Perfectly designed home cinema lighting system is what makes a home cinema room unique and not just another room of your smart home with a large projector screen. Combination of colour, brightness along with smart control features creates the perfect lighting condition for the cinema room. You cannot just place some lights here and there and hope to achieve the perfect lighting. This requires experience and expertise. However, if you are a bit of a tech geek and wants to try something yourself – read this guide for basic understanding of what needs to be done for a good lighting system for your cinema room.

There are many different types of lights at your disposal for designing your home cinema lighting system. Star ceiling lights, Cove lights, Stair lights, Table lamps, LED downlights are the most common types of lights in a home cinema room. Let’s find out more about them.

These star shaped lights are attached to the ceiling with a black background panel to give an impression of a romantic night sky. The black felt covered panels full of stars made from fiber optics looks very nice when they are turned on. Normally these lights have LED light source. Make sure you do not use the same sized stars repeatedly. Use variations in sizes. They are very popular among home cinema owners. The starry night sky probably gives them some nostalgia about driveway cinemas of the 80s.

Lights are carefully placed under stairsteps to help people navigate their way in the darkness of the cinema room. If your cinema room has raised platforms to elevate guests above the row in front, then stair light is particularly important. You should place LED strips on the riser of the stair. You should be very careful about selecting the right colour and brightness for your LED strips. The light must not collide with the intended darkness of the cinema room.

Simply speaking cove lighting is an indirect way of transmitting lights to the subject. For example, if you are holding a torchlight/flashlight close to a white wall – the whole room dimly illuminates from the reflection of the light, right? Essentially that’s a kind of cove lighting. And in-home cinema room we can use this to our benefit to create awesome lighting. We can place LED Strips around the top edge of the room, this can give the room an impressionable indirect light source at the same time makes the room appear greater in height than it is.

Cinema room will need place to keep drinks and refreshments. These places can be lit with table lamps especially suited for cinema rooms. These lamps will gently illuminate the tabletop containing refreshments without hampering the dark setting of the room.

Using LED downlights is a great way to keep the movie room illuminated before or during the movie. Other than the main cinema room, these lights can also be used above the hallway to the cinema room. The brightness of these lights can be controlled, so user can set the level of illumination they feel perfect for their movie room.

You have the option to integrate all your lighting systems of the cinema room with your existing home automation system. Then you will be able to create specific lighting scenes and control them using your mobile phone. For example, wouldn’t it be nice if the main lights turn off and lights at the starry ceiling and stairs turns on as soon as the movie starts? This can be done using an automation system which connects the home cinema and the lighting system. However, for that you will need a home cinema installer who is experienced with smart home systems because it requires technical expertise.

So, there you have it, now you have the basic understanding of what kind of lighting systems make up a cool home cinema room. Set them up, grab some popcorn and enjoy a movie.

AVITHA is London’s premier home cinema installation specialist. We are CEDIA certified installers. We offer consultation service to all our clients. Contact us today for home cinema or home theatre system.

Like every other industry, smart home installers have been hit hard in this pandemic time. Especially because this is a service-oriented sector and smart home installers are required to work inside luxury homes and workplaces. But because of the lockdown and social distancing rules, the industry has experienced a major slowdown. As the United Kingdom is slowly opening itself up for business, now the question is how to grow the business while maintaining the health and safety of customers and field engineers?

Almost each TV sold today is based on LCD technology. You will probably be surprised to hear but LED, SUHD, QLED are all in fact LCD TV. OLED displays however runs on different technology. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) is an advanced display technology. It is made from thin films of light emitting carbon based organic materials.

The most basic difference between OLED and LCD TV is, in OLED technology each pixel provides its own illumination. On the other hand, all the pixels in an LCD TV are illuminated using an LED backlight.

Unlike LCD displays, OLED displays do not require a backlight and filters. This makes it more efficient and easier to make and much slimmer. That is why OLED screens are flexible and even roll able.

