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As a security-conscious professional, and home automation enthusiast, I'm profoundly disappointed that HA's ultimate commercial breakthrough was accompanied by

As a security-conscious professional, and home automation enthusiast, I'm profoundly disappointed that HA's ultimate commercial breakthrough was accompanied by proprietary vendor lock-in and insecure "cloud" strings attached (looking square at you, Alexa).

dvtrn 7y ago
(looking square at you, Alexa). Not Crestron? Commercial home automation largely came on their backs long before Alexa, along with the annoying vendor exclusive peculiarities w/rt interoperability.
- orev 7y ago
  I think OPs point is the “commercial breakthrough” part. Yes, there have been home automation vendors for decades that have tried the lock-in game, but you really cannot say any of them are a huge commercial success outside of niche areas. It’s only now with devices like Alexa that people have really gotten much more into home automation.
  - dvtrn 7y ago
    but you really cannot say any of them are a huge commercial success outside of niche areas. But this is the exact point I'm making about Crestron, they are absolutely a massive commercial success in not just home automation but automated facilities and media control period. From home to college campuses to professional sports arenas. They are a massive player in that vertical.
    - orev 7y ago
      “Commercial success” in this context is home automation. The only people who have a Crestron system at home are wealthy people. That’s a niche market. When they have the same market penetration as Apple or Google do with phones, then I will agree.
      - dvtrn 7y ago
        Please pardon me, genuinely for feeling like the goalposts have been moved, on the topic, here.
JshWright 7y ago
While that's true, we've also seen huge growth in stuff like Home Assistant, which goes a long way towards returning control to the user. Home Assistant integrates with the locked-in systems where possible, but also makes it easy to integrate local-only options. It's definitely a small drop in the home automation ocean, but it's a healthy ecosystem, available to anyone that wants to use it.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
pfranz 7y ago
https://www.connectedhomeip.com/ https://www.connectedhomeip.com/ Last month Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance which includes IKEA, Samsung SmartThings, Signify (Philips Lighting) announced a new working group. Like you, I hope these things are addressed.

dvtrn 7y ago

(looking square at you, Alexa). Not Crestron? Commercial home automation largely came on their backs long before Alexa, along with the annoying vendor exclusive peculiarities w/rt interoperability.

orev 7y ago
I think OPs point is the “commercial breakthrough” part. Yes, there have been home automation vendors for decades that have tried the lock-in game, but you really cannot say any of them are a huge commercial success outside of niche areas. It’s only now with devices like Alexa that people have really gotten much more into home automation.
- dvtrn 7y ago
  but you really cannot say any of them are a huge commercial success outside of niche areas. But this is the exact point I'm making about Crestron, they are absolutely a massive commercial success in not just home automation but automated facilities and media control period. From home to college campuses to professional sports arenas. They are a massive player in that vertical.
  - orev 7y ago
    “Commercial success” in this context is home automation. The only people who have a Crestron system at home are wealthy people. That’s a niche market. When they have the same market penetration as Apple or Google do with phones, then I will agree.
    - dvtrn 7y ago
      Please pardon me, genuinely for feeling like the goalposts have been moved, on the topic, here.

JshWright 7y ago

While that's true, we've also seen huge growth in stuff like Home Assistant, which goes a long way towards returning control to the user. Home Assistant integrates with the locked-in systems where possible, but also makes it easy to integrate local-only options. It's definitely a small drop in the home automation ocean, but it's a healthy ecosystem, available to anyone that wants to use it.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

pfranz 7y ago

https://www.connectedhomeip.com/ https://www.connectedhomeip.com/ Last month Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance which includes IKEA, Samsung SmartThings, Signify (Philips Lighting) announced a new working group. Like you, I hope these things are addressed.