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Showing posts with the label IoT

RTI and Amazon Alexa Voice Control Integration Driver

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The new driver from MyDevice  is now available on their website to integrate Amazon Alexa voice commands with system macros on an RTI smart home control system. The new driver allows you to use the Amazon Echo, Dot, Tap and Fire TV product to trigger events based on your voice commands. The voice actions that can be integrated with this driver are on, off, up, down, raise, lower, brighten and dim. Each voice trigger is given a unique name usually room location based to trigger the macros that are specified within your RTI system programming. The driver is purchased and downloaded for $100 but a free demo driver is available for download to test out this great new control driver from  MyDevice . "Alexa, turn on the bedroom lights" My Device RTI Amazon Alexa Driver Download

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How to Play TV Audio Through Sonos System with Playbar

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When using the Sonos phone or tablet application press the room name at the top of the Sonos application. If you have a Sonos Playbar playing your TV audio you will see the TV icon as shown above within the respective room that it is located in. Press the group button next to the room audio you are trying to distribute out to the other rooms. IE Living room audio is going to be sent to the rest of the Sonos zones within the house. Press each room name and put the red check mark next to all the areas you would like to distribute the TV audio to. Press done in the upper right had corner of the Sonos app and now you have successfully distributed the TV audio to all the Sonos areas of your house.

Ring Video Doorbell at Night

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The Ring video doorbell is a great stand alone smart home doorbell to give you eyes and ears on what is happening or who is at the front of your house or entry. The night camera view as shown above has built in infrared (IR) illuminators to allow the camera to be viewable at night. You can listen to the Ring's built in microphone by pressing the audio symbol in the lower right of the app to hear what is going on around the Ring doorbell. You can also press the green talk button when in a live camera view to communicate with whomever is at your front entry. The picture above is what the Ring doorbell looks like at night with the circle light being the doorbell button. The three red lights below the illuminated doorbell button are the infrared (IR) illuminators allowing the camera to see at night. The Ring doorbell is a great device and accompanied app to help bring your home to the connected

Nest Smart Home Integration

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The Nest 3rd Generation thermostat is the must have smart home item that increasingly is integrate-able with many of the leading smart home control systems out in the market these days. Even if you are not running a control system to manage all your devices at your home, you can greatly benefit from this device with their stand alone app that will get you up to speed controlling your climate from your phone at home or when away from your residence. Nest can be integrated with your Control 4 system, Crestron system or even your RTI remote control system very easily. Nest is also recently controllable with your Amazon Alexa Hub via voice control. Savant systems is even soon to release their update to be able to manage your smart learning thermostat.

Sonos Home Theater

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The Sonos Update 5.4 arrived and included many improvement upon the Sonos sound system eco system. The Sonos user interface music experience has been enhanced to now add the upcoming track preview when in shuffle mode. There were also enhancements made for the Google Play and TuneIn music services. The Sonos Play 1 audio sonics have also been updated to improve the tonal qualities of the vocals when playing music tracks. The equalization of the Play 1 when paired with a Sonos subwoofer has been modified to allow for better performance with the Bass frequency spectrum. The Sonos home theater speaker pairing has also been updated to now work without having to hard wire a Sonos Boost which was previously required for the Sonos surround sound installation. The Boost installation can certainly still help in many installation situations, but the Sonos 5.1 surround system can now be run completely on the wireless network. Update your Sonos system to the 5.4 version today to unl

Amazon Echo For Your Smart Home

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Amazon Echo is now shipping from Amazon. The smart hub is primarily controlled with verbal commands which was built in to be the primary source of control over the device. Amazon and the Echo hub is banking on verbal commands being the preferred method for control rather than using your smart phone as many other system utilize. The Amazon echo has a long way to go to be the main smart hub to control your house as it lacks the ability to communicate with many other smart devices currently used in the home. As of now we see the device as a novelty device with many nice features and uses but let's see what future updates will bring to this novelty but still cool device.

Works with Nest Devices

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Works with Nest connectivity service was popularized with the learning thermostat and Google's purchased line of connectable devices which now has opened up some of the possibilities for integrating the Nest devices to a larger managed system. Control 4, Crestron, RTI and Amazon's Alexa are just a few of the systems that are now able to be paired and integrated with your Nest thermostat. This is great news for those who love the look and feel of the Nest thermostat but prefer to have your home managed with one system or app interface. (Less is More!) Below is a list of the current devices and services that can Work with Nest. Wemo - Switch Lifx - Light Bulb Rachio - Smart Sprinkler Controller Skybell - Video Doorbell Phillips Hue - Smart Lights Misfit - Sleep Tracker August Home Haiku - Ceiling Fan Amazon - Echo & Alexa Chamberlain - MyQ Home Control Hayward