June/July 2023
ertonline.co.uk
Left: The iO1 Speaker Eaves Mounted. Below: The iO1 Hanging Pendent
Q: How do you think smart tech will develop in the near future then? AR: We’re at a place now where everything talks to everything else – and as that education process goes on I think it will trigger a real step change in the market where everyone will want the ability to integrate smart systems. There is definitely a big change ahead – we’ve seen it, we live and breathe it. There are massive advances in artificial intelligence and the way it embeds into the world of smart home. But right now, unfortunately, people don’t
The Rock Garden Speaker Q&A
Q: Where’s the smart home market at right now? Are consumers fully invested in smart tech, do you think? Amit Ravat: Only five years ago smart home technology was still quite alien to the mass population, but now it’s rapidly becoming more mainstream. Amazon introduced people to the world of smart home with the Alexa – it was a gateway product for many. With that said, up until now the industry has been a little bit disjointed; as a consumer you have to know what works with what, and that’s not always easy. But there’s a new protocol coming in called Matter – an open- source connectivity standard for smart home and IoT devices, which aims to improve their compatibility and security.
Brands need to comply with the Matter
standard to ensure their devices are compatible with smart home and voice services, such as Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant. It theoretically lets consumers buy any device and use different voice assistants to talk to it. For example, you’ll be able to buy a Matter- supported smart bulb and set it up with Apple Homekit, Google or Alexa without having to worry about compatibility. Matter will make setting up new devices faster and easier, and it’s going to make a massive difference.
Q: Do you think most consumers still need a bit more education around this topic? AR: Definitely. I think people could understand this technology more if they had it, but they also need to understand what they can have. Which sounds a bit odd, but that’s the key
ERT Editor, Jack Cheeseman, met with Amit Ravat at Lithe Audio’s HQ showroom
difference. The mass population has got an Alexa or Google to play music and turn some lights off, and they understand how it works with voice commands, but beyond that and learning how their homes could actually manage themselves is just not a point that many people are at right now. That’s the whole point of the smart home – people have to see it to believe it. We invite both retailers and consumers here to our showroom and talk them through our switches and speaker systems; when they see and hear these products in action they get ideas of how to replicate this for themselves. Then by adding heating controls, a door bell or a security system, they’ve got nearly a fully controlled smart home for not too much money.
realise what they can achieve, so a retail store is the best place to offer somebody the chance to see these things in action and they can press buttons and get involved in the controls. Electrical retailers need to embrace this change; they need to be the ones driving the evolution of the smart home for today’s consumers. They need to get stuck in or they’ll get left behind.
Q: So how do you currently work with the retail trade? AR: Our main distributor is Invision and we also work very closely with Richer Sounds; in about 15 of its stores they use our ceiling speakers, for the very reason that people can actually experience the product from the minute they set foot inside the store. Retailers are a destination for people to go
and see the products they want to buy. But some of the multiples just don’t give smart >>
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