Howdy!
Before we jump into the newsletter, I wanted to mention a few updates to my certified Next-Generation Smart Home Installer (NGSHI) Professional Program Training Program:
- I created a bunch of design cheat sheets to help you gather some useful information when discussing smart home requirements with an existing or potential client. This week ended up creating three cheatsheets for Lutron, Ring, and Sonos. These were all uploaded into the NGSHI toolkit section of the program.
- Also added a template proposal for smart home automation consultant and design services.
Furthermore! came across this cool statistic of the amount of money forecasted to be made from smart home install services in the coming years!
On the enrolment front, some new students joined in recent weeks; and I’ve decided to open up another small number of seats in the latest cohort, if interested send an email to gerard@smarthomeschool.com to check availability on the program.
And now back to this week’s smart home stories:
New Apple TV Spatial Audio Feature
Each week, when I scroll through the smart home news stories; and decide on what makes it through to our newsletter. Initially, I wasn’t going to mention this story but it continued to surface and decided to cover it in this newsletter edition. So, Apple is embracing spatial audio in their AirPods and the next release of tvOS. So nobody has really experienced this feature yet, except some beta users. But according to Engadget, the feature works with all of the modern audio formats ranging from 5:1 to Dolby Atmos. And apparently, when set up correctly, you will sense the filling of the entire room with audio, when watching a movie. Sounds excellent and looking forward to trying it out when it gets widely implemented.
Siri Enabled Thermostats
Here to fore; the only devices capable of acting on Siri commands were Apple devices. This has changed recently, with the announcement at WWDC that Apple will allow third-party companies to integrate their voice assistant. One company to take advantage of this newfound generosity from Apple is Ecobee. Their founder and CEO have announced that Siri support will be added to Ecobee smart thermostats later this year. It’s actually a good idea because it expands the voice control footprint of HomeKit enabled smart homes. Check out this article for some more info.
This Weeks Blog Post
Homeowners have in recent years opted to use technology to control systems at home. The process involves using Internet-connected smart devices, smartphones, and Wi-Fi to control lighting, heating, and other features in their homes. Owners of Smart homes have embraced the recent technology because it is efficient, time-saving, and convenient to use.
Smart home automation is a complicated technology to install, especially when multiple devices are integrated together. In this post, we are going to discuss how you can start a smart home automation installation service.
With its growing popularity, more people will need these services, and when the smart devices become faulty, they need repairs or replacements. Here are six key tips to starting your own full-time or indeed smart home installation business
>> Read the complete article on the blog
This Week’s Words of Wisdom 😊
Bye Smartthings Devices
This is my second week in a row chatting about SmartThings!
In the newsletter a few weeks back, we talked about SmartThing’s new app; this week let me briefly cover the demise of SmartThings hardware devices. Over the past number of months, Samsung has slowly and steadily got out of the smart home hardware business. And this strategy was confirmed this week to the ambient by Samantha Fein Osborne, Vice President of Marketing and Business Operations for Samsung SmartThings. According to Samantha, Samsung is going all-in on the new Matter protocol and is planning on doubling down on its ecosystem platform. Let’s see how it all goes and will keep you all updated when I hear some more.
Updated Echo Shows
New Amazon Echo Show smart displays have started shipping across the USA last week. And they support some cool new features. To start with there are now three new models, namely newer iterations of both Echo Show 5 and 8. And they also have a version of Show 5 that is aimed at the kid’s marketplace. Although the form factors are similar; they include some advanced hardware features:
- Improved cameras
- Enhanced processor speeds
- And some cool color options for the outside skins
The new units come packed with software tricks such as adding animations to a video call to an improved mechanism to display photos on the home screen. Enjoy the new devices, if you get a chance to pick one up.
Weekly Smart Home Voice Command! 🎤
Hey Siri, Are the lights on downstairs?
Thanks for reading. If you have colleagues, friends, or neighbors that would benefit from knowing about smart home devices, please consider sharing them.
They can sign up for the newsletter by going here.
– Gerard
CLASSIFIEDS
➤ SMART HOME IN 8 WEEKS: Smart home devices have the potential to change your life for the better. Here’s everything needed to plan, create, and start living in your own smart home in just 56 days!
➤ GET CERTIFIED: The latest and largest update to my flagship course (Learn How to Make A Living As A Smart Home Installer) titled Certified Next-Generation Smart Home Installer (NGSHI) is live with the latest cohort of students. If interested in making an extra $1K per month providing smart home automation to your clients, then be sure to join the waiting list for the next cohort.
—————
Want to reach thousands of weekly readers? Reply to this email and ask about taking out a classified ad.