Tips From The Top

This past week, the world’s largest tech expo convened in Las Vegas for the annual unveiling of thousands of new products and presentations from leading tech developers and experts from around the world. This year’s smart home demonstrations at CES 2018 pushed the envelope on product development and highlighted the pressing issues of smart home network security and consumer buying demands. 

CES – owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association – has been the world-wide forum for groundbreaking tech innovations for fifty years. This year’s expo brought together almost 4,000 exhibiting companies, including manufacturers, developers, and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems and more. More than 170,000 attendees from 150 countries attended this year’s event, making it the largest tech conference in the world.

Here’s a brief overview of the smart home developments and discussions at CES, plus a peek at just a few of the new smart home products introduced at this year’s expo.

At this year’s CES, smart home trends, consumer purchase patterns, and smart home network security were prevailing topics for presenters.

Smart home technology is a major component of both new home construction and home renovation. Home owners want to see how home automation can improve the comforts and ease of their homes, and developers are working to create the products and platforms to make these dream homes a reality.

Smart home developments are driven by consumers. Voice activation, smart speakers, and other apps and platforms are a big part of integrating our home automation systems. Network security is also a major issue for smart home tech developers.

Good Housekeeping led the panel “Homes of the Future: Tech Smart” about smart home trends and consumer purchasing habits. Panelists discussed the evolution of the connected home space, the influence of women, and the increasing benefits of smart home products.

The “Living Independently in Smart Homes” presentation discussed how the growing population of older adults and people with disabilities can benefit from smart home technology, including how the benefits and challenges of accessible smart home tech can keep people living independently at home. 

“Securing the Smart Home” gave industry experts an opportunity to analyze and present innovations trends in devices and infrastructure to keep smart home networks secure. 

And among the cool new devices unveiled at CES:

Samsung’s new 146-inch television – “The Wall” – uses new MicroLED display technology and is made up of modules that enable it to expand even larger.

In the kitchen, Samsung has boosted its Family Hub refrigerator with a new feature called “Meal Planner” that can recommend recipes to you based on your family’s food preferences, allergies, and the ingredients you have in stock. 

Interested in learning more about the range of new products for your smart home? Call us at Jackson Hole AV. We’d love to show you what’s possible.