All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘Lighting Control’

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6 Awesome iPad and iPhone Apps for Home Automation

Posted on: 09-21-2010 in: Blog, SoundVision Guide

The iPad and iPhone are singlehandedly changing the world of home automation.  With its ease of use, popularity and unmatched usability, software developers are jumping at the opportunity to develop home control apps.  Here are a few of the very best apps we’ve found for ipad and iphone home automation.Crestron – Crestron Mobile Pro puts the critically acclaimed Crestron touchpanel user interface right on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, enabling all kinds of customizable control features.  Expect the same high level of performance you’re used to with Crestron home control, but completely mobile.DVR Remote – Forget to schedule your DVR to record your favorite show?  No problem. Set up the recording while you’re at the office, on vacation, or anywhere else. DVR Remote is designed for TiVo Series3 DVRs.   Also note that there are apps for DirecTV, DISH Network, AT&T and more.Lutron Home Control – This app allows you to interface with your RadioRa 2 lighting control system over a wifi network. Lutron also offers a Homeworks Light control app  that can connect to your Homeworks system lighting control system over WiFi, Edge or even 3G network.Sonos Controller for iPhone – This app is a full-fledged Sonos Controller that works over your home WiFi network. Simply touch the screen to pick a room, point and flick to choose a song, and hit play to enjoy.Off Remote - Off Remote is a simple app that can tell your computer to Sleep, Restart, Lock and Hibernate or turn off.  It’s designed to work  on any computer in your local network.   Great for energy management.Sherwin Williams Color Snap – This handy little app isn’t necessarily a home control app, but is very useful for the planning stages of a home theater remodel.   With Color Snap you simply snap a picture from your iPhone of a wall or decoration and the app matches the closest Sherwin Williams paint color.  From there you can create a custom color palette.If you have experience with any of these or other home automation apps please feel free to share!

The iPad and iPhone are singlehandedly changing the world of home automation. With its ease of use, popularity and unmatched usability, software developers are jumping at the opportunity to develop home control apps. Here are a few of the very best apps we’ve found for ipad and iphone home automation.

Crestron - Crestron Mobile Pro puts the critically acclaimed Crestron touchpanel user interface right on your iPhone, iPad oriPod touch, enabling all kinds of customizable control features. Expect the same high level of performance you’re used to with Crestron home control, but completely mobile.

DVR Remote – Forget to schedule your DVR to record your favorite show? No problem. Set up the recording while you’re at the office, on vacation, or anywhere else. DVR Remote is designed for TiVo Series3 DVRs. Also note that there are apps for DirecTV, DISH Network, AT&T and more.

Lutron Home Control – This app allows you to interface with your RadioRa 2 lighting control system over a wifi network. Lutron also offers a Homeworks Light control app that can connect

The iPad and iPhone are singlehandedly changing the world of home automation.  With its ease of use, popularity and unmatched usability, software developers are jumping at the opportunity to develop home control apps.  Here are a few of the very best apps we’ve found for ipad and iphone home automation.Crestron - Crestron Mobile Pro puts the critically acclaimed Crestron touchpanel user interface right on your iPhone, iPad oriPod touch, enabling all kinds of customizable control features.  Expect the same high level of performance you’re used to with Crestron home control, but completely mobile.DVR Remote – Forget to schedule your DVR to record your favorite show?  No problem. Set up the recording while you’re at the office, on vacation, or anywhere else. DVR Remote is designed for TiVo Series3 DVRs.   Also note that there are apps for DirecTV, DISH Network, AT&T and more.Lutron Home Control – This app allows you to interface with your RadioRa 2 lighting control system over a wifi network. Lutron also offers a Homeworks Light control app  that can connect to your Homeworks system lighting control system over WiFi, Edge or even 3G network.Sonos Controller for iPhone – This app is a full-fledged Sonos Controller that works over your home WiFi network. Simply touch the screen to pick a room, point and flick to choose a song, and hit play to enjoy.Off Remote - Off Remote is a simple app that lets Sleep, Restart, Lock and Hibernate or turn off any or all computers in your local network.   Great for energy managementSherwin Williams Color Snap – This handy little app isn’t necessarily a home control app, but is very useful for the planning stages of a home theater remodel.   With Color Snap you simply snap a picture from your iPhone or iPod of a wall or decorations and the app matches the closest Sherwin Williams paint color.  From there you can create a custom color palette.

to your Homeworks system lighting control system over WiFi, Edge or even 3G network.