OLED displays have excellent picture quality, lively colour and infinite contrast. The FPS rate and viewing angle is much better than LCD. These is why OLED displays are now considered next big thing in the display technology.

LG OLED C8 series

The previous C-series TV released by LG had a modest central pedestal but compared to that LG C8 OLED a bit flashier. The metal slab at the bottom part of the TV is relatively longer and curves forward. This curved metal slab has been designed to aid the sound quality.

We love the new look. The central pedestals have made the TV more stable than previous versions. However, you will need a slightly wider table or TV cabinet for the TV.

The TV is powered by Alpha 9 chips (just like all other 2018 OLED TV released by LG). This chip works exceptionally well at noise reduction, sharpness and handling of colours. The TV has 4 HDMI ports, all of them support 4K and HDR input. Compared to Sony AF8 OLED, the LG C8 OLED does not use big plastic panels in order to keep cables out of view.

Like all other OLED TVs, the LG C8 also features pixel level luminance, which means each pixel can turn on and off individually. This allows the TV to be exceptionally precise in lighting.
Let’s talk about brightness. This is one area where many OLED TV usually struggle. However, in case of LG C8, the brightness looks fine.

Sony Bravia AF9 OLED

Announced in July 2018, Sony’s AF9 OLED TV has an impressive entry into the market. All though it was a delayed entry, the TV is surely worth waiting for.

When you turn on the TV, it becomes apparent that Sony has finally mastered on OLED TV manufacturing. On this TV, you will be able to enjoy a true movie watching experience without having to break the bank.

Like many other OLED TV manufactures, Sony AF9 also uses the latest 2018 WRGB OLED panel from LG. However, it features Sony’s latest top-end X1 ultimate video processor and pixel Contrast Booster technology for achieving colour saturation at maximum brightness levels.

Sony has not changed its design since last years A1 OLED. The AF9 tilts back by around 5 degrees. The structure is supported by a sturdy stand. This also houses many electronic components, connectors, sub woofers etc. So, not a lot of wires outside. Which we really liked.

Bang & Olufsen Eclipse

It is normally difficult to find a TV with great sound quality. If you wish to experience good sound, then normally you would need to purchase additional quality surround sound system and speakers. However, Bang & Olufsen Beovision Eclipse is an exception to that. This OLED TV comes with a powerful 450-watt speaker which produces great quality sound.

The BeoVision Eclipse TV has been designed to perfection. It is such a work of art. No matter how your decoration is, the TV will fit right at home. The TV is available in 55 inch and 65-inch variations. It comes with a wall mount by default. However, it does not come with any floor stand. You will need to purchase that separately if required. The floor stand is motorised, so you can rotate the TV to any direction you want.

B&O BeoVision Eclipse has excellent support for HD content. That is thanks to its LG OLED display which aids the TV to perform far better than its LCD counterparts. If money is an issue, then forget B&O BeoVision Eclipse as it is rather expensive.

If you have a smart speaker with a built-in smart home hub, running Amazon Alexa personal assistant then you can create your very own smart home system. If you do not know how to utilise these awesome features, we are here to help you.

Smart speakers are the first step towards automated home. The market trend shows Amazon Alexa users prefer starting with smart light bulbs, thermostats and security cameras in their smart home. And after this initial set up, users add more gadgets controllable with Alexa. It is important to note that, not every smart speaker has a built-in smart home hub. If you are after a smart home automation with Alexa voice assistant, you will need a smart speaker with built in smart home hub for example, Amazon Echo Plus.

In this guide, we will discuss how to connect all your smart devices with Alexa and how to operate them.

Why Alexa?

Let’s talk about Alexa. Thanks to Amazons relentless marketing, we all have heard of Alexa or have seen them in action in TV or social media. Alexa is a voice-based personal assistant, capable of helping you manage your daily activities such as taking notes, making searches, answering the question, playing music etc. All you need to do is Ask. However, Alexa is not the only voice-based personal assistant available on the market. There are others such us, Google Assistant and Siri. Then, why Alexa?

