Light+Building  2018 sees Basalte present Ellie-- an on-wall touchpanel with Alexa integration running on Basalte Home, a newly announced KNX visualisation for iOS and Android.

Ellie is designed for installation in main living areas, where acts as a go-to point for home controls for lights, shades, scenes, music, HVAC, door phones and cameras. It features a 5.5-inch OLED touchscreen and is less than 1cm thick, with the same finishes as any Basalte design switches and sockets blending it with any décor.

Blind control maker QMotion highlights the QiS system at ISE 2018-- a two-way wireless control system for automated roller shades featuring quiet-running motorised blinds suitable for retrofit projects.

Installers can deploy a QMotion QiS system in single or multiple rooms within a property, and receive feedback on automated shade positioning for improved performance, remote monitoring and maintenance. One can group blinds for automated raising and lowering to four selected, programmable positions. Safety braking ensures blinds never pass over the top of the roller when rising, and a manual-override command allows customers to operate the blind by hand when required without damaging the mechanism inside.

Struggling British CE retailer Maplin is currently looking for a lifeline following a negative holiday shopping period-- and one potential cash source being considered is no other than smart home installation.

According to Sky News, a "2020 Vision Strategy" has Maplin fight the "hands off" likes of Amazon by taking more care of customers. Thus, it would not only sell smart home products, but also install them and offer aftercare services. Maplin believes smart home is the next big thing in the UK, with an own report stating 2017 demand for products such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home is up by 135% over 2016.

That said, Maplin's idea is hardly new-- both John Lewis and Currys offer smart home installation services. John Lewis has joined forces with local contractors to take care of installation, while Currys has own installers as part of the Knowhow team. Maplin already has an installation service, specifically a partnership with TSG taking care of Nest thermostat setup.

Crestron confirms its plans for the consumer market at ISE 2018 with a dedicated residential area-- one dedicated primarily to Pyng, the home automation system the company describes as a "full platform."

As seen at ISE, the Pyng platform now features video and audio support, meaning it can control TVs, AVRs and other video sources as well as "traditional" Crestron products and "thousands" of 3rd party devices. The number of compatible 3rd party products should increase further through the Rapid Agile Drivers (RAD) program allowing the creation of new drivers.

Pyng handles display and source control, room and source selection, volume control for groups and other rooms, video routing via DM and DM NVX series devices, audio and video grouping, user profiles and TV presets based on provider. Control comes through either iOS/Android Pyng app (as boosted with support for larger macros) and handheld remotes such as the 310 series, another ISE 2018 revelation.

Control4 shows off its latest wireless controller at ISE 2018-- the CA-1, a means for installers to provide customers with a start in home automation through lighting, temperature, control and security control.

The CA-1 features ethernet, wifi, ZigBee and serial connectivity, and leverages on the Control4 database of thousands of 3rd party devices. An optional Z-Wave module adds compatibility with Z-Wave-enabled devices such as door, window, water, flood and temperature sensors, as well as electrical outlets and dimmer outlet modules. Power over Ethernet (PoE) allows installation anywhere with a single network cable.

Matrix Labs announces the ISE 2018 debut of the Matrix Creator and Matrix Voice IoT development platforms, both means allowing installers to build custom IoT apps featuring functionality not provided by big-name control bands.

First seen at CEDIA 2017, Matrix Creator and Matrix Voice allow the fast, efficient and affordable development of simple-to-complex IoT hardware applications, opening new possibilities to European custom installers. Both run on the proprietary Matrix OS, and handle both residential and commercial automation systems.

The Matrix Creator incorporates a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA, an ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller, motion, temperature, humidity, light, ultraviolet and infrared sensor, an 8-microphone array and a 35-LED array. The board is programmable in 40 different languages and also includes integrated Z-Wave and ZigBee communications as well as a range of analogue and digital input/output interfaces.