iconnect.ie - Home Automation Installers

1. Most people know Leviton for its electrical products, primarily for the building industry, but the company's portfolio expands well beyond that. Describe Leviton and the solutions it provides across multiple industries.

Leviton offers the most comprehensive range of solutions to meet the needs of today’s residential, commercial and industrial buildings. Leveraging more than a century of experience, Leviton helps customers create sustainable, intelligent environments through its electrical wiring devices, lighting controls, network and data center connectivity solutions, and energy management systems. From switches and receptacles, to daylight harvesting controls, networking systems, and equipment for charging electric vehicles, Leviton solutions help customers achieve savings in energy, time and cost, all while enhancing safety.

The company’s four business units – Residential, Commercial and Industrial, Lighting & Energy Solutions, and Network Solutions – are aligned with specific applications and end-user groups in mind.

2.  Provide an overview of Leviton's history and how it has helped the company evolve to a global provider of electrical wiring devices, data connectivity solutions and lighting and energy management systems for a variety of end-use markets.

Leviton was founded by Evser and Isidor Leviton in 1906 when the two opened up a small tinsmithing business producing mantle tips used for gas lighting. Soon with the introduction of Edison’s light bulb, the small family business shifted production to manufacture a single electrical product − the pull-chain lamp holder.

From its simple beginnings manufacturing one item, Leviton has evolved into one of the largest privately-held global providers of electrical wiring devices, data connectivity solutions and energy management systems. Starting from that one electrical device, Leviton has been an industry innovator churning out groundbreaking products that improve electrical safety, enhance communication, provide efficiency and cost savings and add convenience and value to our world.

Today, Leviton leads the electrical industry in providing the most comprehensive range of smart solutions with a portfolio of more than 25,000 products and 600 patents. Leviton employs more than 7,000 people and conducts sales in 80 countries.

3. How has Leviton developed companywide efforts designed to diversify its business and accelerate growth areas?

Leviton is committed to developing solutions that help customers work faster, smarter and more efficiently, as proven by some of the groundbreaking ideas the company has brought to market in recent years.

Over the past few years Leviton has made a number of fundamental changes to their business focus and operations, including development efforts designed to diversify its business and accelerate growth areas— for example, the expansion of Leviton’s complete line of Evr-Green™ commercial, residential and public electric vehicle chargers. In 2011, Leviton partnered with both Toyota and Ford to offer electric vehicle supply equipment for Toyota’s Prius Plug-In Hybrid and RAV4 EV, and Ford’s Focus Electric models.  Another pertinent example of Leviton’s commitment to both diversify and grow a new product category is Leviton’s Vizia RF+ line of wireless Z-Wave devices.   Today, the residential security industry has effectively standardized this Z-Wave technology as the de-facto standard for wirelessly incorporating lighting control and other energy management functions. Furthermore, Leviton is working closely with the industry leaders such as Honeywell Security to educate the distributor and dealer channels on these new, exciting opportunities for enabling new applications and revenue streams.   

Along with ongoing research and development, Leviton continues to grow through strategic acquisitions and partnerships that allow the company to deliver best-in-class, innovative solutions to the marketplace.

4.  Describe Leviton's commitment to help professionals and partners realize plans for smarter networks, buildings and homes.

Leviton invests in innovation to meet the evolving needs of the residential, commercial and industrial construction markets. Leviton’s commitment to helping customers and contractors enhances spaces through functionality and efficiency.

We provide industry professionals and partners with expert advice to help create custom solutions that combine the correct mix of products and programs wherever and whenever they are needed. Leviton is the smart choice for professionals that need a partner with the expertise, breadth of products and logistics infrastructure to deliver value-added solutions across a range of services and capabilities.

5. Focusing on Home Technology, what are the products and ranges of services that Leviton can provide for a homeowner or integrator?

Leviton’s residential products include everything from basic electrical products, GFCI and tamper resistant outlets, to dimmers, scene controls, home entertainment and automation products, and Connected Home products for residential networking.

Home automation has never been easier or more affordable than with Leviton’s lighting controls for residential applications. Designed to maximize comfort, convenience, security and energy efficiency, our products are stylish and easy to use. Leviton’s Vizia RF +™, a robust radio frequency system with Z-Wave technology, offers one-touch control of lights and appliances, dramatic scene transitions, timed events and many desirable options to enhance your home. Vizia RF + products adapt to your lifestyle without the need for new wiring, providing a luxurious upgrade for less than you might imagine and is compatible with Z-Wave thermostats, shade controllers, and even door locks from other leading manufacturers.

