Smart Home Tech Review: Echo Hub, Presence Sensors, Lighting and More

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Episode Transcript (computer-generated)

Paul Spain
Hey, folks, greetings and welcome along to the New Zealand Tech Podcast. I’m your host, Paul Spain. Today I’m just going to delve into some of the smart home gadgets and technologies that I’ve been using recently. This includes the new Amazon Echo Hub, which creates, a new way of being able to control your smart home devices, potentially with a wall mounted unit that gives you that touch and voice control panel for your smart home. Also going to delve into a fairly new presence sensor in the market in New Zealand. It’s quite unique. We haven’t seen this from, from any other vendor. This is from a more obscure company, but is available locally in the New Zealand market. Also, a little bit about smart lighting and one of the newest ring doorbells that I’ve been trying out. So a big thank you to our show partners, One NZ, Spark, 2degrees HP and Gorilla Technology. First up from Amazon, the Echo Hub. Now, this is recently launched in New Zealand and also other parts of the world. And what makes it different from all the other sort of Amazon Echo devices that we’ve got around the place in terms of speakers and screens and so on, is that this is really designed to be a smart home control device first and foremost. So it’s not really, you know, geared up for you to sort of consume a lot of content and watch, you know, watch videos on or to have it playing music to you.

Paul Spain
You know, most often with an Amazon Echo, you know, it’s a voice controlled device and we’re getting it to sort of, you know, respond back to us setting alarms and things like that. But when it comes to smart home control panels, this has been an area that’s pretty expensive to get into. And the sort of devices that have been available, they’ve been around for, you know, for a long time in varying forms. I mean, I’m thinking back sort of, you know, 20 years ago where, you know, it was possible to have some of these smart control panels. You might have them in a sort of high end boardroom or, you know, a high end home where you’ve got one of these touchscreens and you can open and close blinds and turn on and off varying bits and pieces of technology. And look, the Amazon Echo hub does all of that. You can wall mount it in a particular spot or you can have it so it can sit on a table. So there’s accessories to help with that out of the box, it’s geared up for that wall mounting.

Paul Spain
But I guess what stands out is this is part of that Amazon ecosystem. It uses, of course, Alexa for its voice control, but it is very much able to be controlled as a touchscreen and is very, very good at that. So things like turning on and off lights, adjusting brightness, the varying smart home systems that you might have, I’ve got it linked up to my air conditioning, so I can adjust that. If you’ve got a security system such as things like the ring cameras and ring doorbell, those things integrate in with it. And in fact, when I plugged it in and fired it up, it brought up the four cameras at home, came straight onto the screen so you could see that, that current activity. So it gives you a really nice, you know, layout where you can, you know, tap in and control things and as well as see what’s going on. But you can, being an Echo device, you can, of course, use your voice. And so, you know, one of the things that I set up, when I set up the Amazon Echo hub was a little control device for power on a fan that I had at home.

Paul Spain
And, you know, rather than having to walk over and turn it on and off, I just put, you know, a smart power plug behind it. And then I was talking to Amazon Echo, either sort of tapping on the screen or using my voice and basically telling it to turn on or turn off the fan. And of course, we can do that across a whole wide sort of ecosystem of smart home devices now. So really for me, it sort of stands out and it gives you that sort of very, very nice and capable smart home control panel, but without breaking the bank. And it being now that capability that is much more accessible for those who are really wanting to upgrade their home or they’re doing some sort of refresh. This is the sort of thing that you can, you know, either work into your build or your renovation or you can find, you know, somewhere in an existing property to be installing, you know, one or more of these devices of the Echo hub. A couple of things of note, standard comes with a USB C power connection. You can also get an adapter to use power over Ethernet if that’s what you’ve kind of got running around your house, you’ve got Ethernet cabling and those power over Ethernet capabilities.

Paul Spain
That’s another way to make it very easy without there having to be a big plug. So that’s nice. It has built in smart home type communication capabilities that you might want today. So it communicates over Wifi, but also Zigbee matter thread, you know, Bluetooth, low energy and also connects to the Amazon sidewalk network or can share your Internet connection with that. If that’s, that’s something that you want to turn on. We won’t really delve into that today. But something worth looking up if you’re curious, this is very much that sort of dual communications capability. Use your voice or use touch.

Paul Spain
One of the recommendations with the Amazon Echo Hub is, look, if you’re wanting it to pump out music and so on, you’re probably not going to want it coming out of the little sort of speakers. It’s something, it’s really a little tablet that’s designed to be mounted somewhere. It doesn’t have great audio, you know, or even a stunning screen. It’s not designed to output that you’re really wanting to link it to other devices in your home, you know, havoc controlled aspects of your tv or your hi fi system. But as that control device, very, very good. $370. Certainly cheaper than, I guess, a current iPad. And it really is designed for that sort of mounting type situation, be it on the wall or getting a standard, you know, to put it on maybe a coffee table in the lounge and so on.

