After last year’s success, BTicino, leading Legrand Group company in Italy and specialist in electrical and digital infrastructure for buildings, returns to CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, the leading international event dedicated to consumer electronics and the Smart Home world, which will take place from 7 to 10 January 2020.

This outstanding international event will provide a stage before the general public for the new Living Now series, principally its Smart and connected version, but also the new voice and digital commands for home-automation systems, with MyHOME_Up.

The integrations and interoperability with the Netatmo Smart and connected products will also be shown in the same area. Netatmo is a French company which has recently joined the Legrand Group.

We are expecting you at Las Vegas – come along and experience Smart Home for yourself!

Sands Expo Pavilion,
Level 2, Halls A – D,
Stand # 42737

BTicino and Legrand are again taking part in ISE (Integrated System Europe) to confirm their strategic approach to the IoT, through the Eliot programme and a strong focus on the System Integration world.

At the Legrand stand BTicino will focus on four themes:

–  Interoperability between the group’s connected products and solutions and third-party services, by means of the international Works with Legrand programme;
–  Smart Home by means of the new Living Now with Netatmo range, which is installed like traditional electrical infrastructure but designed to be managed by Smartphone and voice commands as well;
–  Home Automation, with the MyHOME_Up home-automation system whose integrated functions can be managed with the new 7’’ touch screen and via voice commands;
–  Audio/video applications by means of an overview of the products of the Legrand and Bticino world.

Looking forward to seeing you at the ISE RAI Amsterdam
stand C50, pavilion  2

The BTicino Living Now control with integrated vocal assistant, presented in world preview at the Las Vegas CES 2019, has been awarded the prestigious CES Innovation Award 2019 – the award which has honoured projects of excellence since 1976 – for the Smart Home category.

The new intelligent control of the Living Now family, developed by BTicino in Italy, at its Erba (CO) factory, is the first in the world with integrated vocal assistant. Equipped with Amazon Alexa technology, it is an integral part of the home electrical infrastructure. Thanks to its extreme sensitivity it can recognise sounds even at a great distance and activate all the connected functions, including lights, rolling shutters and power.

“Italian excellence in technology and design has been honoured with the CES Innovation Award 2019 given to this new intelligent control of the Living Now line”, declared Franco Villani, BTicino managing director. “We are convinced that, to make a difference in a competitive sector like ours, one must concentrate on innovation and enrich the value of the electrical system, offering the user added value in terms of functionality, information and interaction. With this new solution, Living Now confirms that
it represents for the world of electrical infrastructures the same revolution as the smartphone has represented for telecommunications”.

Sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, CES owner and organiser, the CES Innovation Awards are assigned by a jury made up of designers, engineers and representatives of technology media, which evaluates the candidates based on design, functionality, attractiveness for the consumer, planning and how the products are placed in comparison with competitors.

BTicino è al CES di Las Vegas presso gli stand:

LEGRAND
#41142 BOOTH
SANDS EXPO LEVEL 2 HALLS A-D

NETATMO
#2104, BELLINI BALLROOM
SANDS EXPO LEVEL 2

After the success of last year, BTicino, the leader of the Legrand Group in Italy and specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures, will now return to CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, the main international event dedicated to consumer electronics and to the Internet of Things, which will take place from January 8th to 11th 2019.

This important international event will be the opportunity to introduce to a large public the new Living Now ranges, and specifically its Smart and connected version developed with Netatmo, the French company recently acquired in the Legrand Group, as well as many other new products.

We look forward to meeting you at:

Sands Expo,
Level 2, Halls A-D
Stand  # 41142

For the 2nd year running, BTicino has been singled out among the “Best places to work” in Italy, this year winning first prize in the category “Electronics and Electrical engineering”.

This award is the result of a survey conducted by Panorama weekly magazine in cooperation with Statista, on a panel of 15,000 employees working in over 2,000 companies. The survey’s methodology took into account the perceptions of each company both by its own staff and in other businesses in the same industry.

