Paul’s Tech Makeover: First Steps Towards a Smart(er) Home (Premium)

It is perhaps a bit odd that I've never experimented with smart home technology. But I think I've found the right places to start with the new home we're moving to.

By way of definition, there's no one thing that turns a traditional home---a "dumb home," I guess--into a smart home. Instead, this is something that happens in degrees.

In our current home, for example, we have Smart TVs and probably a million different ways to enjoy video content. (Actually that doesn't sound that smart, does it? But then I'm working to fix this.) We have various smart speakers for music. (Also too complex; I'm working on that, too.) We have a single smart thermostat, which can be controlled via mobile app, but only because it came with a new furnace and air conditioner a few years back. And we are partially wired for Ethernet, though that happened somewhat haphazardly.

And ... that might be about it.

So now I'm looking at a variety of ways to add smarts to the new home. But as I noted in And It Just Doesn’t Work, I want to do this right, and hopefully not too many mistakes along the way. I want to ensure the greatest level of interoperability. And I want what we do to make sense, and not just be technology for technology's sake.

I've already taken a couple of steps in this direction, of course. The Google Wifi mesh network I've already installed in the new home is the foundation for many future smart home changes, and it interfaces with our Internet-only service from the cable provider.

Whether we will need to wire the home for Ethernet is, for now, an open question. The minimum there is that my primary PCs---the ones I use for podcasting, especially---need to be wired. That can happen simply by placing the cable modem and a switch in the same room as my office, perhaps. We'll see if that works out.

I've chosen Google Home as a smart controller, of sorts, and as a general personal digital assistant. Its Google Assistant is, of course, pervasive, and available everywhere. We'll have at least two Google Home appliances in the house: One in the kitchen and one in a living room/sun room that will be a sort of media room.

TV is a work in progress, but as I noted before, we have Samsung Smart TVs, and I'd like to minimize the number of devices we use with them. This will include some way to use both Chromecast and Apple's AirPlay, again for maximum interoperability. There is also ongoing work evaluating Internet-based live TV services. I'll look at YouTube TV after the move, but I've already started trialing Sony's PlayStation Vue here in Dedham, and I'm surprised by the quality and performance. This is a perfectly viable replacement for cable TV, I think. Yes, it's early.

I've been going back and forth on smart speakers. I've written in the past about the mistake I've made buying low-end Sonos speakers that don't have line-in capabilities. And I've been examining using Chromecast Audio instead. But as a reader reminded me, Sonos makes...

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