Alexa’s ability to easily integrate with smart home devices made it one of the best smart home assistants. Besides that, Amazon smart home hubs compatibility with a wide range of smart devices has made it the most desirable home automation solution. Alexa is easy to use. Its single command group feature can control multiple lights, power source and other smart devices altogether, which allows you to control all your devices combined in a group. So, you can use a single command to set up a scene for the entire house.

Compared to other home automation system such as Apple Homekit, Amazon smart home is relatively inexpensive and has great community support. Which is also one of the reasons why Alexa is so popular.

Smart light set up

Every smart device comes with instructions on how to add it to Amazon Alexa. Let’s look at an example of Philips Hue lights.

Unbox your Philip Hue starter kit. You will get two light bulbs and a bridge. Connect the Philip bridge with power and internet source. You should see the three blue lights come on top of your bridge. Now download the Philips Hue App. From the app, search for Hue Bridges and when it finds one, press the set-up button on the app. This will link the app with the bridge. Now let’s add voice control by adding these smart lights to Alexa.

You will need your phone; an Alexa enabled device and Amazon Alexa App. Use your phone to open the App. Then open the menu. Then go to skills, and search for the Hue skill. Then press the Enable button to enable the skill. Log in to your MyHue account. Press discover devices. The app will now search for all connected Hue devices. It will take about 20 seconds. After it discovers all your lights, you will be able to control your lights using your voice.

Creating multi room audio with Smart speaker

In our example, we will be creating a multi-room audio system and control with Alexa, using Amazon Echo and Echo dot speakers. For this, you will need to create a group and add all your speakers to the group. Then you can one command to play the same music in all speakers belongs to that group no matter where which room those speakers are at. This feature is especially useful if you are having a party. These smart speakers can play music themselves, but if you want better sound then you can link them up with powerful Bluetooth speakers.

Place your speakers wherever you want in your home. Let’s say we are keeping a speaker in the kitchen, 1 in the bedroom and 1 in the living room. Now open the Alexa app, go to Menu and Add devices. This will help you to discover all your speakers. Then go to settings and see if those devices appear on the device list. Now, scroll down to the bottom and select Multi-room music. This will start the process of creating a group. Choose a group name (I am naming my group “Everywhere”), then select your Echo devices to include in the group. Finish the step by pressing create group button. After a minute, Alexa should complete creating the group. Now test it using your voice command. “Alexa, play music everywhere”.

Adding any other smart home feature to Amazon Alexa is pretty much same process. If you have any question, feel free to leave a comment.

Smart light bulbs are the core component of any smart home. Without them, you cannot really call your home, smart. Smart light bulbs can be controlled and monitored using smart home apps or your voice if your smart home has a voice-based personal assistant installed. These light bulbs come with multi-colour option. With smart light bulbs, you can change the tone, brightness and even colour. So, you can change colours whenever depending on your mood. Having a party? Create a party scene on your home automation app and set a lively colour on your smart light bulbs.

If you implement some of your beautiful lighting design ideas at your smart home, then getting a smart lighting system is a must. You will have plenty of options with it. Once you switch from your dumb light bulbs to smart light bulbs, you will be wondering why you haven’t made the switch before! These bulbs are costlier than regular bulbs, however, what you get in return is surely worth the cost.

The biggest name in this field is Philips Hue. You may have already made up your mind for buying this smart bulb. We agree that it is certainly a great choice, but, let us brief you with some other smart lighting options available in the market.

LIFX A19

If you have just started searching about smart lighting, then LIFX is a new name to you. But for us who regularly install home automation systems in London, LIFX is a huge name. They are often considered a pioneer in smart lighting technology. The LIFX A19 smart bulb is shaped like the head of Frankenstein. This is essentially an updated version of their hugely successful LIFX+, which had a security problem. The company fixed that problem and made some minor adjustments and released LIFX A19 in 2018. Since then, it has received plenty of awesome reviews from its users. The Bulb is compatible with Alexa, Apple Homekit, Google Assistant and NEST. So, you can easily integrate it to a home automation system of your choice.

