CES 2016 (1 of 2): A peek into the what’s ahead in home watching

A new year means a new Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, is the world’s largest technology trade show. Thousands of vendors present their latest gadgets and technologies, and the home automation front is no exception. CES 2016 presented a solid peek into what’s in store for the connected home and therefore what is coming (and already here) for homeowners and home watchers alike.

Although writing about all the relevant home related devices and technologies that one could check out at CES would take many, many blog entries, it is worth mentioning some of the key options that were presented.

One of the home-centric announcements that is getting the most attentions is Panasonic’s Ora, their smart home integration system. According to the company, the average home has 100 ‘endpoints’ that can be connected to the Internet. That’s a lot of lighting, heating, cameras, switches, and appliances that a home could have connected to one centralized brain. Panasonic wants Ora to be that central nervous system controller regardless of the operating system each one of those endpoints uses.

The Ora software platform will allow, as Panasonic explains, “customized managed experiences”. I can see how in the future Ora, or systems like it, will have “owner away” or “owner at home” settings. This will mean new automatic setting for everything from the thermostat and the channel the TV tunes to when you turn it on all the way to the opening of the automatic shades. At he flick of a button swipe of a screen, the entire home will reset itself to operate under either one of those conditions, or any other that the homeowner can think of.

Why is any of this important? Because only a handful of companies (Apple, Panasonic, Lutron, Samsung) can make a true run at delivering the ultimate digital hub for connected homes. Home watchers of the future should start becoming familiar with the different options so they can talk intelligently about them with tech savvy clients.