Neat and simple service

We are greatly enjoying giving RIBA approved CPD: "Meeting the Demand for Simple & Reliable Home Technology" which, most recently, was presented at the RIBA London Roadshow.

Perhaps surprisingly we had 78 registered attendees and presented to a packed room and our stand was well attended all day by enquiring architects from a wide range of fascinating practices.

So, many thanks to the RIBA for organising it, to The Building Centre for the venue and also to those good folks at Discount Banner Printing who whipped us up a very high quality weather-proof banner in less than 3 days. With pin-sharp graphics, sturdy eyelets and heavy duty 520gsm pvc plastic it made a nice clear back-drop.

It turns out the content took a long time! Apologies

Happily we have been very busy this summer and I have not had time to add to this section of the site but this will change in the run up to Christmas. One thing that we have been doing (beyond installing systems in Gloucestershire, Notting Hill, Devon, Berkshire, Hampstead, Kent, Kensington and elsewhere) is talking to some journalists about how household technology has changed.

I wrote a piece for Grand Designs magazine earlier in the year which gives a flavour of this change:

Every half-century a crucial technology is adopted across our nation's homes and we stand at another such threshold: the turn of the nineteenth century saw the introduction of electric light, the mid-1900s brought central heating and now it is the 'connected' home. Our modern lives mean our homes multi-task as never before: a kitchen is simultaneously a place to feed the family, somewhere to relax and also a makeshift office to bash out an email while grabbing a coffee. The data that flows round the house, from our thermostats, washing machines, TVs, computers and door entry systems forms the heart-beat of our home. Take, for example, the enormous impact connectivity can have on something as seemingly basic as your heating: you can equip your home with boiler control that allows you to turn up and down your heat, or hot water, from your computer or smartphone from anywhere in the world. Studies by the Carbon Trust have shown that premises with "well-controlled systems" can save 15-30% annually which is a significant amount in today's high-cost world. Like the best technology this aspect of the intelligent home is all about solving basic, human problems: how to save energy while you are away on holiday but come back to hot water for your kids' bath-time. Or how to keep your kitchen toasty warm but not waste money heating a guest bedroom when it won't be used for weeks. There is also a significant design impetus behind the increasing intelligence and inter-operability of systems. How often has one seen a beautiful interior blighted by a hospital beige air conditioning contoller or thermostat box? An ugly door entry handset next to a light-switch next to an alarm keypad. Integrated systems can remove the complexity and ugliness of these many differing controls and present the modern home-owner with a simple, clear control screen that incorporates all these tasks and more. Touch-screens, automated blinds, home cinemas, intelligent lighting... these used to be the preserve of the flashiest houses. Now they represent good commercial sense for homes across the country for reasons of comfort, security and energy efficiency. The 'connected home' promotes efficiency and productivity in our multi-faceted, fast-paced lives.

Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of this is the understanding that "technology" is no longer the preserve of flashy toys, the discretional spend, the nice-to-haves not must-haves. The trouble-free operation of your laptop, wifi, TV is of huge importance to our lives and this means that these are as integral to the modern home as the traditional 'cost centres' of kitchens, bathrooms, curtains and carpets.

One architectural professor used to say, "technology is the icing on the cake" but this simply isn't true anymore: it is a key ingredient and the cake simply doesn't work without it.

The Content is Coming!

Netflix has arrived! For a long time the US has been able to subscribe to the Netflix service for unlimited, all-you-can eat movie and TV show streaming. It is a digital service that grew out of a traditional postal-DVD rental business and which caused ructions when its CEO recently threatened to split the company's two arms (online and offline) so, one presumes, he could focus on the future, namely the streaming service.

It has now arrived in the UK for a fantastically small fee of £5.99 per month which allows you to log into the service from any PC, Mac, iPad or iPhone and to watch anything from their enormous back-catalog of films and TV shows.

Historically the video store was your destination if you wanted a movie for the night. Slowly Sky Box Office started to edge in and, just as long as you tuned in at the right start time and had your handy 4 digit code you could choose from as many as 4 different films per night.

Apple's iTunes store showed us a new alternative: one in which it was simple and swift to choose what you wanted to watch and to download it from the store and boom! you were up and running with a film to watch in minutes. But Netflix makes even this look ponderous. Due to some very sophisticated streaming technology the content begins to play almost instantly and the quality ramps up (to full HD in many cases) as you watch.

The library is not bang up-to-date because Netflix has chosen to have a large back catalog of slightly older content (shows from a year or so backwards) at a reasonable flat monthly rate. But this complements well the iTunes Store and the combination of the two is pretty much TV heaven. Throw in iPlayer (which looks great on the big screen if you use a Sony BluRay player) and the future is almost with us.