Automated Home

The New Sonos CR200 Controller

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:23:42 +0100

We've just seen this first image of the new Sonos controller. The CR200 uses a touch screen and comes complete with a charging cradle. There's no word on pricing but it should be available pretty much immediately. We're also told that Sonos will be releasing a new bundle. The BU150 now changes to the BU250 which includes the CR200. There also is a slight colour change with the zoneplayers hardware to match the new controller but there are no technical changes will still be named the ZP120 ZP90.

AlertMe Launch CCTV Camera with Discount Offer

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:25:41 +0100

UK smart home security system AlertMe continue to go from strength to strength and last month secured £8M in series B funding. When we first reviewed the product in May 2008 we said it was an ideal hub for home automation and CCTV with its link to the Net. AlertMe added their SmartPlug product earlier in the year and today have announced their IP CCTV add-on for the system. The camera is a Sercomm RC8021 unit with wired Ethernet and wireless 802.11g WiFi capability too. It's VGA resolution (640x480) 30 FPS, with dual MPEG-4 and M-JPEG streaming plus support for 3GPP to mobile phones. Read on for the introductory discount offer on the new camera...

Home Automation Projects Forum Launched

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Earlier this month we had a request from a reader to setup a new forums facility for users to write up their home automation projects so others can benefit from their experience. So the Projects forum was born. To start us off there are now projects there from user jaffaon - Temperature Capture plus a two-part post on ripping / storing your DVD collection and then streaming the movies around your home. Join in and post your projects in the new forum...

Cortexa Introducing Graphite UI Plus iPhone App

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:04:30 +0100

We've been watching the Cortexa Home Automation system since 2005. Recently they have the introduced Graphite, their new GUI which will be available on their controllers from V5 on. In addition they have released an Phone app that mirrors Graphites controls. Watch the videos after the jump...

Cytech Release Free Prontoscript for Comfort

Sat, 30 May 2009 09:06:25 +0100

Cytech, creators of the Comfort smart home security system, have just released their new Prontoscript file for the Philips range of Wi-Fi universal remotes. The free download gives full keypad emulation as well as control of C-Bus, EIB / KNX and X10 with others like Z-Wave, Dynalite, Ulti promised in the future, Read on for all the details...

Tranquil BBS2 Barebones Home Media Server Review

Mon, 25 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100

After our piece on virtual home servers, here's another alternative to saving power, money and the planet whilst still serving your media around the house. The Tranquil BBS2 Barebones Home Media Server is a low power, 5 SATA bay, barebones box. Just choose your OS and apply...

How to Setup Plex Media Player - Video Tutorial

Fri, 22 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100

UK Home Automator turned podcaster, Don McAllister, is famous for his high quality video tutorials for the Mac. This week he comes back to his roots covering a true smart home application and an Automated Home favourite - Plex. Like us, Don is blown away by the OpenSource media player / library manager and the show is a great resource for anyone setting up Plex for the first time as well as showing some of the more advanced features if you are already a Plex user. Links to the 46 minute long Free HD video after the jump...

Clipsal C-Bus Wiser Home Controller

Thu, 21 May 2009 09:00:00 +0100

We've noticed through interweb chatter that Clipsal have launched an new Home Controller called Wiser . As usual we've received no press release or annoucement from Clipsal / Schneider and there appears to be no information available to the UK distributors either, but here's what we've found so far...

Linksys Home Media Hub Uses Network Magic

Thu, 21 May 2009 08:00:35 +0100

Cisco has revealed its newest versions of its Home Media Hub range that employs its Magic suite of network management software. The NMH405 enables users to access and stream digital music, photos, and videos throughout the home. It’s an intelligent storage device that aggregates media from PCs and other storage devices around the house and presents it in an easy to understand and navigate browser-based user interface. The NMH405 also features a full-color LCD Screen that displays information about your Media Hub and a 6-1 memory card reader. It’s pre-populated with a 500GB hard drive and an empty bay for end-user upgrade...