Paul Spain
So, yeah, well, worth looking at. If you’ve invested into sort of smart home system and you’re just wanting to take that a little step further, then this is a nice addition. And it means you’re not always having to go back to your smartphone for the certain things you might want to tap into. Just you, you know, opens up another mechanism through which you can control your varying automations and smart home things. And of course, you know, we talked about those smart control panels that have been around for a long time for adjusting blinds and, you know, turning on your coffee machine or whatever other, you know, bits and pieces that you want to automate. And, you know, of course it can do those sorts of things as well. So, yeah, nice capability. Nice to see Amazon sort of consistently launching really most of their products when it comes to the Echo products and the ring products now generally coming through pretty consistently into the New Zealand market and often at the same time as the rest of the world.

Paul Spain
Okay, so let’s talk around some of the sort of smart home devices that I’ve been using. And of course, these integrate well with the Amazon Echo Hub, but largely will also integrate with other systems such as what Google are doing with Google Home and also with Apple as well. So first up, this one’s interesting. The Aqara presence sensor. It’s called FP two is the model. Now, this is really, really a fascinating device because what it lets you do is if we compare it to a traditional sort of motion sensor, which just sort of tells you that somebody walked past or somebody’s moving. What the Aqara FP two does is it allows you to tell whether it’s presence in a room or not. So that’s kind of the first level and that’s how it would normally sort of interact with the Alexa world as it would be able to say, look, there’s somebody in the room or not somebody in the room.

Paul Spain
And it’s largely pretty accurate. But if you actually use the software that Aqara provide, you can go to a whole nother level. Now, it’s using millimeter wave technology, which is one of those terms we’re familiar with from the 5g mobile world. But it’s basically able to sort of map out in a room and break a room down into sort of small chunks. And it’s able to work out where people are within a room, and it’s not you, there’s no camera element, but using that technology, it can kind of map out where somebody is in a room and also be able to detect things such as are they sitting up or lying down? So you can use that to do some sort of smart things. You know, you jump into bed and hey, it can work out there’s a body there and you’re lying down. So it could turn your lights out for you. Or when you stand up in the morning, you could have the presence sensor then sort of trigger, ah, you’re up and then, you know, it’s triggering, you know, lights going on, music, whatever it is, and so on.

Paul Spain
So. And you could do those different sorts of routines potentially based on likes of time of day and whatnot. So there’s some interesting possibilities. Now, I haven’t delved in too deep on all of those possibilities. With the Aqara FP two, it is still rare as hen’s teeth, so you really have to look out to find these in New Zealand at the moment. But I was very pleased to get my hands on one some months ago. There are other presence sensors on the market. They tend to not have as much range, so they don’t work with rooms as large as the Aqara FP two.

Paul Spain
And their software, their own software, tends to not have the levels of smarts that the Aqara does in terms of being able to map out a room and then do sort of smart stuff based on, you know, people being present in different parts of the room and. And turning on different things based on where you might be sitting. If you’re lying, lying down on a bed or lying down on a, on a sofa or sitting at a table to have dinner and so on. So that’s really where the Aqara FP two sort of stands out as they’ve gone that next level with their own software. You don’t necessarily have access to that in all of the smart home tools though, at this point. So worth being aware of another gadget look. For many years I’ve found that the Ring doorbells and their Ring video devices integrate well into a smart home, particularly with Alexa, since Amazon acquired the Ring products, so recently tried out their newest, which is the Ring battery video doorbell Pro. Big long name, but you know, basically what we have now with Ring is they’ve got across really a whole range of models of these video doorbells and from, you know, some that you’ll get for not much over the $100 price point.

Paul Spain
And they’ve also got some, you know, some cameras at that sort of price point up to the sort of $500 or more range for some of their pro products. The Ring battery video Doorbell Pro, I’ve found, works pretty well and it’s certainly a step up on some of the older devices. You’ve got what they call 1536 P HD video as well as color night vision. So a little bit of a step up in resolution and that night vision being colour rather than often they’re black and white. They’ve got what they refer to as 3d motion detection with bird’s eye view that actually uses a radar technology to more accurately do motion detection. And they’ve got things like their quick replies and audio plus that lifts the audio quality. Quick replies allows you to have convenient sort of pre recorded messages that you can send. You see somebody’s at your door, you’re not really in a position to answer it and you can have those things set up.

Paul Spain
And also being one of their higher end doorbells, it’ll work with both the sort of 2.4 GHz Wi Fi, which is is maybe a little bit more old school, but most Wifi systems will still offer that 2.4 GHz today as well as 5 GHz. So there’s some pros and cons of each there. The 2.4 GHz tends to get further, but can be lower performance. So there might be some situations where you would get a benefit of the 5g WiFi. Also, the 2.4 GHz Wi Fi is prone more to interference because there’s only a small number of channels available. And you also have that option of either hardwiring or going with the battery setup. So it comes with the battery, so it’s designed to run that way. But you can also hardwire it, I believe, which is very handy because if you’ve got a lot of motion happening around your doorway, depending on whether there’s car parks and things like that nearby, you might get a lot of activity which can run your battery down more in the two to three month direction rather than the six to twelve month direction that they often sort of indicate.

