Smarten Your Den : Top 7 Home Automation Companies in India

 India's innovative home businesses will be important in 2023 as the nation continues to grow technologically. Numerous Indian businesses are leading the way in this revolution as demand for 44 intelligent home automation solutions grows.

 

Here are seven well-known homeautomation firms in India, that you can go through:

 

1. Anusha Technovision: Hotels, residences, corporate offices, retail stores, studios, and multiplexes can all benefit from Anusha Technovision Pvt. Ltd. 's (ATPL) comprehensive, all-in-one lighting controls and complete automation systems. A single point of control for the end-user in homes, offices, and hotels across the nation is made possible by ATPL, which has offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. As a system integrator, ATPL choses its automation products from many of the reputed OEMs for various projects.

 

2. Crestron: Crestron is a well-known manufacturer of cutting-edge automation and control technologies. They provide solutions for home automation features like lighting, climate control, audio/video distribution, and security.

 

3. Honeywell: A reputable global business that provides home automation solutions is Honeywell. They offer goods including voice-activated control systems, security systems, and smart thermostats.

 

4. Siemens: A leading provider of home automation services, Siemens is a multinational technology corporation. They provide energy management systems, lighting control, and climate control.

 

5. Lutron: Lutron is a well-known business that specialises in solutions for lighting management and window coverings. They provide a comprehensive selection of home automation items, such as motorised window treatments and wireless lighting controls.

 

6. Leading supplier of smart home automation solutions is Control4. They provide a wide variety of goods and services for managing security, audio/video equipment, lighting, and other systems.

 

7. ABB: ABB is a global company that provides electrical and automation solutions, including home automation. They offer goods for managing energy use, integrating smart homes, and controlling lighting.

 

Please note that the home automationindustry is continuously evolving, and new companies may have emerged or gained prominence since my knowledge cutoff. It's always a good idea to research and compare different companies and their offerings before making any decisions.

Versatile Automation Fits Anywhere: Here's How

Automation defines the automatic control of Electrical & Electronic devices at our residences, commercials, or hospitality, etc. areas. They are connected to a centralized network and rely on the hub, which is also referred to as the controller or server. For instance, Lights, Curtains, Security Cameras, Audio Speakers, etc., can be controlled via a smart device like an iPad using the touch of fingers or through Alexa using voice commands.

 

Let's dig deeper into the flexibility Automation offers:

 

Convenient & easy to operate

By performing rote tasks automatically and interfacing multiple devices, it is possible to elevate the customer experience. Numerous smart gadgets are compatible with one another — just set up specific triggers based on your requirements. For example, the Entrance Lights turn on when we unlock the front door. Similarly, we can simply use voice commands via Alexa to operate the lights or curtains instead of using switches or bring in more natural light with motorized shading solutions.

 

Versatility for new devices and apps

 

As we all know, state-of-the-art technology is advancing day by day and interfacing present Electrical & Electronic systems is very tough but Automation systems through Lutron or Crestron have made them flexible when it comes to accommodating it with the new technology. For example, If we have to add HVAC or Security Camera system in the present set up then we can easily interface with the automation system, and also if we are planning to upgrade our lighting system, then also it is easily accessible through automation systems. Once we will become familiar with the apps or smart devices, we can tap into countless functions and cut back on the learning curve. We can seamlessly integrate multiple devices through one interface and keep upgrading as required.

 

Few installation hassles

 

One doesn't need to refurbish or redecorate the home to bring in automation. Considering the high installation costs, one can integrate home automation into different environments without burning a hole in your pocket. Automation systems can be retrofitted or installed into existing decor with relative ease. For example, the customer experience can easily be elevated with a Lutron touch panel.

 

Space-saving

 

Why clutter vertical spaces like the walls with switchboards when you have home automation? Though it doesn't eat into your square footage, one can use the wall as a backdrop of decorative accents or simply added storage like shelves. Aesthetically designed automated switches like the Palladiom Keypad fit into any space without cumbersome wires. The sleek control features multiple functions, which ups the ante of our interiors too.