Gadget Show Reviews Philips Streamium MCI500H

Sat, 16 May 2009 10:23:53 +0100

Jon Bentley from Channel 5's Gadget Show has taken the Philips Streamium MCI500H for a test drive. The system can hold around 8,000 tracks on its own built in 160GB hard drive as well as streaming from other media sources around your home like PCs. it features both wired Ethernet and WiFi, FM and Internet Radio and a top mounted USB socket for playing from a thumb drive. The £500 system supports DRM free MP3 files, AAC and WMAs (of the non-lossless variety). Check out the video afer the jump...

SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone Reviewed

Wed, 13 May 2009 08:52:59 +0100

After many months of waiting Sling Media have just released the SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone. At £17.99 it's probably the most expensive app we've bought to date, but is it any good? Read on to find out and check out the rest of the screenshots...

Cytech Launch Upgrade Packages for Comfort

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:43:00 +0100

Cytech have just launched upgrade packages aimed at existing users of their Comfort Intelligent Home System. Users with installations using the original Comfort 1 system introduced in the UK in 1999 will be able to upgrade to Comfort 2. This brings the the new family of products that includes slave expansion modules (SEP01-M2), UCM05 (RS232, Ethernet and USB), UCMs for C-Bus, KNX/EIB, Z-Wave, HDL, GSM, CWM02 Webserver etc to all users...

Going Virtual - A Home Server Experience

Thu, 07 May 2009 10:12:14 +0100

As energy prices concentrate all our minds on saving electricity, those of us with multiple home servers are looking for ways to consolidate into fewer machines that need to be running 24/7. Now that VMWare ESXi is free, there's never been a better time to virtualise your servers. Is not all good news though, with access to certain hardware from virtual machines is still troublesome or impossible. Read on for one home automators experience moving his home into the virtual world...

GSM Auto Controls Anything From Anywhere with your Phone

Tue, 05 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100

This little beauty from GSM Auto contains a mobile phone and two 30 amp relays. Using the supplied T-Mobile SIM - (or a different SIM of your choice), the unit will work world wide with its quad-band radio. Applications include remotely controlling heating in your holiday home, lighting, access control of gates and garage doors and a million and one other things you can think of. Watch the video after the jump...

TVCatchup Launch Desktop Player

Fri, 01 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100

TV Catchup, the service which provides quality live streaming of multiple UK television channels, have just launched a stand alone desktop application to view their service. The dedicated Adobe Air app can be run on Windows, Mac OSX or Linux and replaces the need to run a browser whilst providing more functionality. See the rest of the screenshots after the jump...

The Masked Installer - Still in Love with Automation

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100

In his latest post our masked installer considers how he stays in love with automation and talks about managing the expectations of his clients. How he remotely reboots flakey set-top boxes and the state of his order book in these recession hit times...

Viewing IP CCTV Cameras on Your iPhone

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100

We love viewing our IP CCTV cameras on our iPhone, but some models don't play so nice on the Apple device. Our current favourite is the Y-Cam as it's mjpeg stream works great on the iPhone. However, there are ways of viewing your Axis, Panasonic, D-Link and other brands of cameras too on the iPhone and other mobile devices. Read on for the special URLs that may allow you to see images when you thought you couldn't..

Mac Home Automation Server Gets iPhone Control

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:41:24 +0100

Perceptive Automation today announced the release of version 4.0 of Indigo, their intelligent home control and automation server for Mac OS X. New with this release is support for Indigo Touch, a native iPhone and iPod touch application, which allows a user to control their home automation system from anywhere using WiFi, 3G, or Edge connectivity. Indigo Touch is available now as a free download from the iTunes App Store. Check out the video after the break...

Worlds First Dedicated ZigBee eCommerce Store

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:58:49 +0100

Vesternet have launched what they are describing as the worlds first dedicated ZigBee eCommerce store. With a huge range of ZigBee equipped products plus their own newly developed Zigbox Ethernet gateway and Zigbytes web-based user interface, the site is sure to be of interest to home automators. Read on for the full release...

Photos Leaked of the HP LX195 MediaSmart Server

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:45:56 +0100

Spanish site Gizmologia.com has some leaked pictures of the new HP MediaSmart Server LX190. A much smaller unit the the first MediaSmart and its speculated it may hold two, or perhaps even only one internal drive, compared with the 4-drive-bay unit...