Voice activated smart home technology has been around for a long time, but it is only over the past few years, since the release of devices like Amazon Alexa Echo and Google Home, that these devices have become really smart and interactive. The quality of the language processing has improved to a point that they are now genuinely useful around the home, as opposed to just a novelty.
Smart voice control is now commonly used by people to perform tasks like dimming lights, turning up the central heating, or playing their favourite music, or indeed some combination of all of these at once.
Why Alexa?
There are several reasons why we like Alexa as a route to smart voice control including:
- Low cost – Amazon’s range of devices allow you to get started with voice control at very low cost and with minimal fuss. The latest Echo Dot smart speaker is only £50 and while you can add additional functionality by integrating this with your smart home systems, this is essentially all you’d need to get started.
- Integration with other devices – Allowing third party providers to build their own Alexa “skills” means there is a wide range of compatible devices. This includes everything from locks to light bulbs to heating.
- Speed of improvement – Amazon is investing heavily in Alexa, regularly bringing out new devices and making improvements to the underlying software. To benefit from these regular improvements, you simply have to make sure that you have the latest software versions installed but you don’t need to worry about that as software updates can be set to update automatically.
Control4 Alexa Integration
One of the things that makes Amazon Alexa so attractive in particular is the integration with Control4 controllers, making for a truly powerful smart home partnership. This gives you the high-quality voice control and natural language processing powered by Amazon, coupled with the ability to link to a vast array of devices around your home. Using the two in parallel allows you to set up sophisticated profiles to control multiple devices at once with a single command.
For example, the simple command “Alexa, turn off the house”, might lock the front door, turn off the TV and lights and turn down the central heating.
Smart Voice Control – Hadley AV Style
We pride ourselves on being at the forefront of smart home technology and have been keenly tracking the progress of voice controlled technology for a number of years. We’ve watched the evolution from simple command based systems and are really excited by the rapid progress we’ve seen since the likes of Amazon and Google entered this space just a few years ago.
We now see Alexa as a core part of the smart home, and have worked with clients both on retrofitting voice activation to existing systems, but also when designing new systems from scratch.
For more information on how you can integrate smart voice control into your home, don’t hesitate to get in touch and speak to one of our experts.