LIFX A19 has a feature called Day & Dusk. This system automates lights turning on to a refreshing and cold looking light in the early of the day and slowly fading to a relaxing warmer light at night time.

The light bulb fits in a standard lights socket. It has ton of different colours. It has an app and during test we found out that the bulb is very responsive to that app.

Hive Active Light

Hive a subsidiary of British Gas is generally known for its range of smart thermostats and door sensors, however, they also have smart light bulbs in their inventory. We particularly liked its Active light bulb. Just like many other smart lights, the bulb itself houses the intelligence section. As a result, the bulb is slightly heavier than dumb LED bulbs. However, you would not need any additional fitting for the bulb. They look exactly like normal LED bulbs. It is easy to install, thanks to its compatibility with standard fitting.

You can control the light with the Hive app. If you have a Samsung SmartThings, you can use that instead of the Hive app.

With this light, you can set up a simple schedule, selecting when you want a light to turn on and its intensity as well as when to turn it off. Using this option, you can turn on your lights in your empty home fooling potential burglars.

The light also works with Alexa, you will need to download Alexa skill set. It also supports IFTTT. However, with IFTTT you can only turn on and off the light, cannot control intensity or colour. Google Assistant support is also available.

Sengled Element Classic Starter Kit

Senglads latest colour changing smart bulbs are a more economical option than other smart bulbs in the market. The bulb is fully compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant. It works with an App which tracks the real-time power consumption of each setting. So, you can set save some power cost. The colours are not that bright compared to Lifx or Hue but they are pretty accurate. The app is also not as responsive as Lifx app. Plus point is, it works with IFTTT and Apple Homekit.

The starter kit comes with Two bulbs and a wifi hub. The bulbs are bright enough, even after using it for several hours, the bulbs remain cool. Installation is also very straightforward, just connect the wifi hub to your router, download the App, scan the light bulb and rename it to whatever you want.

You can also connect the light with Alexa. With each wifi hub, you can control up to 64 bulbs. You can group lights by rooms and give them a specific name. For example, if you have 4 lights in your bedroom you can create a group and call it bedroom light. Then you can control them all together with a single command.

Philips Hue

Philips Hue is clearly the best smart light bulbs in the market. The light produces the most natural looking light compared to all other lights. The app is easy to use, and installation requires only a few steps. With Philips hue, you need a Hub. So, you will need to purchase the starter kit. However, you do not need a separate hub for each light as they all can be connected to the same hub.

Philips Hue has different variations of smart lights. The white light bulb only emits white light while the colour option allows over 16 million available colours. And ambient variants of these two variations gives you the option of dimmer tones.

Smart wristbands are wearable devices designed to be worn on a wrist just like regular watches. They have touch screen with operating system which run apps for monitoring heart rate and show vital signs. Other features include, activity recording, auto sleep tracking, cycling mode, remote music etc. They are now a must have item for every fitness enthusiast man and woman.

Most popular smart wristbands are Fitbit Versa, Apple Watch, Garmin Vívosmart 4, Samsung Galaxy watch, Huawei watch GT.

In this article, we will discuss about Fitbit Versa, which according to our observation is the best smart wristband of this year.

Fitbit, a company that in 2007 materialised an idea using the sensors and wireless tech for monitoring the sports performance along with other features. James & Eric, founders of Fitbit, had the idea to create a wearable with sensors, that idea first came in a wooden box which had a circuit board. Fitbit rapidly became popular and a successful company that today is worth 4 billion USD and has released few wristbands and smartwatches, with Fitbit Versa being the most affordable & lightest smartwatch that Fitbit has released.