6. Same question except where does Leviton fit into the Commercial AV and Automation marketplace for business owners?

Leviton develops innovative solutions for energy management and commercial sustainability initiatives for large and small business alike. The products include self-powered, energy harvesting wireless occupancy sensors, lighting control relay systems, intelligent dimming systems and controls, and daylight harvesting systems used in green buildings around the world. In addition, Leviton sub-metering and energy management software solutions allow users to measure and monitor energy usage.  Furthermore, Leviton’s commercial and enterprise structured cabling solutions can provide the required bandwidth for the most demanding IP applications from AV to networking using category 5e, 6, or fiber optic technologies.

7. One more time --- is Leviton involved in the Alternative Energy industry both residential and commercial?

Leviton provides Alternative Energy technologies to both the residential and commercial industries.

The company offers a complete solution for residential, commercial and public plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging with the Evr-Green™ line of electrical vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).

We also recognize the great potential of utilizing solar power as a source of energy and have developed Leviton Solar, the complete home solar energy solution. Leviton Solar brings all the advantages of solar energy to your home for an immediate reduction in home energy expense and cleaner living.

8. What are some of Leviton's most recent innovations in these various industries?

To name a few− daylight harvesting technologies that keep light levels steady, while reducing energy costs; wireless lighting controls, such as LevNet RF™, that create power from the human touch; as previously mentioned, electric vehicle chargers, for commercial and residential use, providing the necessary infrastructure for plug-in vehicles; residential networking systems that make home electronics and appliances smarter and more efficient; and custom-configurable products for enterprise data centers.

About Ian

Ian Hendler is Director of Business Development for Leviton Manufacturing Company, Inc. Over the past 4 years in this role, he has provided vision in directing strategic alliances for the company and leading the growth of its connected home business and partnerships. Starting out his career in Leviton’s e-Commerce area, he developed tools and systems to support customer EDI and VMI applications. He also worked as a Pricing Administrator, Commercial Voice & Data Analyst, and Manager and then Director of Channel Development for Leviton Integrated Network and Director of Automation Products prior to assuming his current position.

Ian has a long record of service to the industry as a champion for new “smart home” technologies spanning from home automation and energy management to integrated multimedia networking.  He has led seminars and roundtables on structured cabling, home automation and residential networking at industry EHX, CEDIA, ISC, IBS and other key venues. As a sought-after commentator for books and articles on custom consumer electronics and connected home subjects, his viewpoint and perspective is featured regularly across a wide variety of industry publications.

Most recently, Ian has served as Chair for the TechHome Division, a member of its Executive Board and was awarded the CEA’s TechHome Leadership Award in March, 2009. He has also served as a principle member on the Z-Wave Alliance Board, an open consortium of over 160 manufacturers who create products and services based on the Z-Wave standard.

Ian has earned distinction from Custom Retailer Magazine both a Young Turk of CE in 2010 and previously as one of the 50 most vital influencers in the custom consumer electronics industry in 2003.  He was also named by Dealerscope as one of its “40 Under 40,” which honored him as one of the best young talents in the custom consumer electronics industry in 2005.  Additionally, Ian was named in the March 2006 issue of Digital Connect magazine as one of the 2006 "Digital Dozen," a group of industry experts digital integrators should get to know. 

Ian holds a BA degree in Political Science and is a graduate of Duke University. Ian lives in New York City with his wife Debra, daughter Natasha, and son Julian.

Picture this. You installed a $100K AV and Home Automation system in a client’s house. It’s his wife’s birthday and he has a big party planned: a great opportunity to show off his new toys. He turns on the projector…nothing. Not only are his guests disappointed, but he’s embarrassed and neither you nor the manufacturer (or both) are being particularly highly spoken of at this juncture.

Picture the alternative. It’s a few days before the party; you call the client and tell him there’s a fault with a component. You’ve power cycled it, but it still seems to be problematic. From its on-board diagnostics, you’ve narrowed it down to a few possible things. You call him, roll a truck and fix the problem. Everything goes great at his wife’s party. You’re his hero for averting disaster and you’ve got referrals from him for three guests at his party.

Break fix is perhaps the worst service model a custom installer can employ. Let’s face it, you haven’t got a bunch of techs and parts sitting around just waiting for something to break, so what happens? You get a call “my so-and-so isn’t working. I paid a fortune for this system. I need someone here today”. You’ve no idea what the problem is. The client is upset and not that willing to help at this stage. You pull a tech off another job and roll a truck to try and fix the problem. After a few hours of wasted time, turns out something just needed power cycling. Now you’ve incurred the cost of an unnecessary truck roll and you’re behind schedule on the job you pulled the tech off.

