Door Industry Journal - Winter 2017

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk industry news 8 THE door industry journal winter 2017 SOMMER FURTHER DEVELOPS THEIR TECHNICAL TEAM SOMMER are delighted to announce the engagement of Technical Manager, Robert Pearce, a welcome addition to their expanding Technical Support Team. Robert, an established Electronic and Electrical Technician, joined SOMMER in early October and has undertaken extensive product training across all current and past SOMMER products, installation procedures, product specifications and troubleshooting. Robert is responsible for all SOMMER UK technical enquiries, product training seminars and regular customer discussions to assist with the range of SOMMER products. Robert is assisted by Holger Beer who is Head of Technology Training and Support in SOMMER Germany. General Manager Mark Butcher added: “We thought long and hard on how best to service our present and new customer base and this key appointment is seen as a huge positive in SOMMER continuing to give 100% commitment to our customers and our products. With the implementation in 2018 of the SOMMER Training School it was important to bring Robert in to the SOMMER team and establish and enhance his growing reputation.” For all Technical support or enquiries Robert can be contacted on 01904 608787 or e-mail at r.pearce@sommeruk.com SOMFY TAHOMA OPENS UP TO THE IFTTT AND AMAZON ALEXA INTEROPERABILITY PLATFORMS ALEXA is the cloud-based voice service that powers Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. ALEXA is always getting smarter—just ask and ALEXA answers questions, plays music, reads audiobooks, turns on and off the lights, gives you sports scores, checks the traffic, and more. Now, with the new TaHoma skill for ALEXA, you can also control your TaHoma Smart Home as well. Just by asking ALEXA, you can launch and control one of your pre- programmed TaHoma Smart Home scenarios — allowing you to control blinds, shutters, curtains, lights or heating using just your voice. Just ask, and Alexa will take care of it for you. Compatibility between TaHoma and Amazon ALEXA from Autumn 2017, depending on ALEXA availability in your country. If this happens then launch a TaHoma scenario… IFTTT empowers people to do more with the services they love. The acronym stands for If This, Then do That. Working with over 510 apps, services, and devices including Facebook, Twitter, Philips Hue, Dropbox, Google, Nest, Fitbit, BMW, and Slack, with Applets. Applets bring these services together to create new experiences of all types, from automating simple tasks to transforming how someone interacts with and controls their home. You, (the end user or manufacturer) can experiment with all IFTTT partners and create your own Applets. (Applet = smart automatism created between your devices under the condition “If This happens Then do That”). With IFTTT and TaHoma, you can look for existing applets proposed by SOMFY or other TaHoma users who decided to publish them or create your own applets. Any compatible service with IFFFT can then interact with TaHoma and launch pre-programmed TaHoma scenario. More than 400 apps work today with IFTTT: home appliances, AC systems, connected cars, gardening equipment, health devices and personal trackers, security solutions, voice assistant, weather information … and much more. The only limit will be your imagination. The connected homes market “The connected homes market should grow quickly to exceed 70 million households worldwide in 2021. Somfy is already anticipating this major challenge. “The Group’s recent acquisitions - Opendoors, the pioneer in smart locks, and Myfox, which specialises in smart solutions for home security, the partnerships that the company is entering with leading players in homes and the opening up of TaHoma to other ecosystems, such as Amazon Alexa and IFTTT, must enable consumers to control all the useful equipment in their homes directly in the TaHoma application. “In this way, they will be able to easily find the solutions for thermal comfort, the control of natural and artificial light, easier access to the home and greater security that they are looking for,” emphasises Marc Westermann, Director of Somfy’s Connected Solutions Activity. Compatibility between TaHoma and IFTTT in Autumn 2017 For more information visit www.somfy.co.uk/products/smart-home