Fitbit Versa is the second smart wristband developed by Fitbit. Their first attempt to break into the smart wristband market was with Fitbit Ionic. The device was successful, however, Ionic wristband had its fair share of problems. Fitbit has addressed those issues in their latest smart wristbands. The smart wristband looks fantastic, its battery life is impressive. When you look at its 150-pound price tag and compare with other wristbands and smartwatches, you will clearly see how good Fitbit Versa for what is its worth. Except for GPS, Fitbit Versa has pretty much everything else you would find in an expensive smart wristband. It is swim proof and has plenty of tracking options including running, swimming, cycling. The smart wristband can also track the menstrual cycle, which can be useful for women.

The device has 2.5GB onboard storage and runs Fitbit’s own operating system. It has built-in NFC. The wristband also has a Heart rate monitor and relative SpO2 sensor.

The wristband is slim and feels light on the arm. Its body is made of aluminium. The slim and compact structure makes it very comfortable to wear. The rounded square looking wristband can be mistaken for an Apple device from a distance.

The biggest strength of Fitbit Versa is its battery life. You can run it for up to 4 days after fully charging it one time. You can increase that to more by dimming down the brightness. It does not have built-in GPS so while running you will need to have your phone connected to your phone via Bluetooth. Another problem with Versa, is its lack of apps. Unlike Samsung Galaxy or Apple watch, Fitbit Versa does not have a wide selection of apps.

Versa Lite Edition

Versa lite edition is the cheapest. The watch comes packing with most features but not all features compared to Special edition. It has an easy one-button design. The wristband has good touch screen, easy to use UI and solid battery life however for some people, it may appear too colourful. Keep in mind you can not play or store music using Versa lite.

The versa lite is perfect for casual gym goers and runners who need basic smart watch features. Infect, we think this is all you need. Unless of course you want to use your smart watch to do contact less payment. For that, you need to get any one of other two variations.

Versa

The Versa wristband comes with every features Fitbit has to offer for aiding fitness enthusiasts with their daily exercise routines. You can play and store music right in the device, listen to it using Bluetooth headphone. Its contact less payment option makes it very convenient for the morning run. So, keep your phone and moneybag in your home. All you need is this Smart wristband.

Versa Special Edition

The special edition is expensive compared to other variation. However, it offers everything the original Versa offers. Only difference is, it comes with a premium woven band in lavender or charcoal, plus a black classic band.

Final comments..

We liked the new design, which if compared to the Ionic model is a complete change in terms of the edge and its weight. It has fewer features yet gives nice monitoring of the daily or occasional sports activity, which will definitely improve the amount of information we can gather from these activities. This model was released in 2017, therefore, the prices could have been reduced.

If you are a sports person or willing to become one and still haven’t decided or have never used a smartwatch, it is time to get one for monitoring your performance and results for the sports sessions. Versa offers a nice start for a price that is quite reasonable for the results that this smartwatch and all the features that come with can make you feel. Yet, can have a cheaper option which is the Versa Lite. What are you waiting for starting your new healthy and sportive adventure?

Tech companies are constantly looking for different ways to make life easier for us. They have built remote control device for pretty much every home appliance. We can simply use the remote to control these appliances without having to get up from the comfort of our bed. However, it appears that, even these remote devices are not convenient enough for us. So, technology companies have come up with smart devices which can be operated using our voice. Smart speakers are one of the most common type of smart devices now a days, according to an YouGov Poll, in the UK, smart home speaker ownership has doubled in just six months. So, want to listen your favourite song? All you need to do is ask.

With a smart speaker, you can play music, listen to the news, create shopping list, write a memo and many other things. A fantastic feature of a smart speaker is its ability to work as a smart home hub in a smart home. You can control other smart devices of your home such as smart lights, climate control system and other smart speakers using a smart speaker with built in smart home hub. The most popular feature of a smart speaker is its ability to answer any question you have in your mind. These smart speakers come with voice based personal assistants. These personal assistants have transformed smart speakers. Now, when we think of smart speakers, we think of the personal assistant it comes with. Most common voice based personal assistants are Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri. They are powered by artificial intelligence. Developers of these technologies are constantly competing to improve the technology and gain control of this huge smart speaker market.