Being proactive, is not only good for business, it’s good for the bottom line. If you know your client’s projector bulb is on its last legs, you can call the client, tell them, order the part and schedule a visit for the following week when someone’s working in the same neighborhood. Given this, any tool that lets you be more proactive is certainly a boon.

The invision system comprises a single appliance and a cloud-based monitoring tool. There are two versions of the appliance: the INV-APP-1000 and newer INV-APP-500 (shown below). Both are Linux based (small footprint and robust) solid state (no moving parts) appliances. The former can monitor and unlimited number of devices, whereas the latter can monitor 50.

The service department has a dashboard (as well as notifications) that shows the status of all your clients’ connected devices and any warnings in yellow and failures in red.

From the dashboard, which also runs on a Smartphone, a user can drill down to a system map and see the state of all devices:

Any node can be double-clicked to obtain node-specific information.

The system also tracks historical activity, which can be a real asset when trying to solve intermittent faults.

In a nutshell, anything connected via IP or Zigbee. Devices connected to a Home Automation system, such as Crestron, Control4, AMX, etc. can also be managed indirectly. For example a non-IP projector can report its bulb status to a Crestron system, which in turn reports that to ihiji.

Now you may be thinking that many of these components already have some kind of management/notification, so why would you need invision? The key is that invision functions as a universal portal to report on all equipment: it saves the need to have to connect to a bunch of different systems.

Two of ihiji's real strong points are very tight Control4 integration and power management systems integration. The latter allows all major systems to be monitored and rebooted via the cloud. APC recently signed a contract with ihiji to sell and support their appliances.

Two of the original founders of the company, Stuart Rench and Michael Maniscalco, are both graduates of Georgia Tech who, with third co-founder  David Rench, ran and sold a successful integration firm. Coming from an integration background gives the company a unique insight into product requirements and the life of the custom installer. To that end, they have created an extensive training and education package (including a boilerplate service contract) to help dealers learn how to sell service.

Currently, ihiji has several hundred dealers. Interested parties can find out more here.

I spoke to Jonathan Stovall from Bethesda Systems, who started using ihiji in January 2012. So far, he has installed about 20 appliances and expects to install a total of 100-150 this year. Jonathan said he has tried much more expensive systems, but none are as good as ihiji. When there is an alert on the dashboards, his service department (on-call 24/7) is notified by e-mail and text message. Being able to access the dashboard allows them to see what the issue is and take the appropriate course of action instantly.

He commented that the notifications from ihiji are much clearer than the native data he would get from various systems, as ihiji is “translating” them to something more meaningful. Even though they’ve only been using the system for a few months, it’s paying dividends: there have been several occasions where detecting the problem and remotely power cycling the equipment has prevented truck rolls. When truck rolls are required, know-before-you-go is always a great advantage.

Conclusion

For a low signup fee (contact ihiji for pricing), which includes three appliances, custom installers can offer their clients an unparalleled level of service while simultaneously reducing operating costs. Typically, ihiji appliances are sold as part of a comprehensive service agreement and can generate more additional profit with each sale.

The $199 SWP550 comprises two functions: wireless streaming of video from a PC to TV and a Wireless Motion Controller that behaves as a free space mouse.

The Wireless Motion Controller (an OEM version of the hillcrest labs Scoop remote control) consists of a USB receiver for the PC and the handheld motion controller itself.  The streaming is accomplished by a base station that connects to the TV via HDMI and has a USB port for the wireless receiver. The wireless transmitter plugs into a USB port on the PC. Warpia also provide a re-branded version of the Kylo internet browser, which is specifically designed for a lean-back experience.

The components appear to be robustly constructed. The wireless transmitter and receiver both feature swiveling USB ports, which come in handy when USB ports are too close together or one contains an extra-wide device.

Setup was a breeze: connect the base station to the TV’s HDMI input and plug in the wireless receiver; install the driver on the PC and plug in the wireless transmitter. The receiver for the wireless motion controller simply plugs in with no driver required.

My laptop automatically changed its resolution from 1920x1200 to HDTV resolution (1920x1080) and it connected to the base station without a hitch. I set the picture mode on my Kuro to dot-by-dot, which resulted in a perfect fit of image and screen. The quality of the picture was fantastic.

