HomeTech.fm

About a month ago, February 12th to be exact, one of the most successful smart home Kickstarter campaigns in recent memory came to its glorious end. Initially setting out to raise $50,000 for their nascent "thinking remote", the team at NEEO had obliterated their goal, ending the campaign at an astonishing $1.5 million. Clearly the NEEO remote has struck a chord with smart home fans. As...

As the name of our show implies we consistently strive to keep a tight focus on technology in the home, and the home alone. On this week's show however we wanted to zoom out and look at the connected home as part of a larger context, namely the broad phenomenon knows as " The Internet of Things ". Our featured guest, Daniel Obodovski, is  perfectly  suited to facilitate the conversa...

This week on HomeTech special guest host Richard Gunther from the Digital Media Zone fills in for Jason while he takes a much deserved vacation. Show Notes Home: On Podcast Kasperski - The Internet of Crappy Things Listener Review: Yale Deadbolt with Z-wave Yale Security YRD240-ZW-619 Real Living Electronic Keyless Touch Screen Deadbolt, Fully Motorized with Z-Wave Kevo Door Lock Insteon Connected...

We had been looking forward to sharing an interview with Daniel Obodovsky this week. Daniel is co-author of " The Silent Intelligence ", a very interesting book about the significance of the Internet-of-Things. Alas Daniel lost his voice the day of the show so we had to reschedule. We look forward to sharing that conversation with you in a few short weeks. For this week's episode we...

We sat down to record this show on the evening of Thursday, February 12th. If you are wondering why we point this out it is because that date marks exactly the 1-year anniversary of us publishing our very first episode of HomeTech ! With that in mind, and before we get into the specifics of this week's show, we wanted to reiterate our sincere appreciation for your listenership! We have had a...

In what we suppose could be considered a miniature milestone we bring to you show number 50. Seth returns from the previous week's travels to join us for an all-news episode. As the CES hangover begins to dissipate the industry's collective gaze has begun to shift towards  ISE 2015  in Amsterdam. ISE, the literal lovechild of CEDIA and INFOcomm, is a massive show that we at HomeTech hope...

In our latest episode we depart from our usual format on a couple of fronts. First and foremost Seth had some unexpected travel come up. As such Jason is joined by a good friend, fellow Integrator, and industry podcaster Nate Schneider . Nate and Jason work on together a monthly podcast called AV Shop Talk  that, especially for the integrators in our audience, we would encourage you to check out....

On this week's episode Jason shares some of his experiences managing the installation of a very high end home theater in Los Angeles. The conversation ranges from technical topics, such as the inclusion of Auro3D audio, to the logistical challenges present when building a room such as this. These high end theaters require an immense amount of planning and a high-level of execution from multip...

Episode 47 of HomeTech brings to you a conversation with Chris Pinder of HDAnywhere , a manufacturer of unique HDMI distribution solutions. As the video landscape continues to evolve, and 4K displays and content become more ubiquitous, it's become increasingly important to have an array of video-solution options in your tool belt. To that end if you're not familiar with HDAnywhere, you s...

With the gaze of gadget lovers worldwide fixed on Las Vegas this week for CES 2015, it was not difficult for us to pick a topic for our show. In fact the challenge lay in separating the wheat from the chaff. As usual, the massive trade show brought about a plethora of stories, some worth noting others good for little more than a laugh . The sheer volume of news coming off the show floor can make i...

In our final episode of 2014 we decided we'd do what every other tech-news show and blog on the planet do, and take a look back at the biggest stories of the year. What we lack in originality we strive to make up for by giving our own personal take. Specifically offering our thoughts as home automation professionals and systems integrators. When looking back at the big home technology news of...

It's the holiday season and this week we sit down and chat about what smart home devices we hope Santa brings this year. So sit back, grab a glass of eggnog, enjoy the show. If you have more ideas leave a message on our feedback form , Twitter , or reach out to us using SpeakPipe and leave a voice message for the show! Show Notes Dropcam Dropcam Pro Dropcam 'Original' Netgear Arlo C...

We were pleased on this episode to be joined by Duane Paulson, Senior VP of Product & Market Development for Linear. Duane is a long time technology veteran whose background lends him a very unique perspective on the industry. We were eager to get his take not only on what Linear has been up to, but also on current trends in the smarthome at large. We close the conversation with a discussion o...

After a week off the HomeTech team is back in action. We are excited to present a new episode featuring Tim McInerny of Savant as our featured guest. As discussed on our recent CEDIA Wrap-Up Special  Savant managed to steal the show this year with the unveiling of their new app. Completely re-designed from the ground up, the so-called "Savant App" is a very modern, clean, and extremely i...

Jason takes some time off for daddy-duty and Seth sits down with Mike Wolf of The Smart Home Show to discuss the week's news. Show Notes Technology. FM Jason Griffing on Twitter Expect to see HomeKit devices at CES 2015 HomeKit reverse enginnered in software Blossom Smart Irrigation System HomePlug Watercop automatic water shut-off system Aquanta Intelligent Water Heater Controller Quirky Egg...

We did not book a guest for this week's show, primarily because Jason wasn't even sure he'd be able to participate. As it turns out he was able to join the show this week because his wife is still (very) pregnant. That's right, for those of you who have been listenting, no baby yet. At the time of this typing we are 5 days past due. Baby-watch 2014 continues... Plenty to talk a...

We opened the show this week giving our thoughts on the very sad news of Crestron founder George Feldstein's passing. George was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. Through his work he did volumes to push the systems integration industry forward. Without his passion and diligent efforts it is hard to say what our industry would look like today. We want to extend our deepest condolences...

This is an episode that we have been excited to bring you for quite some time. Ever since CEDIA 2014 there has been tremendous buzz in the industry surrounding the announcement of Crestron's new home automation platform Pyng. This product represents a major evolution for Crestron in that the entire system can be programmed and configured using only the app, no laptop necessary. The price poin...

This week we are bringing you another news-only episode, and there was no shortage of big news to talk about. On the personal side of things Jason discusses the continual process of readying his home for the 'new addition'. That's right, if you haven't heard, Jason and his wife are getting ready to welcome to their first child (a baby girl) in a few short weeks from now! And li...

Another Apple event has come and gone. And sadly it's all quiet on the HomeKit Front. While many of their recent announcements are indeed exciting, new iPads, new iMacs, and new Mac Minis (finally!), we're not an Apple show, we're a home technology show. So we have to admit to being a bit bummed about the lack of public news since the initial announcement of HomeKit back at WWDC. Ev...

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...

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...

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...

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 p...

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 ev...