So far, we have discussed about what is a smart speaker and what are its usual features. Now let’s discuss; what should you look for in a smart speaker.

1) Personal assistant: Only smart speaker worth buying is the one that comes with either Alexa, Google assistant or Siri.

2) Sound quality: Do you want your smart speaker to play music for the entire room, or want to use it to play music in your personal space (table top, bed side table)? You can select your smart speaker based on your requirement.

3) Materials and colours: Many of these smart speakers comes in different variations of material and colours. So, you can select the one suits your decoration.

4) Features: If you need your smart home speaker not just to play music or read you news but also to control your smart home system then you will need a speaker with smart home hub built in. So, check in the specs if the speaker you are looking for has that feature. Carefully check the compatibility to make sure you purchase the speaker compatible with your existing smart home features.

Based on our smart speaker checklist, we have created our list of best smart speakers of 2019. Have a look at our reviews and select the most suitable speaker for you.

Sonos play 1 – Great sound quality

The first smart speaker in our list is Sonos Play 1. In just few years, Sonos has released some of the best speakers available in the market. Sonos Play 1 is one the most talked about smart speaker. If you are looking for excellent sound quality along with fantastic looking device that you can place anywhere in your room, then this is the perfect speaker for you.

Sonos Play 1 comes with Alexa built in. However, according to latest news, Google Assistant will soon be available on Sonos speakers. What we love about this Sonos device is its ability to communicate with other Sonos speakers in your home. So, it can easily be made part of a multi room audio system. An unique feature of this device is that, you can play music even when Alexa is muted.

The £199 (approximate) price tag is well worth the quality the Sonos Play 1 speaker offers. The multi room ecosystem provided by Sonos works as a bridge fixing gaps in Alexa’s smart home ecosystem. So, it is the most suitable smart speaker for smart homes.

Google home speaker – Perfect for controlling smart home

Powered with the best voice controlled personal assistant in the market Google Assistant, Google home speaker takes the full advantage of Youtubes (Also owned by Google) huge music library. With this speaker, every music track from Youtube is at your reach. It is cheap, can perform all basic tasks that you expect from a smart speaker. The sound quality is not as good as others though. It doubles as Google smart home hub. So, you can control other compatible smart home devices using this device.

Google has invested heavily in smart home systems. And this smart speaker is at the forefront of its ecosystem. It has multi language support, so far, the feature supports English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Japanese. Google has also revealed that the speaker can work with 5,000 different types of devices.

With this device, you can make hands free calling. You can also use its Bluetooth connectivity option to import all your contacts from your mobile devices. So, whenever you need to make a phone call. All you need to do is ask your google Assistant.

Apple Home pod – Expensive , elegant looking but lacks compatible smart devices

Like every other Apple device, Apple Home pod is expensive. This smart speaker has great sound quality and nice, minimalistic design. The speaker runs with Apples own voice assistant Siri. If you have a home full of Apple devices, then this Smart speaker is perfect for you. The home pod is essentially a combination of a premium speaker and a hub for controlling smart devices from Apple. It integrates seamlessly with Apple Ecosystem. As a speaker, the Apple HomePod fares excellent. Setting it up is also very easy. As a smart home hub, it gives basic control over your home. But the problem is, you are stuck with only handful of smart devices which are currently compatible with Apple Home Pod. Also, to play music on this speaker, you need to subscribe to Apple music.

