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    The Smarthome Book
    The Smarthome Book
    The Smarthome Book
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    The Smarthome Book

    By Andrew Howe

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    About this ebook

    Technology is playing an increasingly more important part in our homes as well as our day to day lives. Get this simple to read guide to be introduced to structured wiring and smarthome concepts. It will not only take you through the requirements necessary to implement these upgrades but also provide a long list of inspirational and useful ideas to help make your smarthome upgrade not only a reality but fun!
    Through the chapters of this book we cover the various topics and components which will provide an insight into upgrading your home and making it smart. Considering a renovation or a new build? Then look no further, as this will detail the basics of home cinema, whole house audio and video systems, security with remote monitoring, energy efficiency and how best to set up your data network, all wrapped up in an easy to read format, with easily laid out diagrams and a glossary of terms and links at the end to further your quest.
    Consider how long people spend deciding what flooring to lay down or what tiles to place in the kitchen or bathroom. Now consider how long people spend on what type of cabling will allow them to have that cool minimalist look in their renovation! Those hidden wires, the intelligent lighting, the surround sound, the energy efficient heating. Read this book before speaking to your electrician or installer. Save yourself time and money by being prepared.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndrew Howe
    Release dateOct 31, 2018
    ISBN9780463158593
    The Smarthome Book
    Author

    Andrew Howe

    Andrew Howe was born in the UK although he has spent the most recent part of a decade living around the world, most notably 8 years in Russia and is currently residing in Vienna. Having had a successful career in investment banking, and having worked for the biggest banks in the world on trading floors from London to Moscow, he then decided to explore his creative side. Having always shared a passion for technology and photography, it was soon apparent that he would turn to both. Having sold some of his photography works he then chose to focus on writing.When not behind a keyboard, his interests include travelling, diving, the cinema as well as anything automotive.

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      Book preview

      The Smarthome Book - Andrew Howe

      Introduction

      I hope this book will show that with a modest outlay, and some foresight, you can really incorporate some cool ideas and solutions to really help that renovation make your life easier in the future, not to mention more fun. In this book, we will start with a few basics, and then go on to list and briefly explain what I think is possible and potentially a nice feature to have without breaking the bank. If you are contemplating a renovation, or looking for an excuse to strip back the plaster and refinish something, then I hope after reading this book you’ll be better equipped to tackle those projects. At the very least, I will hopefully lift the lid on some of the concepts, showing you that this stuff isn’t rocket science, and actually can be quite fun.

      I have always been interested in technology. From an early age I was one of those types that could fix things computer related by just having a play and somehow getting a feel for it. I’ve received no formal training, outside of the odd course in programming at school and a beginner’s course installing AMX (by Harman) equipment. I simply love films and music, and have always wanted to experience both in the best way possible. I remember whilst living at home with my parents, in my modest sized bedroom, barely large enough for a double bed, experiencing my first taste of home cinema. The room was small yet I had a 5.1 surround sound set up in there (around the bed) with a 36 wide screen 100Hz CRT TV at the foot of it with the rear speakers on each bedside cabinet. I will always remember the first time I played a film on the system, having bought and connected the surround sound receiver. I laid on that bed and watched Blade, the Wesley Snipes vampire film. The scene where he threw this blade-like boomerang around a room had me hooked. The sound effects blew me away. Home cinema for me then was like a drug. This resulted, many years later, with me doing away with the TV in the lounge altogether to have a permanent 108 projector screen and a high definition 3D projector. I even went so far as to screw transducers (think very slow moving speakers) to the bottom of the sofa, so that when there’s a low frequency sound effect, the actual sofa shakes. Not in a violent way, the effect is subtle, but combined with a traditional subwoofer, it’s enough to make you feel like you’re in the arena alongside Russell Crowe in Gladiator, or when it’s time for Top Gun’s Maverick to ‘turn and burn’, you and Goose are sat right in the cockpit with him. These transducers (which incidentally I’ve never seen advertised in the UK) cost me the grand total of £70 for two (enough for a big sofa) and a further £70 for the amplifier. So for £140 I have a system which physically makes me feel part of the film/show, and blows away most of the commercial cinemas I’ve ever sat in in terms of experience. The only thing is that you need to lay a couple of cables first otherwise it’s pretty messy on the lounge floor. I’ll get on to the transducers later, but the point is, with some foresight, and a small modest investment, you can get results that will blow away anyone and everyone who happens to sit on the couch. Your kids will love you for it, and you will provoke envy among your neighbours and family!

