this time we talk to Richard Gunther (@richardgunther), host of the HOME: ON Podcast, a show about diy home control and automation.
Hi Richard. Can you tell us a little about your background and what brought you to the wonderful world of smart home tech and presenting the Home: On Podcast?
I’ve been pretty much of a tech geek since I was young. I remember when I was a kid my grandparents had an old X10 system from Sears to set up timers for some lights around the house. While most kids saved up for bikes and sports equipment, I spent my money on things like stereo equipment and slide and movie projectors. I remember spending all my book money for my first year of college on a first-generation CD player! As I got older, I became more interested in consumer entertainment, smart home, and kitchen tech. When blogs became a thing, I wrote about DVRs and such to an audience of…maybe dozens. A decade or so later, when I started Home: On, I’d been writing and podcasting at The digital Media zone for a few years, and I always looked for ways to talk about home automation in one of our other shows – where it didn’t really fit. eventually I decided to break it out into its own show.
After 5 years and over 100 episodes in the archives, whats been the secret of your success and what keeps you motivated?
I think our roster of guest co-hosts is what keeps the show fresh, interesting, and growing. I feel like I hit the smart home market and podcasting at just the right time. guests were curious and eager to join me at the beginning, and now the momentum of the show helps pave access to even more interesting guests. We just had Jamie Siminoff, the founder of Ring, on the show. He was on over four years ago when they were a promising start-up with one product. now they’re huge! and that just completely jazzes me – getting to talk with and share my conversations with interesting people and companies like that. Our audience is worldwide, with the largest segments from the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia. hearing from our listeners, particularly stories about how they’ve tried products we’ve discussed or learned something that helped them, is more motivating for me than anything else, though.
Can you tell us a bit about your own smart home setup?
As a blogger and reviewer in this space, you can think of my place is a bit of a Frankenstein house. It kinda drives my partner nuts. The bulk of my home runs on Insteon. I’ve used Insteon products since their introduction over a decade ago. but over the past few years, I’ve added many products, including Nest thermostats, a ring doorbell and cameras, Lutron shades, Philips hue lighting, Amazon Echo devices, and Sonos speakers. There’s a little area in my attic I affectionately refer to as Hubland, housing all of the different hubs and bridges, along with an array of network switches, to make it all work.
While the choice for diy smart home owners is bigger than ever, integration still remains a substantial issue. Do you see this improving any time soon?
It’s a mess, isn’t it? and with the GAFA players involved now, it’s getting worse, I think. Easier, perhaps, but more fractured. I was thinking of a joke the other day. Alexa, Siri, and Google’s assistant walk into a bar where Cortana and Bixby are already sitting. Cortana asks, “hey, can we talk?” “INGEN!” they all yell. I’m still working on that one, but my point is that we went from multiple “standards” (protocols, more accurately) to that plus these newer fiefdoms, all vying to be “the one system.” The same thing is now happening in the smart kitchen, too.
So if you had to bet your house on Insteon, Z-Wave, Zigbee, HomeKit or any of the other standards or frameworks emerging as a market leader, who would you back?
Since you didn’t explicitly stipulate “one,” I’m going to say Insteon and HomeKit. HomeKit, of course, is a bit of a cheat, though, because between WiFi, Bluetooth, and various bridges to other protocols, they cover the gamut. Z-Wave and Zigbee are also great, and they’ll definitely continue to grow, but the bulk of my home is already built on Insteon, and I’m not turning away from that.
What’s your opinion of Cloud based home automation services like IFTTT?
The cloud offers immense opportunity to consumers to bridge between otherwise disconnected devices and ecosystems. services like IFTTT, Stringify, and Yonomi have essentially taken the place of the hub for many people. but I’m still a proponent of local control, where possible, so I don’t ever think of going hubless. Cloud systems can still be slow and less reliable.
Will manufacturers get to grips with IoT security or is it going to remain a threat for the foreseeable future?
Security is a cat-and-mouse game with dire consequences. We’ve dealt with security issues before in databases, sales systems, and customer records. The problem is that each nEW -type IoT -enhed etablerer nye vektorer, der kan udnyttes og skal sikres. Det tager tid og ressourcer, som mange virksomheder bare ikke har. Jeg vil hævde, at nogle IoT -sikkerhedsskræk har været overdreven, hvilket typisk kræver adgang til webstedet til den angiveligt sårbare enhed. Men andre, ligesom dem, der kan udnytte producenter, installatører eller husejere dovenskab eller naivitet kan være ret alvorlig, som vi så med Mirai. Korrekt sikring af IoT kræver handling fra alle i kæden – fra designere til brugere.
Hvad er det produkt, som vi alle skal have i vores smarte hjemmeopsætning?
Jeg er en stor talsmand for den smarte termostat. Afhængig af dit hjem og livsstil kan dets værdi variere fra en dejlig bekvemmelighed eller en betydelig pengebesparelse. Selvfølgelig har programmerbare termostater eksisteret i årevis, men de fleste af dem bliver faktisk aldrig programmeret – de er klodsede og forvirrende. Noget ved deres indlæringsevne eller endda evnen til at programmere dem fra en telefon eller tablet gør dagens smarte termostater meget mere nyttige. Jeg har venner og lyttere, der rapporterer at skære deres energiregninger med så meget som $ 50/måned bare ved at flytte til en smart termostat.
Hvad er de fleste begejstrer dig om de næste 5 år for hjemmeautomatiseringsindustrien? Hvilken slags nye produktkategorier kan vi se?
To ting: For det første troede jeg aldrig, at vi ville være så langt, som vi er på stemmestyring. Takket være Amazons banebrydende bestræbelser på at bringe stemme til masserne (uanset hvad deres motivation måtte have været), bevæger hjemmesstemmekontrol sig fra science fiction til dagligdagen. Muligheden for at udnytte stemme vil sandsynligvis forbedre sig markant i løbet af de næste par år.
For det andet er jeg en stor tro på “det bevidste hjem.” Vi har allerede meget af teknologien, der kan gøre dette muligt med Bluetooth -telefoner, cams og sensorer. Det manglende stykke er billig software, der kan levere de nødvendige algoritmer og kompatible hardware for at gøre det hele muligt. Men vi er ikke så langt fra den dag, når belysning eller musik kan følge dig rundt, når du bevæger dig gennem din dag, indstillet til den passende farvetemperatur, lysstyrke og genre, afhængigt af hvor du er, hvad du laver, og hvad er klokken. Rejser til arbejde? Intet problem. Den station, du lytter til, følger dig ind i din bil, og huset sikrer sig selv, når du kører væk, da du er den sidste ud. Vi er så tæt på at gøre scener som denne til virkelighed, men der er stadig for mange variabler, for mange forskellige komponenter og for meget manuel indgriben, der kræves til, at det kan fungere. Du skal være en seriøs nørd for at drage fordel af ting som dette i dag, men dette vil komme til flere forbrugere, da virksomheder som Google skubber konvolutten på AI i hjemmet.
Endelig hvor er det bedste sted for folk at følge dit arbejde og lytte til podcasten?
Jeg udgiver Home: On and Ondored Smart Home og Digital Entertainment Articles i Digital Media Zone, som jeg hjælper med at administrere. Hjem: ON er også i alle de sædvanlige podcast -steder. Hvis du overhovedet er interesseret i Smart Kitchen Tech, bidrager jeg også lejlighedsvis til skeen.
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