 

Automation today has become seamless and sleek to fit into urban homes. With clean-lined designs, easy-to-operate interfaces, and smooth upgradation, it’s now easy to simplify automation usage for the peace and comfort of the end-user.

Contactless technology for safer built environments

In the past year, online searches for contactless products have increased by up to 2000%. As anxiety continues to spread over the outbreak of COVID-19 through contact or shared surfaces, these technologies offer a potential solution for homes, offices or any built environment that wants to reduce the risk of the viral spread. Here is a mini list of contactless technologies that are available at your disposal:

Digital Control: One of the most famous examples of contactless technology, IoT technologies, is the use of apps on your smartphones or tablets to control lighting, temperature, security, and more. This technology allows one to change the inhabited environment or access data without any external contact, eliminating physical interactions. Due to its flexible usage, you can apply this technology to almost any built space. 

Motion sensors: This technology eliminates unnecessary contact and the hassle of finding and turning the light switch on. With this technology, one minor but significant point of contact in workspaces and homes can be eliminated, reducing the potential risk of germs and diseases. Not only are we procuring safety measures, but ensuring the reduction in energy use and costs by adequate margins.

Smart bathrooms: One of the most important spaces to use contactless technology and to maintain hygienic and safer environments is a bathroom or public restrooms in workspaces and public places. Technologies such as intelligent toilets flush automatically through a timer and sensor and open and close automatically as well. Motion sensor toilets and faucets, intelligent bathroom systems have already received a spiked interest in society. 

Voice Control: Another aspect of contactless methods of interfacing with intelligent system is through the use of Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Siri etc. to achieve a change in your lighting or to change the channel on your TV or to adjust the temperature on your AC or to even open your doors.

Future of Lighting

The evolving consumer tastes are currently shaping the future of lighting, and a large amount of that is owed to the pandemic. The need to spend more time at home to work due to quarantine measures means your home must now incorporate areas of work, study, and personal activity. This will lead to a rise in the number of people adapting their home lighting systems - specifically through smart lights - to adapt to the new paradigm. 

The vast array of options smart lights provide in personal customizability is expensive. An increase in work-from-home models will be an influencing factor in their adoption, as many companies are already incorporating it to continue even after the pandemic. Studies have shown a connection between lighting types and the ability to focus, which people anecdotally associate with. In that regard office space now focuses on lighting that helps improve productivity and hence the new and increasingly popular concept of “Human Centric Lighting”. Since our body clock is governed by the secretion of hormones, which in turn takes its cue from lighting. This is why we sleep at a certain time, (night) and we are alert at other times (mornings). So the effort today is to keep the body clock in sync with nature's timings of sunrise and sunsets. Since we spend more time indoors – the indoor lighting now with the help of technology follows the color temperature of sunlight and helps maintain the body rhythm. 

Additionally, smart light systems can easily be coded and controlled from home management devices like Google Nest and Amazon Alexa devices, making them substantially easier to use. The trend towards voice commands and centralized home control has been a trendy feature in recent years and is sure to propel smart lighting to even greater popularity. 

- The piece is written by Alok Hada, Director, Anusha Technovision Pvt. Ltd.

Surpassing boundaries in age, home automation rendered comfort and convenience to a 75-year-old mother

“Why did you put this system in my room? I do not understand these 'keypads with buttons'. Please replace these with regular switches,” said my mother. 

It was 2012. We had just moved into our recently bought apartment in Noida. We had been living in an apartment in the same society for the past couple of years on rent. My wife was happy that after living on rent, we had finally bought the apartment in the same society and were no longer ‘tenants’ but ‘owners’. My kids who were in middle school were happy that they did not have to move from a society, where they had their own friends. But the challenge for me was to install an Automation system that did not require the breaking of walls and ceilings - just enable minimal work that could justify to the world and to my family that I practiced what I preached - I did want to use automation in my own home. 