The documentation clearly states that the line of sight is required for video. Of course, that’s like a red rag to a bull: I had to see what happened when I lost line of sight. As expected, I lost the connection and the picture. The same wasn’t true of the wireless motion detector. Left my laptop in the dining room, cut through the corner of the kitchen to the living room, and sat on the sofa some 15 feet away and two stud walls away from my laptop. The motion sensor worked great. As long as the product is used as recommended (with line of sight communications), the video signal is maintained.

Carrying out normal day-today tasks such reading e-mails, writing documents and surfing the web all went well. Picture quality was excellent and I’d never have guessed it was a wireless solution. When I decided to test some of the advertised HD streaming videos, things weren’t so great. First thing that needs to be done for Flash content is to disable hardware acceleration. I followed the instructions here and went in search of H.264 1080p clips. I stumbled across a clip from transformers. At first pass, it looked pretty good, but after noticing some compression artifacts in other content, I went back to it and noticed the same issue around the 17 sec point (above the lamp on the right in the interior shot). The effect can be seen somewhat in the photo below.

I then tried Netflix streaming, Windows Media center and my own HD mkv files. The results were the same: anywhere there was a smooth tonal transition, there was banding in the video. The same banding didn’t show on my 17” laptop or 27” desktop display. Strangely, even the blue background in Windows Media Center contained banding, but my very similar Windows 7 desktop background did not.

I’m a convert. I was skeptical of waving the mouse about to control the mouse pointer. I’ve played Wii disc golf a few times at a friend’s house and was repeatedly frustrated about how difficult it was to pick up the disc. The motion sensor was accurate and a joy to use. The most frustrating part was the Kylo browser.

The home screen works great in a lean-back scenario. The problem is, virtually every web site you visit takes you to a normal size web pages, so it’s impossible to read. This means you have to use the wheel to zoom in. You then have to use the wheel to scroll up and down in the content. Ordinarily, this isn’t a problem; however, the zoom level goes back to normal whenever you back to the home page. This means you then have to zoom in again. When browsing web pages rapidly this becomes a problem as you are frequently using the wheel for zoom and then scroll and then scroll. You quickly end up using it in the wrong mode (at least I did). This is no fault of the hardware: simply a limitation of the Kylo browser.

With nine buttons and a scroll wheel, and full 6-axis control, it has nearly everything need…except one thing: a back button.

For desktop sharing and slide presentations the video results were great. If you’re someone who notices compression aritifacts and is annoyed by them (like me), you’re probably going to be frustrated with the video results. As for the wireless motion controller: it’s a gem. I just wish it had a back button.

I grew up during the muscle car age. It was a time when you drove the car, maneuvering the gear shift through its paces, squealing rubber in first gear, and the wind whipping your girlfriend’s hair.

Today, the car drives you. It tells you when to make a turn, keeps the vehicle’s interior at a constant temperature and responds to voice commands. We have smart cars that learn our driving habits and correct us when we make mistakes. Our vehicles are now smarter than a fifth grader.

The new automotive technology is artificial intelligence, which recognizes road patterns and solves problems as the vehicle drives itself. I am not sure that I want to just sit back and let the car interact with other traffic. Engineers are designing cars that are completely autonomous and can be driven without a human driver. Using a pair of TV cameras, a processing computer identifies obstacles in relation to your vehicle, while a problem solving computer controls the vehicle and determines the best path around the obstacles.

I’m getting ahead of myself as the engineers are not quite at the point of total vehicle control, which by the way, the engineers claim will be safer than human controlled vehicles.

One of the latest advances in vehicle safety is the Automatic Emergency Braking system, which could avoid an accident or mitigate the collision damage when an impact is unavoidable. AEB takes data from forward looking radar and video cameras to provide a real-time image of the road ahead. When the driver applies the brakes, maximum brake pressure is applied automatically. If the computer determines that the driver’s reaction is not sufficient to avoid a collision, AEB will apply maximum brake pressure to reduce the impact, while an electronic stability control system will keep the vehicle from going out of control.

A driver loses control when the vehicle goes in a direction different from the one indicated by the position of the steering wheel. Electronic stability control monitors steering wheel angle and vehicle rotation around the vehicle's vertical axis, using the steering and rotation information to detect that the vehicle is about to travel in a direction different from the one indicated by the steering wheel position. Then ESC automatically brakes the appropriate wheel to help the driver maintain control, along with reducing the engine power in some cases.

