As a followup to my blog Where the Internet of Things Takes A Center Stage, I wanted to bring some perspectives from the Consumer Electronics Show to include AV/IT industry companies — Savant, Lutron, Revolve Robotics and Plantronics which involved IoT, Smart Home technology, robotics and unified communications.

Savant is a recognized leader in home control and automation.

Here is what Savant highlighted at the show:

The Savant App, a new technology that allows homeowners to control their lighting, climate, entertainment, and security system from a single, easy-to-use app. The Single App Home© offers an unparalleled level of personalization, so every user can tailor it to match the way they live and control it from their iOS or Android
device. From waking up in the morning to saying goodnight and everything in between, the Savant App lets homeowners set their homes just the way they like them.

“With the new Savant App, we’ve put powerful home control into the hands of consumers like never before” said Savant Systems CEO William Lynch. “We call it the Single App Home, and whether it’s setting the perfect environment or being more efficient with climate, sprinklers, or other systems, owning a Savant Home gives people one, easy-to-use app that allows them to get more enjoyment and peace of mind from their home.” Among the app’s unique capabilities are Savant Scenes, which allow homeowners to easily create, capture, and schedule “scenes” that incorporate multiple systems at once. When the perfect song is on, the lights are low, and everything feels right, users can capture the moment and relive it any time with just one touch. Users can also personalize settings for specific rooms and services – like scheduling the house to warm before you wake up, streaming different songs to separate rooms, or setting the lights to turn off when you’re away.

An article from Sound & Vision Savant Brings Personalization to Automation

Lutron Electronics is a leading manufacturer of energy-saving, wireless lighting controls and motorized shades, announced several new integration capabilities for its Caséta Wireless smart home system, which provides convenient control of lights, shades and thermostats anytime, from anywhere, from either a remote control or the Lutron App.

 Here is what Lutron highlighted at the show:

1. The Lutron App can now work with the Nest Learning Thermostat™. From the Lutron App, you can adjust the temperature as well as set your Nest Thermostat to Home or Away from anywhere. This functionality is available now for iOS and Android-based devices. This integration capability is available now.
2. AT&T Digital Life® customers will be able to manage their Lutron devices, such as shades through the Digital Life app. Integration with Caséta Wireless will provide Digital Life customers with new features that further enhance their security and home automation system. This integration capability will be coming soon.
3. Also coming soon, Lutron is building a Channel on IFTTT that will trigger light and shade control actions from Caséta Wireless dimmers and Serena shades.

Lutron’s Caséta® Wireless dimmers, Serena™ remote-controlled shades, Pico® remote controls, and third-party devices are connected to the Lutron App via the Lutron Smart Bridge, providing an affordable smart home solution for the do-it-yourself or do-it-for-me consumer. The Lutron App is compatible with any iOS or Android-based smart phone or tablet.

An article from EE|Times Lutron Opens to Smart Home

Revolve Robotics KUBI is a telepresence robot that makes video conferencing more engaging. You can control where you look over the web. Get up close and personal, collaborate and be involved in every detail. With full control of where you look, you can see every project from a whole new angle. Here is a video from InfoComm 2014 in Las Vegas with CEO Marcus Rosenthal:

At CES, Revolve Robotics launched KUBI Video 2.0 which allows people to touch the point that they want to focus on when video conferencing from any tablet or laptop, and the robot changes the POV for the remote caller – plus the app lets callers “teleport” from KUBI to KUBI within the organizations, letting you pop down the hall or jump around the world.

Revolve Robotics also presented a partnered solution with Plantronics. PLT Labs Wearable Concept 2 (WC2 ) incorporates an always-on low power state that enables hands-free voice commands to interface with a variety of applications and devices. In tandem integration with KUBI, head tracking in WC2 can be used to enable hands-free remote multi-media collaboration to enable a variety of use cases such as telemedicine, distance learning, and unified communications.

Plantronics — here is a statement from Cary Bran, vice president, Innovation and New Ventures prior to CES:

After a great weekend at the hackathon the PLT Labs team will be culminating our presence at the AT&T Developer Summit by sharing some new technology at the Developer Summit Expo Hall so drop by if you’re around – it’s booth #15 Also, our EVP and CTO, Joe Burton, will be taking part in the keynote address at 9:00 a.m. on the 5^th, sharing feedback on a project we’ve been working on with AT&T. He’ll also be sharing a very cool demo of how our companies have been collaboratively working together to transform the communications experience. The exact details are currently under wraps but if you follow PLT Labs or Plantronics on Twitter (@PLT Labs, @Plantronics) you can learn more day-of and of course AT&T will likely post a press release via their Twitter account (@attdeveloper).

A video from CES featuring CTO Joe Burton who discusses Plantronics collaboration with AT&T which utilizes enhanced WebRTC technology:

An article from Networkworld AT&T Launches WebRTC Support with API at CES which mentions Plantronics as a beta partner.

As my original blog had focused on the Internet of Things I thought I’d end with this video targeted to IoT as well as Smart Home technology which represented a major focus of display and discussion at this year’s CES.

As stated in my previous blog, research firm IDC has predicted that by 2020, with approximately 30 billion devices connected, IoT will be a $3 trillion industry projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13 percent. As we continue to look at trends in IoT, including smart home technology, we’ll notice continued dedicated and concerted efforts by major manufacturers like Samsung, Apple and Google. As highlighted here, companies in the AV industry like Savant and Lutron will also continue to flourish as the IoT market grows exponentially as predicted by IDC, Gartner and others. Look for more blogs on IoT, smart home as well as robotics (and of course UCC) in the AV industry to come here.