Sonos Controller for iPhone – This app is a full-fledged Sonos Controller that works over your home WiFi network. Simply touch the screen to pick a room, point and flick to choose a song, and hit play to enjoy.

Off Remote - Off Remote is a simple app that lets Sleep, Restart, Lock and Hibernate or turn off any or all computers in your local network. Great for energy management

Sherwin Williams Color Snap – This handy little app isn’t necessarily a home control app, but is very useful for the planning stages of a home theater remodel. With Color Snap you simply snap a picture from your iPhone or iPod of a wall or decorations and the app matches the closest Sherwin Williams paint color. From there you can create a custom color palette.

TechNotes: Lighting Control Systems

Posted on: 11-18-2009 in: Blog, TechNotes

TechNotesFifty years ago, it was easy to control the lights in one of the rooms in your home. The switch on the wall controlled the one ceiling-mounted light fixture, and it was either on or off. Since that time, lighting designers and homeowners alike have discovered the benefits of layered lighting, where a given room may have multiple lights with each serving its own unique purpose. Good lighting design takes the following into consideration:

  • Ambient lighting to give the space a warm, well-lit feel
  • Task lighting for reading or to light work surfaces and tables
  • Accent lighting on artwork, sculptures and architectural details
  • Pathway lighting to ease navigation in darker areas

This layered form of lighting has made a dramatic impact on how our spaces both look and feel. But, there is a downside to all this lighting: it’s inherently difficult to control. The more lights you put in the room, the more switches must be placed on the wall–and in some cases, this can result in banks of four or six or even more switches and dimmers on the wall. In this case, you most likely spend some time flipping each switch on and off to find the right one, or you end up placing unsightly labels on the switch or dimmer to identify it out of the lineup. Not exactly an ideal solution.It doesn’t take a designer to appreciate a well-lit room, and most of us spend our time at home with the lights on than we do during the daytime. A good lighting system is one of the least expensive ways we can impact the look and feel of a space. The biggest complaint about modern lighting plans is that there are too many switches and dimmers, and since homeowners don’t know what switch controls what light, lights get left on all the time when rooms are unoccupied.

This single Lutron seeTouch keypad can replace a wall full of switches.

Lighting control allows you to replace a bank of switches with one keypad, like this seeTouch model from Lutron.

Unparalleled simplicityA lighting control system can help make your home a better place to live by giving you 1950s-style, push-button simplicity when it comes to controlling your home’s lights. Imagine being able to replace a huge bank of wall switches with one simple keypad, allowing homeowners to have customizable lighting “scenes,” one-touch recall of your favorite lighting settings, and a one-touch “off” button to turn off all lights in a space. These control systems allow you to control your lights based on your activity, not how they are wired.Energy savingsIn addition to outstanding ease of use, a lighting control system also allows you to save more energy through your lighting system than you ever thought possible. Keypads make it simple to turn off lights in areas that are unoccupied. By adding occupancy sensors to rooms, lights in unoccupied areas will turn off automatically without you having to do a thing. These systems are “smart,” meaning they know what time it is and will turn off unnecessary lighting during the day and turn on essential pathway lights automatically after sunset. We can even program a “vacation mode,” where the system recreates your daily routines, turning on and off lights around the house, giving the illusion that someone is home at all times.A lighting control system is the key to really getting the most out of your home’s lighting design, and SoundVision is the North Bay’s experts in lighting control. We have extensive experience working with a variety of Lutron lighting control products, such as HomeWorks, GRAFIK Eye, Sivoia QED shades, Maestro dimmers and more.