“We are very proud to win this prize for the second year in succession, and especially to come out on top in our category this year. This result reflects the high degree of engagement among our teams and their strong sense of affiliation to our company”, states Lucio Tubaro, VP HR at BTicino.

Congratulations to all the people who contribute to making BTicino the company it is!

…contributing to the development, support and enhancement of the historical, artistic and natural heritage of Italy.

Specifically, BTicino forms parts of “I 200 del FAI”, a group set up in 1987 to offer strong and concrete support to the FAI mission, contributing to the implementation or financing of important restoration projects and national events.

Also thanks to our contribution, today FAI looks after 59 properties, has more than 170,000 members and involves millions of people in initiatives to learn about and safeguard the best loved places of Italy.

For BTicino collaboration with FAI is a socially responsible choice for our country, as well as representing a further confirmation of the value which our Company attributes to Corporate Social Responsibility.

The arrival of iOS 8 approximately two years ago marked the official entry of Apple in the smart home market, giving iPhone and iPad owners the possibility of managing all those intelligent devices (connected to the Wi-Fi network), such as security cameras, intelligent thermostats, radiator valves, rolling shutter motors and low consumption lamps, designed to make the home a more comfortable and intelligent place.

Let’s therefore find out what is Apple Home Kit, its purpose and how to use it.

Home Kit is a framework (meaning a group of software programs and function libraries) developed by Apple in order to allow a particular use of “smart” devices. Particular use because, as it is often the case with Apple products, the company only certifies these products after testing their functions and safety.

On the basis of Home Kit, other manufacturers are able to design and produce devices that can communicate with your iPhone/iPad and therefore also be controlled remotely.

By purchasing an Apple Home Kit certified smart product, identified by an appropriate logo, one can therefore be confident to own a device that will work with Home, the App developed by Apple to indeed manage such types of devices, and available by default on all latest generation iPhones and iPads with iOS version 10.x or higher installed.

A further advantage of this integration will be the possibility of controlling each device through Siri or, should it not be possible to use voice controls, by simple taps. For example, using Siri it will be possible to switch on the living room lights by simply saying “Hey Siri, switch on the living room lights”.

Home Kit is based on a function that Apple calls “Home Manager”, meaning a level of software abstraction where all the information of the smart devices installed in the App, their distribution and characteristics, are automatically saved and updated locally in the iPhone or iPad.

Security first of all!

Of course, operating through the Internet also entails the risk of cyber-attacks. This is why Apple certified Smart Home devices undergo a number of security checks, both in terms of their capabilities in fighting external intrusions, and privacy management.

This ensures high security levels against unauthorised intrusion attempts, for example aimed at stealing the general alarm code. For this reason, the communication protocol between Apple Home Kit and the associated devices offers end-to-end encryption of all transmitted information. The communication to the individual device must in fact travel either through an iOS device, or through iCloud. In both cases, this communication is encrypted and based on key pairs that are not readily available, but stored in a safe manner.

How is Apple Home Kit installed?

How do we add a product to Home Kit, and most of all, how is it used?

First of all, it will be necessary to install the Home application. With this application, it is possible to control the home devices through customised commands and Siri voice commands.

In order to add a device, the same must be connected to the home Wi-Fi network, after which it will simply be a case of opening the Home application and pressing “Add accessory”.

Home will then ask to enable the Bluetooth module or Wi-Fi connectivity. This is necessary, as it allows to identify the nearby device, and to add it.

As soon as the device is identified, Home will ask if you want to add the accessory. To add the device to Home Kit, it will now be necessary to enter the unique code.

It is important to remember that the code is a unique number used by the device to declare its presence to the network, in exactly the same way as when pairing the mobile phone to the car bluetooth speaker. To ensure that the code is entered correctly, it is possible to use the camera of the smartphone to read the QR Code displayed.