Amazon Echo – Inexpensive, good sound quality, popular

Amazon Echo is the most popular smart home speaker on the market. In fact, Amazon with its Alexa voice assistant and Echo family of speakers made smart speakers mainstream. Amazon Echo (2nd gen) is inexpensive and the audio reaches the whole room. Echo (2nd gen) does not have smart home hub, however you can get Echo plus. If you are looking for a smaller device then Amazon has echo dot smart speaker for you.

Read comparison between Amazon Echo, Echo Plus and Echo Dot.

These smart speakers come in many different colours and materials. So, no matter what your interior design is, you will find the perfect smart speaker in this product range.

Smart watches becoming the new personal assistant. It has come down to very niche performance specs differentiating one brand from another. Samsung’s watch has always swept the market with unbeatable battery life but the 4G Galaxy watch is something that seemingly out beats some of the latest models and let’s see why.

From notifying you of your emails and texts to congratulating you on achieving the day’s planned exercise, these watches have pretty much summed up all that we dreamed of as a child, imitating bond style cryptic phone calls at the flick of the wrist is simply cute! Samsung Galaxy amongst all its features is 4G enabled which not only allows you to take calls on the go, it manages your entire day from your wrist, starting from playing your favourite playlist on Spotify to meeting reminders to tracking your health and make payments for you! Forget lugging your wallet for that Cpress juice shot after your workout payments made easy with Samsung Pay– you name it you have it!

Engineered to endure, this watch can be worn practically all the time including the pool and ocean alike but don’t go scuba diving with it! That said, the battery lasts sufficiently (upto 7 days!) and charges effortlessly. From classy watch face to a sporty watch face you could dress easy for any scene with class and elegance! The cons seems forgivable for most of the benefits this watch brings, time to move to EE!

Amazon echo has made lots of waves in the technology world since it was first released in 2014. This smart speaker from Amazon has revolutionise voice-based interaction between IoT devices. The device works using Amazons voice based intelligent personal assistant service called Alexa. It can play music for you, sets up the alarm, play news, answer questions about many different topics. All you need to do is activate the device by calling it by its name aka wake word. The wake word can be set to Alexa, echo or computer. If you have smart home devices, then Amazon echo can allow you to control your smart home devices using your voice. Want to turn off your lights? Just Ask Alexa.

After the success of Amazon echo 1st generation, the company started producing different variations of the smart speaker. Among them, Amazon echo dot is one of the most notable variation. The idea behind this speaker was to make echo smaller and cheaper. Just like Amazon echo, echo dot also has built in omnidirectional microphones which is designed for picking up voice from anywhere in the room. Echo plus however is an upgraded version of the amazon echo with its built-in smart home hub. Basic usage and functionalities of these devices are almost same, each of them responds to voice command, each of them can play music or read you the latest news. However, there are some differences between these three speakers. Let’s talk about their differences.

We have tried and tested each of these Echo devices and prepared our observations bellow.

Size

The second-generation echo and the echo dot are pretty much same in diameter. However, echo is much taller than echo dot. Amazon echo is basically a cylindrical shaped device. At little over half pound, Echo dot is much lighter than Echo and Echo plus which weigh around 1.8 pounds.

Sound Quality

Even though each of these devices have built in speakers, the sound quality in echo is better than echo dot thanks to its larger and higher quality 360-degree speaker perfect for whole room audio. Echo Plus has the best sound quality among all other variations of echo speakers thanks to its 0.7-inch tweeter for supporting higher music notes. Additionally, each of these speakers now come with Dolby processing which provides clear vocal and bass. It is worth mentioning that, the third-generation echo dot has better audio quality than its predecessors. Each of these devices have 3.5mm output jack for connecting to external speakers.

Voice Control

As mentioned before, each of these speakers can be controlled with Alexa. So, when music is playing at maximum volume, you can still command Alexa and it will respond accordingly. One major concern is whether it can hear you over the loud music. Good news is, echo and echo plus have noise cancellation technology – which makes it possible for it to hear you even when the music is being played.

