Crestron Turns to the Sun
Pro-installion home automation company, Crestron Home, announced new color, tunable light fixtures with circadian rhythm capabilities. Circadian, or wellness lighting, is an option found on other smart lighting systems including Philips Hue, Savant, and Control4. However, Crestron is upping the ante by adding Crestron SolarSync, an outdoor sensor that communicates the outside color hue to the indoor lighting system in real-time. This allows indoor lighting to mimic the exact outdoor lighting conditions thus providing users all the mental health benefits that come with more natural lighting patterns and colors.
The NPD Take:
- As smart lighting sales increase (revenue increased 32% in 2021) users will search for new features beyond simple remote control and scene programming. The larger consumer trend around health and wellness is quickly intersecting with the connected home- natural lighting features like this are a part of this trend and could see greater uptake as adoption of smart lighting continues.
Coffee Roasting is Going Smart
Serious coffee fans now have another tool to make café quality java. The Sandbox Smart R2 Coffee Roaster is a compact tabletop home coffee bean roaster with a variety of settings allowing roasters to create virtually any type of bean. The smart feature comes in the form of a smartphone app which enables users to adjust the temperature, fan power, or drum speed. The machine can roast up to 19.5 ounces of beans and is expected to ship in April for $2,700.
The NPD Take:
- As the industry looks to add connectivity to a growing list of appliances, the morning cup of coffee is the next candidate for smart features. While Keurig and a few other brands offer smart coffee makers, the Sandbox is one of the first smart coffee roasting devices.
- Though the announcement of smart features certainly captures attention, the question for these devices (like most connected appliances) is what value is added? Does smartphone connectivity or Wi-Fi enable any conveniences or enhancements to the user experience? Until consumers see concrete value in adding connectivity, these features will be relegated to “nice to have” status.