The smart home arrives in SA

The smart home is a wonderful vision for controlling every aspect of one’s living environment via remote control, apps and sensors. But, because it is both complex and expensive, there has been little appetite for it in South Africa.

The two main routes for smart home installation are both fraught with peril – financial and technical.

The first is to call on a specialist installation company. Surprisingly, there are many in South Africa. Google “smart home South Africa” and thousands of results appear. The problem is that, because the industry is so new, few have built up solid track records. Costs vary wildly, few standards exist, and the cost of after-sales service will turn out to be more important than the upfront price.

The second route is to assemble the components of a smart home, and attempt self-installation. For the non-technical, this is often a non-starter. Not only does one need a good knowledge of Wi-Fi configuration, but also a broad understanding of the Internet of Things (IoT) – the ability for devices to sense their environment, connect to each other, and share information.

The good news, though, is that it is getting easier and more cost effective all the time.

My first efforts in this direction started a few years ago with finding smart plugs on Amazon. com. These are power adaptors that turn regular sockets into “smart sockets” by adding Wi-Fi and an on-off switch, among other things.

A smart lightbulb was sourced from Gearbest in China. At the time, these were the cheapest and most basic elements for a starter smart home environment. Via a smartphone app, the light could be switched on from the other side of the world. It sounds trivial and silly, but on such basic functions the future is slowly built.

Fast-forward a year or two, and these components are available from hundreds of outlets, they have plummeted in cost, and the range of options is bewildering.

That, of course, makes the quest even scarier. Who can be trusted for quality, fulfilment and after-sales support? Which products will be obsolete in the next year or two as technology advances even more rapidly?

These are some of the challenges that a leading South African technology distributor, Syntech, decided to address in adding smart home products to its portfolio. It selected LifeSmart, a global brand with proven expertise in both IoT and smart home products.

Equally significantly, LifeSmart combines IoT with artificial intelligence and machine learning, meaning that the devices “learn” the best ways of connecting, sharing and integrating new elements. Because they all fall under the same brand, they are designed to integrate with the LifeSmart app, which is available for Android and iOS phones, as well as Android TV.

The Smart Station connected devices include a vast range of gadgets for security, lighting and comfort. The Smart Station connects wirelessly to the devices and a home internet connection to ensure that one can control one’s home from anywhere in the world – or from inside the house.

The Cube Environmental Sensor, Spot Universal Remote Controller and Cube Clicker button can keep one’s home comfortable with different levels of automation.

The Environmental Sensor detects humidity and temperature. Thresholds can be set in the app to trigger actions when humidity or temperature go above or below a certain value.

This is where the Universal Remote Controller comes in. It is also an IR-blaster, meaning that it uses infrared signals, with unlimited capacity for remote codes, to control any device that has remote infrared functionality.

For example, if the indoor temperature rises above a certain temperature, the environmental sensor can trigger the Universal Remote Controller to turn on the air conditioner.

If that still sounds too complicated, Lifesmart offers step-by-step instructions and videos for setting up each of its devices, at https://www.ilifesmart.co.za/faqs.

Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee

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