Controls

  I find it hard to keep track of all the different ways that controls are evolving. Lately, I’ve noticed smart wall controls are getting significantly more feature-rich. A few examples are below. The Keilton+autani IWS102 & DWS102 by LiteTrace Brands Keilton+autani by LiteTrace Brands has transformed standard wall switches into intelligent control hubs that [...]

  The Association for Smarter Homes & Buildings (ASHB) surveyed 308 building owners, operators, IT leaders, and facility managers, in the US and Canada, about trends in smart buildings. The results are in ASHB’s report, 2025 Smart Building Trends & Technology Adoption. The document’s key finding is that smart building technology has moved from experimentation [...]

  Design Lights Consortium (DLC) has released the Networked Lighting Controls (NLC) Requirements V5.2 Draft 1. DLC laid out four goals for Version 5.2: Highlighting emerging capabilities in networked lighting controls. Present new system capabilities, particularly integrations with thermostats to save energy and improve building performance. Strengthening the role of NLC in energy efficiency programs [...]

  The TALQ Consortium’s latest release, version 2.7.0 of the Smart City Protocol, isn’t about any flashy new features, but rather making smart outdoor lighting systems easier to integrate, certify, and scale across vendors. For the lighting industry, the big message is that interoperability is becoming more standardized and more demanding, which should favor manufacturers [...]

  The increasing complexity of modern lighting control components, such as smart dimmers, sensors, and networked modules, is directly leading to the use of larger junction boxes. The added electronics, extra wiring for communication, and the need for heat dissipation require more volume than traditional electrical components, necessitating deeper or wider boxes: Smart switches, dimmers, [...]

  Smart homes are evolving from simple convenience systems into environments that react to human biological signals. One company, Ultrahuman, is working to fuse wearables, lab biomarkers, and home automation into a continuous health feedback loop. Ultrahuman, founded in 2019, began with an activity-tracking app and later added metabolic tracking via continuous glucose monitoring in [...]

  Randy Reid published an interesting article in EdisonReport about a conversation at Light + Building, in Frankfurt. The conversation was about whether NFC configurable drivers could be replaced with mobile app-configured drivers to eliminate the NFC programming tool, in favor of a basic smart phone or tablet running an app. While the advantage is [...]

  Matter over Thread is the combination of the Matter smart‑home standard (the “language” devices use) running on top of the Thread wireless mesh protocol (the “network” they use to talk to each other). Together, they are designed to make smart devices more interoperable, responsive, energy‑efficient, and reliable than today’s Wi‑Fi or proprietary‑hub systems. What [...]

  Home adoption of smart devices is widespread but shallow, and AI is the lowest priority feature for buyers. A Vivint study finds people want reliability, simplicity, and security more than “intelligence.” About 85% of U.S. homeowners own at least one smart home device, such as smart TVs, speakers, doorbells, outdoor cameras, or thermostats, but [...]