Darryl Wilkinson

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Accessory Reviews

Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home Universal Remote Control/Automation System Review

Darryl Wilkinson | Dec 30, 2014 | 1 comments

Performance
Features
Value

PRICE $350

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Color touchscreen with vibration and gesture support
Emits IR from remote, hub, or blasters
Integrates with multiple home automation hubs
Minus
Inconsistent performance with SmartThings Hub
No remote control locator feature
Limited external IR emitter outputs

THE VERDICT
The apply named Harmony Ultimate Home Control is the ultimate home and AV controller you can buy, program, and use without the help of a professional integrator.

It was January of 2013, and Logitech, in an effort to “refocus its strategic direction,” announced it would divest itself (by end of the year) of several non-core product categories—among them speaker docks, digital video security cameras, and, notably, its Harmony activity-based universal remote controls. Unfortunately, by that time, short of the fancy installer-only control systems from the likes of URC, Control4, and others, Harmony had pretty much eliminated the competition for remote controls selling for more than $50. So a dim, non-Harmonious future looked imminent for DIY home theater enthusiasts wanting more than the standard, three-in-one, el-cheapo universal hanging on a peg at Walgreens...

CES 2016 Remotely Possible

LOKSAK’s SHIELDSAK Stops Electronic ID Thieves and Snoops

Darryl Wilkinson | Jan 08, 2016 | 0 comments

I’ve used LOKSAK’s awesome waterproof phone and tablet bags for a couple of years now, and I’m a huge fan. That’s because LOKSAK’s resealable, see-through, storage bags create a hermetic, airtight seal that prevents water from getting inside—or letting whatever is inside out—even when submerged down to 60 meters (200 ft). In addition to protecting against water, LOKSAK’s also protect against microscopic particles like dust and sand. They’re reusable and recyclable. You can make and receive phone calls while your phone is in a sealed LOKSAK, but the best feature of all is that all touchscreens work—including capacitance touch screens—inside the bag. Now LOKSAK has a new series of bags that protect against something even smaller than water molecules and microbes: RF (radio frequency) and IR (infrared).

Audio Video News

Lutron 2012 Excellence Awards

Darryl Wilkinson | Dec 27, 2012 | 0 comments

For the past nine years, Lutron Electronics has brought together a number of editors and writers in the industry to review and judge a towering stack of anonymous submissions from dealers vying to win one of the lighting control company’s annual Excellence Awards. This year, six writers/editors plus myself were locked in a room at Lutron’s Residential & Commercial Experience Center in Irvine, California, and told we couldn’t leave until—after much discussion, arguing, hair-pulling, and some brutal name-calling—we had collectively decided which projects were the most amazingly cool, excellently conceived, and beautifully implemented in their categories.

Remotely Possible

Lutron Demos Alexa Voice-Activated Lighting

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 17, 2016 | 0 comments

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...

CEDIA 2011

Lutron Pulls the Plug on Motorized Shades (And Cuts the Cost)

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 07, 2011 | 0 comments

CEDIA 2011

Lutron Pulls the Plug on Motorized Shades (And Cuts the Cost)

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 08, 2011 | 3 comments

Few home automation things – especially in a home theater – can match motorized shades for sheer (or blackout) sex appeal. Whether the shades are coming down in preparation for a movie, or going up after the movie is over, it’s difficult to avoid being mesmerized by the seemingly magical movement of the shade material. But motorized shades have traditionally had two major drawbacks: cost and installation issues (which add to the cost). Lutron’s new wireless motorized cellular shades give the treatment to expensive, difficult-to-install window treatments. The new shades are exciting for several reasons: They’re motorized! They’re affordable! They’re cordless! And I can install them myself! (Yes, I’m drooling over shades…)

Custom Installation Equipment Reviews

Lutron RadioRA 2 Home Control System

Darryl Wilkinson | Oct 07, 2011 | 3 comments

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

Price: $17,000 as tested At A Glance: Control one to 200 devices • No new wires for easy retrofits • Saves electricity and lengthens bulb life

Unless you’re one of the enlightened, you probably use the same simple lighting-control system that most everyone else in the electrified world uses—your finger. Sometimes it’s the side of your hand, or when your hands are full, a nudge with your elbow or shoulder. While the electrical hardware is reliable, this type of system is prone to user error (forgetfulness), doesn’t react quickly to changing circumstances (daytime/nighttime), and is often just damned inconvenient (you’re here, but the switch is over there). On top of all that, gangs of three, four, or more switches on the wall, no matter how fancy the wall plate, are unsightly and not especially intuitive to use when it comes to flipping the right switch to turn on the right light—especially in the dark.

Custom Installation Equipment Reviews

Lutron Sivoia Motorized Shade System

Darryl Wilkinson | Oct 04, 2012 | 0 comments

Performance
Build Quality
Value

Price: $10,000 (23 shade system) At A Glance: Up to three-year battery life • Extremely quiet operation • Simple installation

Of all the “this is the coolest damn thing I’ve ever seen” things a home theater/wholehome automation system can do, the one that is consistently the most mesmerizing, most envied, coolest “coolest damn thing” is the control of motorized window treatments. (Although it sounds like something a doctor would prescribe for sick building syndrome, window treatments is the term people in the know use for what you and I would call curtains, blinds, and shades.) If you’ve never experienced motorized shades (or drapes or blinds)—and I mean experienced in the sense that you’ve seen them in action in someone’s home and not in a too-clean-to-be-believable picture-perfect designer’s showroom or a slickly edited online video—it’s difficult to grasp the enchanted feeling and quasi-mystical pleasure that even the least gadget-savvy person can get from being in a room in which some hidden electronic sorcery conjures the shades to obediently open and close (or stop anywhere in between) on command or makes the curtains part like the Red Sea as if Moses were holding a remote control in his hand instead of a staff. Even the reticent Wizard of Oz, himself, would rush out from his hiding place behind the curtain to watch it open and close by remote control if it were motorized.

CEDIA 2017 Remotely Possible

Lutron System Makes Lighting Control More Affordable

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 09, 2017 | 0 comments

Lutron Electronics announced an addition to the company’s lighting control systems, called RA2 Select. The new system incorporates select features from Lutron’s RadioRA 2 and Caseta Wireless systems, including Lutron’s Caseta Wireless that provides wireless communication capabilities for each system...

CEDIA 2014

Lutron’s Apple Watch App, Smart Bridge Pro, and Slider-less Dimmers

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 15, 2014 | 0 comments

Lutron’s President, Michael Pessina, began the company’s CEDIA EXPO 2014 press conference by noting that this was Lutron’s 21st CEDIA attendance. Twenty years ago, lighting control mostly consisted of “lot of products hand-wired together.” Today, of course, the overwhelming trend in lighting control and home automation is to use digital, wireless products. To maintain the company’s prominence in the lighting control industry, Pessina said that Lutron spends approximately ten-percent of its sales on research and development. Almost all of that R&D, Pessina added, was in the areas of digital control and wireless connectivity. It’s one reason why there will be a Lutron Caseta Wireless lighting control app available for the Apple Watch when it becomes available in early 2015. (Lutron was even part of the Apple Watch announcement during the Keynote.)

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Darryl Wilkinson

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