Users of Caséta are now able to ask Amazon’s Alexa to turn connected lights or groups of lights on and off, and they can also dim them if they want to preset values, Lutron announced on Thursday. Alexa’s voice-control system can now be used with Caséta wireless lighting system, meaning that owners of Amazon’s Tap, Echo, Dot or Amazon Fire TV can control lighting fixtures with voice commands.
Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge and Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge Pro by Lutron are capable of controlling up to 50 Caséta lighting-control devices thanks to Lutron’s proprietary Clear Connect tech.
Lutron has partnered with Comcast (it can work with Xfinity Home systems), Nest and some smart thermostat manufacturers such as Ecobee, Carrier, and Honeywell. Apple’s HomeKit platform can be also used with Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge Pro, meaning that iPhone users can ask Siri to turn the lights of a given room on or off and control a living room light. Still, everyone in the house can use the switches and physical controls if they don’t have a phone with them at the moment.
Lutron’s Caséta line includes many plug-in modules and switches, as well as in-wall dimmers and terrific Pico remote controls. These devices can be used when the owner doesn’t feel like speaking, for those times when they’re watching a movie or in bed and they’re don’t want to disturb their partner.
Users of Caséta devices can group multiple lights into “rooms” and multiple “rooms” into “zones”. For example, they can control multiple lights on an entire floor by uttering the command “Turn off the downstairs lights”.
Caséta Wireless Smart Bridges also allow people to open and close Lutron’s motorized window shades, but users are not yet able to ask Alexa to do that for them and Orchowski didn’t say if that functionality would be introduced anytime soon.
Amazon wants to lead the market of voice control technology
Voice control is increasingly popular among home technology systems, which is why Amazon is rushing to let other manufacturers to connect to its Alexa voice-recognition tech as the company attempts to lead the market.
The proprietary communications protocol used by Lutron’s Caséta platform hasn’t separated the firm from other connected-home systems. The company will most likely embrace the technology that becomes the smart-home standard in the future.
Source: TechHive