      With the progression of technology and the methods of delivering such content advancing, I began to read and explore topics around these areas. This led me to look at audio and video distribution, streaming, ripping films to servers, and then connecting computer hardware to amplifiers/receivers, which in turn had me looking at control options, and then other cool and geeky things you could do, like whole house audio, smart home control, turning lights on and off at the touch of a button on the remote control or smart phone. What struck me, was the range of options out there to suit all budgets, and the relative simplicity of it all, when these systems were broken down into their constituent parts. The second thing that struck me, was how many wires and cables were needed.

      Both my mother and sister have undergone relatively heavy renovations in their homes. Both times, the ‘geeky’ brother/son was called upon to advise and assist. In the case of my sister’s renovation she went back to brickwork and bare floors, so it was literally a blank canvas. This was a perfect opportunity for her to get everything she wanted and needed put in at once. She was able to wire the house for a complete data network, audio and video distribution, and for surround sound in the lounge. Not to mention a hidden server (backing up her computers), and a security system with cameras permanently recording and alerting her to events (during certain periods of time, like late at night or whilst the family is away from the house). Now from what I have listed above there, you’d think that this is a seriously advanced system and would have cost an arm and a leg and possibly a kidney to put in place. Not so! The main work involved laying cables and wall plates which are very slight in cost. In fact to save money, her husband and I pulled nearly all of the cables through before the electrician even came in, neatly labelling them, and tucking them out the way for me to then come back and finish off once the electrician had done his thing. The source components she already had, or chose to add after as and when she saw fit as time progressed (IP cameras, upgraded speakers, new server/NAS). The most important thing for both my mother and sister was that their homes didn’t look like a computer science student’s dorm room. All cables were to be hidden, speakers/cameras were to be discrete. Nothing running up and down the walls (it’s a pet hate of mine, when someone takes the time to mount a flat screen to the wall in an effort to look minimalistic, but then they stick on the wall directly below it a big plastic tube containing the wires, or worse still they leave the wires hanging out of the bottom of the TV set!). In the case of my Sister, we even managed to save her some money by sharing the components. In her main lounge/living room, every single component she had, whether it was a Blu-ray player, AppleTV, Satellite/Cable TV etc, was instantly shared in every room in the house. Now she only had a need for (outside of the main living room) a couple of flatscreen TVs in the master bedroom, kitchen, and Study. The total cost to have these sources shared was approx. £50-60 (HDMI splitter, and three longer than normal HDMI cables). We probably could have got away with less, but I went with heavier duty HDMI cables due to the distance, and a slightly better splitter. Out of all of her components, the Apple TV was probably the cheapest, and that cost £100+ so this worked out more economical than her getting a second one for her to play her iTunes music on the kitchen TV and now she can access everything in all rooms. Every cable is hidden, and you’d never know it’s there.

      When people decide to take on a renovation or a construction, I often see and hear people spending hours searching for the right light fitting or mirror, or making sure they have the right tiles in the bathroom, especially with more and more people becoming more design conscious thanks to the bombardment of ideas we now receive on social media. Seldom do people, at least in my experience, spend so much time on planning their data needs, or how they wish to control their homes. I have been asked to advise on so many different projects, that I decided to write a book on it. I will deal with the concepts and the ideas of what can be done, rather than spend too much time being weighed down by the specifics. The reality is that technology is moving so fast, and new products are launching all the time that by the time you read this, certain things will be outdated already, and can be done differently. I just hope I can point you in the right direction and provide some ideas or solutions that you might not have thought about before you get to the decoration phase of your renovation.

      Preface

      When you’re dealing with things on a day to day basis, you probably don’t tend to notice the change over time. If you actually stop for a minute and take a step back, you’ll notice the pace of change in technology is actually pretty staggering. Take the Apple iPhone for instance. At the time of

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