Remotely Possible

I wish smoke alarms were sexier. Most of them are dull, white pucks that try to look as unobtrusive as possible. Even the squarish Nest Protect with the swirling perforation pattern on the cover isn’t something that most people will want to highlight as it hangs on the wall or ceiling. But there’s no doubt that smoke/carbon monoxide alarms save lives. The American Red Cross says that the organization’s Home Fire Campaign, which has “a goal to reduce fire-related deaths and injuries in the US by 25% by 2020” by getting more smoke alarms installed in more homes, has already demonstrably saved 111 lives in the short time since the program began in 2014. And since it’s recommended that you should check the working status of the smoke alarms in your home on the days when Daylight Saving Time begins and ends every year, it’s a good time to take a brief look at Roost’s brand new and—at $80 MSRP—nicely affordable RSA-400 Smart Smoke Alarm...

Slovenian company, Qubino, says the Qubino Weather Station is “the world's first Z-Wave supported weather station to collect 10 essential values: indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity, rainfall and wind direction, speed, gust, temperature and chill.” All measured data is then sent to the Z-Wave network for use by user’s control system in order to respond to changes in weather conditions as necessary.

The Qubino Weather Station’s sensors include...

Amongst the many announcements concerning Amazon Alexa integration with higher-end control systems—including Control4, Crestron, Savant, and others—one of the more exciting reveals was the news that Lutron is adding Alexa integration to its HomeWorks QS and RadioRA2 lighting control systems, providing voice-activated control of lights, shades, and temperature setting via an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, or Amazon Fire TV.

Lutron, of course, is no stranger to the voice-activated world of Amazon Alexa having introduced integration...

GoControl’s new Smart Doorbell Camera joins the growing list of retrofit-engineered smart doorbells with built-in video cameras and wireless connectivity. This model from GoControl is Wi-Fi-enabled, includes a 720p HD video camera with a 180-degree wide-angle lens, and features two-way audio enabling homeowners to have a conversation with whomever (friend or foe) is at the door.

You can always expect to find something you didn’t expect to find at CEDIA. This year, for me, it was a better mousetrap—a Z-Wave-enabled mousetrap, as a matter of fact. Dome took top honors in the unexpected category with the company’s announcement of the Mouser, “the first ever smart mouse trap…designed to humanely eliminate mice and other rodents with an electric jolt and send a notification that the trap is ready to be emptied.” No, I’m not joking. And no, it’s something that’ll actually be useful for people who suffer from an overabundance of mice...

Moulus Media Systems announced a “revolutionary media hub” that’s almost too good to be true. Imagine putting a Kaleidescape server with a Roku 4, and then wrapping the combo in a TiVo DVR—and that description still doesn’t come close to describing the Modulus M1.