INTEGRATE: Alexa smart homes

While Alexa’s late arrival in Australia has given Google Voice Assistant the lead among consumer smart speakers here, the dominance of Alexa in the US market has given it pole position as the voice assistant of choice for smart-home solutions. This was evident at the recent Integrate Expo in Darling Harbour, Sydney.

“Alexa is insane,” enthused Trevor Rooney from Crestron, whose new Pyng 2 platform aims to bring Crestron to a new level of consumer, while also incorporating Alexa’s new Crestron skills set. “The concept of being able to talk to Alexa and tell it, ‘Alexa it’s time for bed’ or ‘Alexa, good morning’ and have a number of things happen — lights all up, blinds up, or halfway, whatever you want. And it doesn’t need an integrator to do that. You set it all up, then hand the cellphone to the consumer. Whatever they want to do. It’s insane.”

One especially neat physical integration of Alexa is Origin

Acoustics’ new Valet series, which can ceiling-mount a

Dot within a speaker (right) using Origin’s patented tool-less mounting system, along with a world-first amplifier design delivering audio to eight speaker channels while also powering and listening to the Echo Dot in each zone.

Origin is distributed by www.connectedmediaaustralia.com.au