After some deliberation, I managed to do that by installing a Lutron system that worked with existing switches and had a mix of on/off devices (lighting, fans, Air-conditioning, and geyser) on keypads in the bedrooms and some dimming in the living and Dining Hall. My 9-year-old son loved it. I eventually had to remove the master control from the common iPad, because in the first few days he discovered he could switch off the lights in his parent's room and his grandparent's room.

The only ones who did not like the 'system' were my parents – especially, my Mom. I asked her what exactly was bothering her in the system. “I do not understand what button does what and I do not want to complicate my life anymore,” she said. I first considered removing the system completely from her room and letting it remain in the rest of the house. 

Then, I decided to try and convince her otherwise. The first thing I did was – I engraved each button. In a few days, she had a nice-looking keypad and it had buttons that were backlit and labeled: Lights, Fan, AC, Geyser, Living, Kitchen, and Master, etc. 

The “Geyser” button caught her eye. She asked if she could honestly turn the geyser on from her bedside. It meant she didn’t have to use the step stool and a stick just to switch on the geyser. (Mind you, she is quite short!) I said yes. She told me to go on. I then explained to her she could use the “Kitchen” button to turn on kitchen lights from her keypad. This meant she did not have to walk in darkness from her bedroom to the kitchen early morning, and she liked it more.

I then told her I could also turn on the geyser and kitchen lights via a time clock and the geyser would automatically turn on/off after half an hour every morning. She seemed less averse to the idea of automation in the house now.  

3 months later, I came home to find my 10-year-old daughter showing off her Living Room Mood lighting from the remote to her friends. My Mom is talking on the phone with my sister in Jaipur telling her how convenient it is that she does not have to remember to switch on the geyser in the morning and she should try it at her home too. 

My wife- well, she says she is happy that she can just check if the kids were up by checking if the room lights were on, on her phone - not only that - she did not need to nudge me anymore to go and switch off the Ac in the kids' room after they were asleep. 

“But we could put on the timer with the AC remote too!” I exclaimed

“Yes,” she says, “I could switch off their AC (after they were asleep for a couple of hours), you see, but could not turn on their fan at the same time from here - Now I can. “ 

Well - To each - their own.

The moral of the story?

A)    Do not sell something to someone that does not work for them. I could never have convinced my mom to see the benefits of using a smartphone to turn the lights on or to use mood lighting, in her room. But the geyser on a keypad or the kitchen switch next to her – worked for her.

B)    It takes time for people to adapt to new technology or even new ideas. Be patient and ask them to do the same.

C)    Keep it simple

- The piece is written by Alok Hada, Director, Anusha Technovision Pvt. Ltd.

What a futuristic home looks like?

“The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create”- Leonard Sweet, American Theologian

People often envision their future as advanced and to be governed by technology in every sense. They want to buy and build things that lead them to the next generation and do not get obsolete. Similarly, even while designing their homes, home-owners want their residences to be exquisite and fitted with the newest fixtures and fittings in the market.

Our lives have been invaded with technology in recent times. With the inclusion of smartwatches, smartphones, automatic cars, and smart classes, it seems fitting that our homes too, are equipped with the best technology available. The next decade’s biggest trend will surely be home automation—which will help to create spaces, wherein technology will assist people in making their day-to-day living easier. 

Why home automation is the next big thing?

Human beings love technology; they like everything that makes their life easier and better. Why then, would they refrain from residing in a space, where everything is possible with a single click? A home where things are done exigently, keeping in mind their mood and preferences is surely a smart home. From adjusting lighting as per specific requirements to making sure that they don’t need to get out of the bed to draw curtains, home automation ensures that one dwells in the lap of comfort.

Home automation can seem like a costly affair; however, when weighed with the benefits that it offers, it surely comes out as a winner. A fully automatic space also means that it would lead to energy conservation and less labor. Lights adjust with the mood or as per the presence of a person. There can be automated drapes or curtains that would also adjust according to the daylight in the room.

