Smart homes, Smarter Living-Pictostone

Wireless home automation, workings based on wi-fi services, maybe a new concept in home automation but home automation based on wire technology has been available for over 4 decades now. The Indian Home automation industry is expected to be over INR 30,000 crore by 2020 but India remains an under-served market for home automation products mainly due to high cost of products, availability of limited home automation brands and post installation service options. For a very long period, wire based Home Automation products largely remained the domain of international brands that were highly priced and these options were affordable by a very small affluent segment of the society.   Today technology, in home automation, has made possible things that were unimaginable maybe a few years back. And startups in this segment are working hard towards making this technology affordable to make it reach all homes in India. There has been a steady growth and increasing demand for home automation products from major metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru and tier I&II locations are also opening up to the acceptance of this technology. Busting Myths: There are a lot of misconceptions to the acceptance and use of this technology like:

• high power consumption
• limited service products
• time consuming installation process
• integration problems with existing devices, and
• product affordability

The new age wireless home automation technology has preceded the wire based automation products to provide a far more comprehensive service: Ease of use Devices can be controlled from your smart phone from any corner of the globe Instant access New age products provide instant access to services and can be configured through easy steps to create mood settings Affordability New age products provide possibilities to install and control few needed devices instead of requiring to automate the whole home or office units. Ease of installation New age home automation products can be easily installed by any trained electrician in a matter of few minutes, providing instant control of devices. Energy efficient products App based devices provide you the control to manage devices when not required and motion sensor based devices can be configured to automatically switch off in absence of people in the room and can also be configured to provide services when presence is detected. Integration with existing devices New age home automation products configure easily with existing products like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for further ease of use. Safety and Security Another important feature in home automation will be the safety and security feature for home protection through video surveillance that can be monitored and controlled from ant part of the globe. Primary Infrared (PIR) based motion detectors sense movement to detect presence and operate accordingly to set instructions. One of the biggest benefits with motion sensor based automation is that it can alarm on the presence of an intruder in absence of the owner. Growth of Smart Homes. The government’s vision of smart cities and push towards ‘Make in India’ can be attributed for the growth of home automation products in India. A number of technology startups working in the field of home automation are designing products that app based and are affordable by a larger section of the society. But the demand for automation devices is not limited to individual users or office units, real estate developers are also working closely with tech based startups to integrate home automation as a standard amenity in their upcoming projects. Earlier, most of the developers who were keen to deliver smart homes refrained from this practice as they did not wish to pass on the high cost of integration to the end users. With verified products that are made in India, many developers are now announcing smart homes with multiple external and internal amenities ranging from indoor device management to security of the project. Picostone, a tech startup, has been one of the most successful startup in the home automation segment with having placed their products across 1800 homes in less than a year of their launch. The startup, amongst other commercial projects and office units, has recently completed the automation process for the meeting rooms at Rustomjee Paramount, Khar and Party Hall Automation for the same venue.