The Lane Departure Warning System offered by Citroen and other manufacturers is a major step forward in driving safety. This innovative system warns the driver if the car crosses the lane markings. A vibrating mechanism mounted in the car seat is triggered on the side corresponding to the direction of vehicle drift to alert the driver who may, for example, be feeling drowsy.

Side collision warning systems can provide an added measure of safety for turning, merging and lane changing maneuvers when a driver cannot see objects in the blind spots along the sides of his vehicle. If a vehicle is in the adjacent lane when a driver has begun a lane change or merge, the driver may not be aware of the potential hazard. Blind side collision warning systems provide advanced warning to allow additional time for a driver to react and avoid a collision. Side collision warning systems provide visual and/or audible alerts to warn drivers when objects are detected. Some systems indicate the distance from a detected object on a digital display installed in the dashboard. Visual alerts can be used with audible alerts that vary in tone and frequency as the vehicle moves closer to an object.

OnStar is a great safety feature offered by General Motors. VehSmart has developed a competitive product and added features, making it a strong competitor to OnStar. VehSmart is the provider of in-vehicle safety, security and communication services, available on all vehicles manufactured after 1997. The product is part of a developing industry, called Telematics, a rapidly growing market that combines GPS systems and communication capabilities to develop hybrid automotive navigation and communication systems. Benefits include impact notification, emergency services, roadside assistance, and concierge services. Features include speed notifications, panic stop alerts, low battery alerts, and time schedules. Virtual boundary settings set a safety zone or virtual boundary around a selected location. When the vehicle enters or leaves an active safety zone, alerts will be sent via email and/or text message. This is a great way to monitor young drivers.

­Many­ car thieves aren't after your entire car; they're after individual pieces of it. These car strippers can do a lot of their work without ever opening a door or window. And a thief armed with a tow truck can just lift your car and drag the entire thing away. Today, we have a variety of theft alarms that detect such activity. A tilt alarm will sense when your car is other than level, such as when it is attached to a tow truck. You can purchase an alarm system that plays a recorded message if someone gets too close to the vehicle, which alerts an intruder that you have an advanced alarm system, possibly preventing a thief from proceeding.

There are not many self-parking cars on the road today, but I believe this is a feature that all cars should have. Because of mall shopping, we have become used to just pulling into a parking space between two lines, which is not much of a challenge, but when faced with parallel parking on the street, many of us panic. Self-parking cars currently on the market are not completely autonomous, but they do make parallel parking much easier. The driver still regulates the speed of the vehicle by pressing and releasing the brake pedal. Once the process begins, the on-board computer system takes over the steering wheel. Self-parking systems have sensors distributed around the front and rear bumpers of the car, which act as both transmitters and receivers. The car detects the other parked cars, the size of the parking space and the distance to the curb, then steers it into the space.

In the near future, most cars will be connected to the Internet, allowing your car to take advantage of voice-recognition software to use specially designed applications that allow drivers and passengers to listen to Internet music via Pandora and keep in touch with social networks like Twitter while on the road. If kids want to watch videos streamed from the Internet in the back seat or a passenger wants to search for the best lunch nearby, the Internet connection makes it possible. Using the same dashboard-mounted screen employed by the navigation and stereo system, the display can project two separate images in states where it is allowed with one to the driver and a different one to the passenger.

An Internet- connected car can communicate with other vehicles and the surrounding infrastructure as an active safety measure. The car will sense that the light ahead is red and that the car is going too fast to stop, the AEB will stop you from crashing into an intersection.

Contactless payment is becoming a reality with your smart phone, but in the future your car might have the same capability, such as paying tolls or parking. The best part of a connected car is that all your other mobile devices can get updated on the fly, and so will your car. The weather, the stock market, traffic conditions will all be updated on a continuous basis.

Voice control is now starting to become the primary interface in the car because it allows you to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road and focus on driving. Ford’s recognition software can recognize over 10,000 words. Voice control will be important in the safety of driving cars with sophisticated technology dashboards.

There will be smart phone apps that will control your car. As you walk towards the car, your phone will adjust the temperature, turn on Pandora and unlock the door as you step closer. What more can you ask for?

All though some of this technology has been around for some time, it is limited to certain brands and models. As the cost of this technology comes down, we will see these features not just in the luxury cars, but in every vehicle

About Len

Len started in the audio visual industry in 1975 and has contributed articles to several publications. He also writes opinion editorials for a local newspaper. He is now retired.

This article contains statements of personal opinion and comments made in good faith in the interest of the public. You should confirm all statements with the manufacturer to verify the correctness of the statements.