With rapid technological changes, it is quite clear that many contemporary and modish products will be introduced in the future, to enhance the scenario of what a futuristic home would look like. Upcoming products launches would eliminate the work of humans to generate a cozy place, where everything can be customized and will be automatic.

Even today, there are houses that have automated lights, drapes, mirror TVs, etc. which add comfort to human lives. Product brands are ensuring that the products are serviced to the consumers, so that they may lead a life full of luxury or plush.

Today, the world can imagine how a fully automatic house would look like and would work- embracing aesthetics, Luxe and a feeling of being in paradise – a place where no one can resist living in.

The piece is written by Alok Hada, Director, AnushaTechnovision Pvt. Ltd.

New Trends in Home Automation

Toward the end of the year, the world wonders, “What’s next?”  The world of home automation is no different, and manufacturers have started to give us a clue about what might be coming to your home in 2024

At Anusha Technovision, we look forward to what’s on the horizon for 2024, especially in smart home automation, lighting, and voice control. We can’t wait to share these trends with you, and we hope you’ll call us to speed up your home to keep up with the dynamic year ahead.

Smart Mirrors:

The famous scene from the movie “Minority Report” where Tom Cruise’s character manipulates images on a screen with his hands is now one step closer to reality thanks to smart mirror technology. Mirrors can now display news and weather updates, show you your social media feeds, interact with other automation systems in your home and much more. Having that smart technology in your bathroom may be a little disconcerting for some, but the added convenience and sheer “wow” factor will likely persuade many people to bring these smart screens into their homes.

MORE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAPABILITIES

It may feel strange to admit, but we are firmly in the age of artificial intelligence. AI is poised to make a big impact on the world of home automation in 2024.

One major example of this trend is AI-enabled security devices. Security companies are in the process of rolling out smart door cameras with machine-learning technology. These devices will be able to identify specific faces, autonomously determine who’s at the door and then let them inside if they recognize a familiar person. There are also smart sensors with advanced AI systems that can detect fires and potential burglars as well as alert you if your carbon monoxide levels are too high

WHOLE-HOME AUTOMATION

When your whole home automation runs as scheduled, it feels as though your entire house falls at your feet and facilitates your most carefree lifestyle. If that didn’t feel seamless enough, we have heard that even accessing the technology will get progressively easier.

·       More Scheduling: How? All signs point to further automation via programming on devices — no touch necessary. If you want your lights to turn on and off at a set time each day, that is a time-event. A non-scheduled event would be lights that come on when the door to the room is opened and go off when it closes

·       5G Creeping In: 2024 might not unveil a fully capable 5G, which will nearly eliminate our reliance on Wi-Fi. But 5G, projected to emerge in the next couple years, will usher in robust, high-speed connectivity, which will enhance every area of home automation.

·       Demand for Design: We’ve also found that new tech shifts toward a more diligent focus on design, adding more hidden speakers, architectural details, smaller (or hidden) devices and fewer cords. The smart home integrators at Elevated Integration care about how design and tech integrate, an area in which we’re proud to be ahead of the curve. 

Occupany & Vacancy Sensors

Occupancy & vacancy sensors are small devices designed to detect the presence of a person in a room and accordingly adjust the physical space to the optimal state. These sensors control light, shade and temperature depending on the presence of people, time of day and general weather conditions. Not only is this unique technological invention trendy and appealing due to the lack of effort required to operate the various installments in a room but it is also an ecologically friendly and cost efficient investment.

Now let's see how these sensors have a positive impact of your finances and the environment. From a young age we are told to turn off lights and fans when we leave the room, but how many of us actually remember to do this? Now, it might seems like this is not a large enough concern for many but when we think about centrally air-conditioned spaces where we spend most of our time such as offices, malls, restaurants do you really think about asking someone to turn the temperature of the AC down or turn of the lights when you leave the bathroom? These costs that where always considered fixed are what occupancy and vacancy sensors attempt to reduce, not to mention the positive environmental impact! The occupancy and vacancy sensor can even play a impactful role in residential situations. The light sensors can prove to be crucial in housed with small children to ensure safety, during the evenings and at night, as well as responsible use of electricity. Let's admit it. Children never turn off the light! 

