The perfect smart home controller exists — but you probably can’t buy it

Final week, I visited the world of the professionally put in sensible residence. That is the promised land. Every thing simply works, your voice assistant doesn’t attempt to promote you rest room paper, and you’ll management your complete residence with only one app. After all, you pay a hefty worth and have to surrender a lot of management for the privilege.

I used to be at CEDIA Expo 2022, the annual commerce present of the Customized Electronics Design and Set up Affiliation (suppose CES, however much less bizarre stuff and extra stuff you — or somebody with more cash than you — can really purchase). 

Right here, I acquired to carry the just about excellent sensible residence controller: a modern touchscreen, wrapped in a clean anodized aluminum physique with a tiny bezel and a pleasant pad to relaxation your thumb on. The Ava Distant might be the love little one of an iPhone and a Logitech Concord distant.

I say “virtually excellent,” as a result of the Ava Distant prices $1,300, is barely out there by means of customized integrators, and doesn’t make a very good AV distant as a result of it has no bodily buttons. And that’s an actual disgrace, as a result of these three issues apart, it seems like they’ve completely nailed it.

The Ava is the primary Google Licensed distant management, which implies it runs the Google Play retailer, and you’ll obtain any app on to the machine. However in contrast to a cellphone, it’s not a private machine — in order that embarrassing textual content message gained’t pop up while you hand it to your mother-in-law.

It’s like a extra superior model of the Control4 Neeo distant (it was designed by the identical individual, Raphael Oberholzer). However the Neeo solely works with Control4. The Ava can work with any ecosystem that has a suitable app within the Google Play retailer: Crestron, Roon, and different customized integrator apps, but in addition Google Dwelling, Philips Hue, Lutron, Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music, simply to call a number of. (It’s not presently suitable with Control4).

It’s a genius thought as a result of, whereas there’s a lot of discuss in regards to the ambient sensible residence and the house that is aware of what you want and does it for you seamlessly, we’re not there but. The inescapable truth is right this moment’s sensible residence has been designed to be run out of your cellphone. The producer’s app is usually the most effective interface to regulate your lights, locks, or music, however nobody needs to regulate their residence with their smartphone.

I’ve misplaced observe of the variety of occasions I’ve been sitting on the sofa, pulled out my cellphone to show off the lights as a result of I didn’t need to use voice or stand up and push a button, solely to be distracted by notifications and emerge 10 minutes later having completely forgotten what I used to be doing. Most individuals want to depart their telephones alone after they’re at residence, and that’s virtually inconceivable to do in a sensible residence. 

As I’ve written earlier than, the sensible residence wants easy, common management units that anybody in a family can use. These have to be simply accessible, simply charged, and simple to make use of by everybody, from relations to guests. 

Voice just isn’t at all times the answer; there are many occasions you don’t need to must name out to a speaker to regulate your lights (to not point out loads of occasions when it will get it incorrect). Present sensible shows lack respectable person interfaces for sensible residence management as a result of they’ve been designed to be managed by voice.

In-wall controllers such because the touchscreen Sensible Management Panel and Orro sensible switches go half option to fixing the issue, however there’s nonetheless a necessity for a distant management that sits on the espresso desk, nightstand, or kitchen counter and is simply there for residence or music management. 

Shoehorning a tool like an previous smartphone or pill into the position of a sensible residence distant doesn’t work properly as they’re designed as private units. Plus, they don’t final greater than a day without having to be plugged in (or migrating into somebody’s bed room as a private machine).

The Ava addresses virtually all of those points. Made by a Swiss-American producer specializing in audio streaming and residential management, the machine’s 2,200mAh battery ought to last as long as six days on one cost. It has a USB-C-powered magnetic charging stand designed for one-handed use, and it may be locked to at least one app when you simply need it to regulate simply your Google Dwelling or your Philips Hue lights. (It really works with the Google Play retailer, so it’s not going to be an Apple Dwelling controller, nevertheless it does work for Apple Music.) 

It additionally has a built-in microphone and speaker for voice management along with your voice assistant of selection, and to work as an intercom between rooms. There’s no lock display screen to mess with; you simply choose it as much as wake it up. With a quad-core, 2 GHz processor underneath the hood, it might probably deal with working a number of apps easily, one thing your previous repurposed smartphone or pill may not be capable of sustain with.

The one factor the Ava doesn’t have is bodily buttons, which limits its use as a distant for complicated AV setups. With the Logitech Concord gone (Logitech discontinued it final yr), there actually isn’t a common AV distant that can also management your sensible residence. Luxurious sensible residence producers corresponding to Crestron, Control4, and Savant have remotes with tactile buttons designed to regulate your sensible residence and your AV set-up. I noticed a number of on the present, and largely, they appear to be the Concord.

To be truthful, CEO and co-founder Raphael Oberholzer tells me it’s actually not designed for controlling your TV system. It’s a devoted sensible residence distant. However in case you have your AV system arrange with Crestron or Savant — which many Ava clients will, because it’s solely out there by means of customized installers — you may no less than management your AV system with their respective Android apps. However with out bodily buttons, it’s simply not the identical.

There are some AV/Good residence options for the DIY sensible residence if you’re all-in on one ecosystem — the Apple TV and its slippery distant does an okay job, so long as your TV is at all times on and also you belief Siri to get all of your voice instructions right. (Why Apple doesn’t have a local Dwelling app on the Apple TV continues to be a thriller). Amazon’s new Alexa Voice Distant Professional paired with a Hearth TV Dice has some primary sensible residence performance, with two devoted buttons that set off Alexa Routines. However neither Apple nor Amazon (and undoubtedly not Google) has nailed the “controlling my sensible residence on my TV” expertise. 

As I’ve mentioned, the sensible residence has been designed to be managed from a smartphone, and as such — when you can typically management units from totally different producers by means of one app — in lots of instances, the machine’s devoted app provides higher controls and a extra intuitive interface.

For this reason Ava’s easy answer feels prefer it may actually work. It is a vanilla distant that you simply put what it’s essential management your own home onto, whether or not you’re a Crestron integrator, somebody who runs your complete residence by means of Google Dwelling, or when you simply desire a easy touchscreen interface to take a seat by your Sonos speaker, so you do not have to tug out your cellphone each time you need to create a playlist.

The Ava isn’t the easy answer for everybody — not at that worth — nevertheless it’s an indication of what might be. That may be a moveable, touchscreen sensible residence controller for everybody in my sensible residence that’s as highly effective and as straightforward to make use of as a smartphone, however is unquestionably not my smartphone. It must have lengthy battery life and a worth level underneath $200, so I can have one in every major room of the home. And I would like it to regulate my TV, in addition to my sound system and sensible residence. Plus, it must look good sitting in its charging stand in my lounge. Is that an excessive amount of to ask?

Correction, Monday, October third, 6:30 PM: A earlier model of this text mentioned the Ava Distant works with Control4. There may be not a certified Control4 app that may be accessed by way of the AVA Distant.