Digital Smart Homes Blog and News
<i>Smart</i> <i>Living</i> <i>Journal</i>
Digital Smart Homes
  • © 2024 Digital Smart Homes | By Appointment: 999 W Broadway 7th Floor, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1K5 | 604.670.7647 | Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Whistler, Surrey | Control4, Sonos, Lutron | Home Automation, Multi-Room Audio, Home Theater | Email 0

Smart Living Journal

Chowmain’s Advanced Announcements Driver for Control4

Chowmain’s Advanced Announcements Driver
The Control4 Home Automation system has the ability to play audio announcements through the audio outputs on its controllers and speaker points. These announcements can play back any file encoded in a wav format. Traditionally these announcements have been used for doorbells and pre-recorded messages.

Chowmain’s Advanced Announcements driver expands the announcement agent by providing integration with web based text to speech engines. This gives you futuristic dynamically generated voice notifications over your Control4 system without any additional hardware.

Driver features:
  • Dynamic text to speech generation
  • Ability to speak the date & time
  • Ability to inject variables
  • Currently supports 3 text to speech engines with multiple languages, voices, speed and pitch (SpeechUtil.com, VoiceRSS.org, iSpeech.org)
  • Ability to record your voice via a web browser for playback through Control4.

The Smarthome is not the Deathstar

deathstar-homeautomation

A Control4 smart-home, in truth, doesn’t have to look like the Death Star from the sci-fi series Star Wars. In fact, any well-wired home is capable of becoming a smart-home. This means that anything from a suburban home to your downtown loft is ready to be transformed with technologies that are readily available at Digital Smart Homes.

Right as you walk into most typical retailers, you will find flat screen televisions flashing left and right. It was only a few years ago that this same technology came in bulky packages—that is the bezel was extremely wide, and the rear encasement took up quite a bit of space.

However, TV manufacturers have greatly improved the designs of these sets, and these days most flat screen LCD/LED TVs have almost no bezel and takes up much less space, which is a welcoming thing when it comes to designing an aesthetically pleasing home. The last thing you want is a bunch of technology is a bulky cabinet underneath that very thin TV.

control4-smarthome
Smart home technology doesn’t all need to have a flashing screen or blinking lights. Often, smart-home shoppers will overlook things like window/blinds automation. Motorized shades and window coverings can add tremendous value to a home. This technology has been around for quite some time, so finding the right design is never the problem.

Additionally, the smartphone and tablets you’re using everyday are very capable machines, and they can be used as a hub for controlling various lightings and appliances. Some simple upgrades of the switches around the home can give you an incredible amount of automations.

As you gradually chip away at some of the outdated and unappealing aspects of your home, you will find that your home looks nothing like that Death Star but it does provide you with the beauty and comfort that you desire. Visit our Vancouver showroom for a demo on how a Control4 smart home (home automation system) can simplify technology throughout the home and hide electronics from view.

Discussing Home Automation Concerns

control4-home-automation
For the past decade, smart home technology has been viewed as something that only the incredibly wealthy, or incredibly technologically aware, possess. High prices, complicated installations, and intricate technology have contributed to the belief that a completely automated home was something reserved for movie superhero alter-egos of the Clark Kent variety, and millionaires. Recently, however, the rapid proliferation of mobile internet and smartphones, along with an increasing number of companies choosing to invest in more user intuitive home automation products, has made the idea of a “smart home” more attainable than ever.
So if a system is more affordable, and easily connects to products many homeowners already have, why isn’t everyone opting for a more intelligent, wireless home? We turned to social media to find the answers, and what we found, using data from
Viral Heat, was that while over 50% of Twitter users discussing home automation were entirely positive about the idea, around 25% still had concerns regarding home automation systems. The top concerns are discussed below:
Read More...

Digital Smart Homes offers Control4 Home Automation Starter Kit for under $1000

contro4-starter-kit
We are excited to announce Control4’s Home Automation Starter Kit promotion. The kit enables smart-home control in a single room with the ability to expand to a complete home system. The package enables homeowners to experience the benefits of automation for under $1,000. The Starter Kit includes the new Control4 HC-250 Controller, the brains of the system, plus a Control4 SR-250 remote, which can control all the devices in your entertainment system, plus can control movies and music, lighting, and more. Read More...

New Control4 Device - Relay & Contact Sensor

relay_contact_sensor
Axxess’s Relay & Contact Sensor shares the same form as the Multi Function Repeater. It also includes all the same functions (repeater, 3 contact sensor inputs, temperature sensor) with the addition of 3 Relay outputs. This allows you to wirelessly trigger motors to open/close garage doors and gates, raise/lower blinds or projector screens, and control many other devices that can be activated by relay output.
Read More...

New Elegant Control4 Lighting User Interface

Wait 'til You See The Advanced Scenes Lighting Agent

Released with Control4® OS 2.3, is our stunning, sleek, new User Interface for Lighting including at-a-glance intuitive navigation, with at-a-touch responsiveness, easy personalization, and the brand-new Control4 Advanced Lighting Scenes Agent to save you time in programming and integration.


2024
2023
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010