tune in to learn more... 

PS - As you'll hear us explain at the start of this episode HomeTech now has a Patreon page. We'd love for you to check it out. You can also read more of our take here. We hope you will consider showing your support for the show. It would be tremendously appreciated! 

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Episode 56 - Listeners' Corner feat. Jonathan Horvath

It's been a little over a year since we launched the hometech podcast. During that time we've been fortunate enough to hear from many of you with suggestions, comments, questions, and loads of positive feedback. Without fail this correspondence has led to inspiration and ideas for future episodes. In light of this fact we had a thought: why not take the correspondence itself and make a show of it?  

With that by way of introduction, we are excited to present to you the first edition of "Listeners' Corner". We were joined by Jonathan Horvath, who has been one of the most active members of our budding community. You may recognize his name from another recent episode and / or from a guest review he was kind enough to send us on the Yale smart lock. Jonathan has a interesting background in the commercial access control space. He is also working on some very unique projects in his own home, using open source tools to create his own Z-Wave based home automation hub. Tune in to hear all about it.

At the risk of sounding clichéd we often like to remind you that without your listenership this show may as well not exist. As podcast creators we obviously like to hear ourselves talk. But, after all, if we knew no one was listening the production would surely lose its luster in a hurry.  

Thank you for being a part of the show! If you are interested in joining us on a future edition of "Listeners' Corner" please don't hesitate to reach out on twitter or through our feedback page.

See you next week!

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