Brilliant Living and Brilliant Lighting - Home Automation, Multiroom Audio/Video, Home Cinema, Lighting and Interior Design

PICOWatt Brings Smart Grid WiFi Control to Appliances

The Tenherte PICOWatt allows any appliance plugged into it to be controlled from a computer or smartphone. It also measures the power used by the appliance, can schedule its control and cleverly can actually decide itself when best to turn it on and off.As your electricity supplier enables Smart Grid technologies you will, for example, be able to have 2-way devices like the PICOWatt 'talk' to the grid and decide the cheapest time to turn on your washing machine. The PICOwatt launches on Earth Day (22nd April) at around $80.Watch the video after the jump...
Automated Home Readers Offer from AV Jungle

New website www.avjungle.co.uk has just launched bringing home automators favourites like lighting control, HDMI over CAT5 and the Squeezebox and Sonos ranges. To celebrate the opening they are offering a 5% discount for all Automated Home readers during March and April - just enter 'Automated Home' at the checkout...
Streaming Your AVI & MKV Video Files to the iPad

Been wondering how you're going to be able to play all your AVI and MKV movies on your shiny new iPad next month? Here's the answer, a little £1.79 app from the iTunes store. We've confirmed with the developers of Air Video that the native iPad version is in the works, and we've tested it on the iPhone and are really impressed. Here's how it works...
AMX Control with New iRidium iPad App

Russian developers, iRidium Mobile, have just released the new version of their home automation control application. Available on a range of platforms, - most notably now the iPad too - the system can be used to control AMX, EIB/KNX, ABB, Berker, GIRA, Jung and Modbus with DALI , X10 and Domintell protocols in the works too. iRidium can also control XBMC, with support coming in the near future for Boxee, Windows Media Center and Apple TV...
Mac Home Automation on your TV with Indigo and Plex

Plex + Indigo + Harmony Remote = Home Automation Bliss Why do it? About a year ago, I decided to take the home automation plunge and sought out ways to automate my home's lighting, entertainment and HVAC systems. After doing a good deal of research, I concluded that the most cost-effective and flexible solution would be to utilitze Perceptive Automationís Indigo software and Smarthome's Insteon modules for the lighting and HVAC. Once I installed all the Insteon devices (which also included a garage door opener), I installed the Indigo software on an iMac in my study, connected the iMac to the Insteon adapter which plugs into the wall and my home automation dreams were off and running...
Clipsal C-Bus Wiser Review

Clipsal have recently unleashed the new CBUS Wiser unit which appears to offer a great deal of potential to home automaters with CBUS to expand their CBUS network with logic features and an out-of-the-box touchscreen centric control system.In essence, the Wiser unit combines the functions of a couple of existing CBUS units that you may already own, and additionally adds functionality not previously available in a hardware based unit. The Wiser performs the following functions on a CBUS network...
Useful USB Port Built Into Mains Wall Socket

Maplin have just introduced a new UK 13A mains wall socket with built-in USB. The £14.99 device should help to clear up the scourge of the dreaded wall wart that scars the walls of many a room. The recent move to micro USB chargers by mobile phone manufacturers will mean you can use it for your cell phone as well as power or charge iPods, MP3 players, game consoles, digital cameras and a host of other consumer electronics. The initial design is available in a single socket format only (one each mains and USB sockets) and is un-switched. Read on for the full specs...
Project Natal Preview - Home Automation Implications?
The Gadget Show's Jason Bradbury recently attended the Microsoft hosted preview of Project Natal - the next gen gaming interface for the XBox. Watching Jason's first impressions, especially the section on walking into your lounge, being recognised and using voice control, definitely have us thinking of the Home Automation possibilities around the technology.So after xbmc will the next reason to hack your XBox be to control your entire home? Will Natal live up to the hype, or will it just be another cute gaming interface building on what the Wii started. Let us know what you think in the comments below... W81PeswSWP0
Crestron iPad App

Crestron have announced their 'Crestron Mobile' and 'Crestron Mobile Pro' apps are now ready for the iPad. The new versions will be available to run on the iPhone and iPod touch as before, with the addition of the ability to run at the iPads native resolution...
Crestron Introduces New In-Wall iPod Docking Station

Crestron have introduced the new CEN-IDOCV-DSW which combines the CEN-IDOCV Interface for Apple iPod functionality plus its tabletop dock into a single, 6 x 4 in-wall unit. This dual purpose interface and dock provide a flexible option for whole house audio and video distribution from Apple iPod, iPhone and iPod touch...