While Occupancy sensors have been around for some time, what has changed is the way they operate and the technology they adopt. For e.g the earlier motion sensors worked on  passive IR Technology where in a major motion was required between the various IR rays emitted by the sensor- for the sensor to detect presence. While these worked fine with places such as hallways and pantry areas, they failed where the motion was very small- such as when a person occupies the office or uses the bathroom. The latest technology sensors are able to detect even minor motion and hence will generally not turn the lights off when you are sitting still and working on your lap top (say). In fact this ability to detect even minor motion could be the main reason for pricing differences, in addition to the sensor coverage areas and the technology they use to function.

Anusha Technovision offers the Radio Power occupancy Wireless sensor through its partnership with Lutron which is equipped with the best technology within the occupancy and vacancy sensor market at the moment complete with daylight sensing ability – for homes as well as for commercial office spaces. These sensors can be stand alone or part of a larger Lighting control system. When they are part of the lighting control system they can be made intelligent  for e.g a home owner could decide that his bathroom lights should turn on every time he walks into the bath room but it should happen only at night time , and in day time he has to manually turn lights on. The sensor of course turns lights off when the bathroom is unoccupied.  “Occupancy sensors can be called the foot soldiers in the fight to conserve energy.” As per Alok Hada Director ATPL.

Voice Controlled System - Amazon Alexa (Part 2)

Contd...

So who can do all this setup for you?

It's us!  Anusha Technovison (ATPL) can configure your ALEXA with an existing home automation system. And once done, you can call for different lighting moods, play a specific channel on your TV, control your shades, turn on/off your HVAC; in simple words, control each and every thing under the system with just a mere voice command, making life simpler than ever.

We can configure each and every command as per your choice of specific words. Once you get used to the command/quirks, using ALEXA feels much more natural and responsive than speaking to a phone-based voice assistant like Apple’s Siri. As a result, you are likely to find yourself using your phone less frequently when you’re at home.  If you thought the transition from flipping light switches to pressing smartphone buttons was game-changing, then letting ALEXA control your things will be even more satisfying in a true-geek way. And after a use of one-two months, if you need any tweaks, we provide a complimentary visit for a final setup of all your ALEXA commands. Not only do we provide training to control your home but we will also teach you, how using the sound of your voice, you can use ALEXA to search the Web, create to-do shopping lists, shop online, get instant weather reports, and control popular smart-homeproducts—all while your phone stays in your pocket.

However, we firmly believe that ALEXA isn’t a comprehensive smart-home system. It won’t replace a well-programmed graphic user interface on your Ipad or iPhone, it won’t allow for complex integrations of multiple devices (“turn the lights green when rock music plays in the kitchen” is not a valid command), and it won’t always be the most practical means of interacting with your other devices. Rather, we should think of it as an interface for your smart home, that provides additional means of control and functionality that an app on your phone can’t. Which makes it an easier product to rely upon!

Voice Controlled System - Amazon Alexa (Part 1)

                                                                                               Amazon Alexa

       

We at Anusha Technovision (ATPL) always keep educating ourselves to provide our customers with the best and latest solutions. If you talk about what is the latest in the field of automation, we will introduce you to ALEXA. 

Yes, ALEXA is Amazon’s voice control system which brings the home owner, the next level of automation by providing voice control to an automated home. Alexa is meaningful for smart-home users, because it lets you control all the connected devices without having to take out your phone and launch an app. ALEXA can respond to voice commands from almost anywhere within hearing distances. And the good thing is that unlike like smart phone, there’s no activation button to press. Simply say the right word (either “Alexa,” “Echo,” “Amazon” ) followed by what you want to happen, and the task will be done—as long as it been set up properly and you are using the correct command. It lets you speak your choice of words and see them being fulfilled such as dimming your lights or playing music tracks and much more.