After completing these operations, it will be possible to add further information about the added product. For example, if the product is a thermostat, one can assign a name and associate it with a room previously created in Home.

In this way, Apple Home Kit can store all the information required to allow Home to manage the device functions.

But what smart home would it be if it could not also be controlled with Siri?

Apple digital assistant can of course be used to control the behaviour of the accessories installed in the home. It is also possible to tell Siri to command certain specific accessories in certain rooms. The simplest commands include “Switch on the living room lights” and “Set the temperature to 25°.

Although of similar sizes of normal speakers, the most modern smart speakers can communicate with home users and, most of all, execute a number of commands. After the next few months, when coming home with your hands full of shopping, all you will have to do is say “switch the lights on”. Or when leaving, it will suffice to order “shut everything” to shut rolling shutters and lights, and to lower the central heating temperature.
The first products capable of communicating with home controls are already on the market and should reach Italy during the summer months, ready for interfacing with the main manufacturers of smart home solutions, the evolution of home automation.
But what is currently on offer?
The first rumours indicate that Apple has decided to aim at its own ecosystem, the higher range. The HomePod smart speaker in fact also offers outstanding performance in terms of sound quality.
On the other hand, its competitors Google and Amazon are more oriented towards the mass market. But also other manufacturers are taking significant steps, although their strength in terms of brand is not as developed.
Google Home devices in particular have an integrated home automation support, which enables users to control intelligent home appliances with their own voice.
In May 2017 Google announced several updates to Google Home, and already has an integrated home automation support, which enables users to control intelligent home appliances with their voice.
2014 saw the birth of Alexa, a voice assistant that took the shape of Amazon Echo. A cylinder-shaped speaker with microphone. We talk and Alexa answers, interacting with its internet searches and the devices connected to Amazon Echo and the home.
Alexa performs the tasks that are typical of all voice assistants, but is also the point of connection with the Amazon store, where we now make many of our purchases.
Amazon Echo is currently not available in Italy, and Alexa only speaks English.
However, things have started. Voice assistants will have a fundamental role in pushing smart speakers. A recent worldwide study by Ovum currently sees Apple and Samsung in leading position. However, it is expected that in the next few months Google may well take over.

One of the players in the smart home could be Samsung, who has introduced its digital assistant Bixby, which can be activated using a dedicated key on the new smartphones. The arrival of the South Korean giant to the smart home market is also facilitated by its production of intelligent home appliances.

It is nowadays standard practice to say “ok Google” to ask the known search engine to help us to obtain information. In the same way, using our devices (smartphone, PC, etc.), we communicate more and more with Siri or Alexa, two of the most famous voice assistants on the market.
However, inside the home commands are still manual.
But in the next few months we will witness a revolution that will also affect the home environment, as manufacturers have already launched on the markets the first “smart speakers”. We are talking about devices as big as a normal speaker, but equipped with “artificial intelligent, capable of exploiting voice assistant capabilities. They can distinguish the voice of the owner, answer, and most of all execute a number of commands.
During the first stage, these solutions have only been used to broadcast music or give information. All this without the need of pressing buttons, perform configurations or read complex manuals. A success that has pushed manufacturers to make smart speakers communicate with intelligent home appliances, and in particular home controls: from switching on lights to closing rolling shutters, going through temperature adjustments and operating the garden watering system.
In order to achieve this, smart speakers make the most of the capabilities offered by the Cloud, where most of the intelligence can be found.
A revolution that has involved the main manufacturers of smart home solutions, who are striving to develop home automation further and further.
The most important brands have in fact undersigned a number of agreements to enable smart speakers to communicate with home devices, from thermostats to door entry systems. All this through wireless connections, and therefore without the need of installing further wiring systems when adding new functions or devices.
Market expectations are decidedly high. So much so, that according to the studies, during the next three years 40% of users will prefer to use voice assistants, rather than Apps and websites.