Paul Spain
So that’s certainly something to think about. So, yeah, well, worth looking at. And of course, a range of other vendors in this space of home security cameras and doorbell cameras. But of course, ring were really the one to start these video doorbell cameras. And they’ve got, I think these days, a pretty good ecosystem when it comes to the cameras, the local apps, and then that pretty slick integration now with the Amazon Echo devices, particularly those with the video screen, and even integration into the likes of your Samsung tv. I gotta say, we have that capability set up at home. And, yep, it’s not something I really find super helpful. In fact, you gotta weigh up whether it’s more annoying than not to have, you know, motions or rings kind of trigger while you’re.

Paul Spain
While you’re maybe watching tv. But in some cases, you know, it’s nice to have that deep technology sort of integration, you know, from one technology tool to another. Pricing, we’re talking about around 300 to NZd350. The prices do seem to move around a bit. As I said, ring and others certainly have a mix of price points that are covered. To get the best out of ring, you do need to be fronting up for one of their subscriptions. So that’s kind of the, that’s the, you know, I guess quite a, you know, quite a key consideration. If you’re not already in the ring ecosystem, then that, you know, might not be the track that you want to go down.

Paul Spain
They’ve got their basic subscription, which just under $5 New Zealand a month or $50 a year. Their plus subscription, $15 a month or $150 a year. And the difference between the two subscriptions is that the basic is for just one device, and you can get two of those if you’ve got two devices, but the plus subscription will cover all the devices in your home location. And also there’s a couple of other features with plus you get extended warranties on your devices, some advanced capabilities in terms of notifications and video features. Those are things definitely important to research first before you jump into sort of, you know, security cameras and video doorbell type tech, so you kind of understand how they work out. And there are some options on the market that allow you to avoid a subscription, but then there are some flip sides to that. Personally, I’ve found that the convenience of the subscriptions, good, but then there are also security considerations that your data is streaming off to a particular vendor. And I think if we look back through the history, whether it’s with ring or others, we have seen a number of situations where there have been privacy concerns raised over time.

Paul Spain
So definitely give that some thought and research, you get something that really suits what you need. Probably the thing I’ve invested most in, in my smart home would be smart lighting. And look, there’s a whole lot of different approaches you can take to smart lighting. There are budget light bulbs you can get on the likes of TMU and Aliexpress and so on online that are cheap as chips. I’ve tended to stay with the Philips Hue lighting and they’ve got some really nice product, but it is very much a premium priced product at this point in time. But it does work in well with really all of the smart home ecosystems. And you’ve got really good quality bright lights and you’ve got all sorts of, you know, fancy things, light strips and battery based little lighting modules and things like that, portable for use around the house, outdoor lighting and so on. Their ecosystem continues to get better in terms of the range of lighting, but they’re certainly not the only option in town and they are the most expensive.

Paul Spain
So yeah, with having a look, work out what you want, where the ease of use is kind of the number one thing for you, or whether it’s, you know, it’s the capabilities. And yeah, I’ve found that there really is a great choice on the market today when it comes to these sorts of things. And if you really wanted to get a smart home geared up, then, you know, maybe go and buy some of the options on the market and try them out for yourself or do a bit of research and read the reviews. Certainly the Philips hues lights, your ecosystem has improved over time, but maybe they’re getting out done in one area or another. So make your own judgment as to what you like to use. Part of the reason, probably why I’m still on the hue lights is once you get a few, if you’re using their app, which has become less relevant over time, but if you are using their app, then it’s quite convenient having all those elements together and accessible through their app. But of course, as we move into a world where all of these things talk to each other. We’re much more sort of standards based.

Paul Spain
And you don’t necessarily so much need to use the proprietary apps because so much as possible through, through the control of the likes of Amazon Eco Hub or all these other control mechanisms, voice control and so on, then the proprietary apps are over time becoming less important. Although I would say that you usually do get some specific features from those apps that are quite helpful. Well, thanks everyone for listening into the New Zealand tech podcast. Hope you really enjoyed this one. And we have some great guests coming up over the next few weeks, so definitely stay tuned to the New Zealand tech podcast. Make sure that you’re subscribed through whatever audio app you use, whether that’s Apple podcasts, Spotify and so on. Lots more to come. We are going to start touching back in with a bit more on these sort of gadget reviews from time to time.

Paul Spain
So if you’ve enjoyed hearing this content, then definitely keep in touch and let us know what other gadgets and technologies you would like to hear thoughts on and experiences on their usage. And of course, a big thank you to our show partners, One NZ, Spark, 2degrees, HP and Gorilla Technology. All right, Paul Spain signing out. See you on the next New Zealand tech podcast. The New Zealand tech podcast brought to you by Gorilla Technology, proactive and strategic IT