Smart home hub

Amazon echo can control other echo speakers such as echo dot or other echo devices. So, if you have multiple echo speakers in your home placed in different locations, you can ask Echo to play music everywhere. To control smart home features such as smart lights, blinds etc, you need echo plus. Echo plus has built in smart home hub. So, you do not need additional Amazon smart home hub to control your smart home if you just get this speaker. If you decide to get amazon echo dot or echo, and still want smart home system then you will need to buy a smart home hub.

Look

The echo dot 3rd generation comes in 3 different colours, charcoal, heather grey and sandstone. On the other hand, the echo is available in 6 different colours and looks. One of them is covered in metallic silver. This is our personal favourite. Two variations have wooden look and remaining three have fabric-based designs (heather grey, charcoal and sandstone). So, you can pick them based on your decoration.

to summarise, if you are looking for a small smart speaker for your table, or to keep beside your bed which has all basic smart speaker functionality then go for Echo dot. It is cheap, portable and looks great. If you are looking for a speaker which covers your entire room then get Echo. And lastly, if you want to control your smart devices using Alexa then get an Echo Plus which has a Zigbee based smart home hub.

In the fast-moving corporate world, communication is the key. In every corporate house, it is essential to have a well-equipped meeting room AV system which can support HD video conferencing facilities. The AV system within a meeting room allows the company to organise virtual meetings between partners from remote locations. A video conferencing system typically requires a webcam, HD display, speaker and microphone. Additionally, these devices should work with conferencing software such as Skype for Business, Zoom, GoToMeeting etc.

The most important device of the conference room is a high definition, specially built webcam. The camera should be able to cover the entire meeting room area. There are many conference rooms webcams available on the market. In this article, we will be discussing some of the best conference room webcams in 2019.

So, how do you find the most suitable webcam for your conference room? To answer this question, you need to first look at your plan for the room. How big is the room? Do you need Bluetooth on your webcam? How many people are going to be seated in each meeting? Also, note down your budget on a piece of paper then compare different products and find the most appropriate webcam for your project.

To make things easy for you, we have listed some of the best webcams for conferencing available on the market along with their pros and cons. Go through the list and purchase the best cam for your meeting room from Amazon.

Logitech Video Conference BCC950 – Affordable

With this webcam, a small team can run their own video conference anywhere, anytime. The all in one BCC950 video conferencing system is not just a plug and play webcam, but also a speakerphone. This Is ideal for small meeting rooms consisting of 1-4 people. It can be installed quickly on any desk.

When you look at the design, it becomes apparent that Logitech took inspiration for the design from conference room phones. It has a decent sized speaker microphone in its base for quality audio transmission. You can either put the camera on the base or use a stick to bring it to the eye level. The camera can tilt up and down 55 degrees and can pan 180 degrees. However, the picture produced in the camera is not as good quality as other cameras bellow.

Logitech Conference Cam Connect – Affordable

This plug free camera with rechargeable battery from Logitech has been designed for corporate meeting room. This is suitable for small space, so if you have a small team of 4-5 members then this is perfect for you. Its premium lens produces maximum clarity. The lens has a dust protector. As it does not require any wire connection, you can take it anywhere you want and set up easily. Even the hand held remote can be docked on the device as lens cover. If you are looking for a portable solution, this is the web cam for you.

HuddleCamHD-3x G2 USB 2.0 – Affordable

An ideal camera for meeting room featuring 3X optical zoom and plug and play USB 2.0 output. Its 82-degree field of view makes it an awesome webcam for meeting room video conferencing. The camera can be controlled via RS 232, RS 485 as well as infrared remote. The camera comes with a mount adapter can be mounted on wall or ceiling.

Logitech PTZ Pro Camera – Good video and audio, relatively expensive

The Logitech PTZ pro Camera is one of the most popular meeting room cameras available in the market. The camera looks and works beautifully. It has a wide 90-degree field of view, 10X full HD zoom, ZEISS optics with autofocus. The camera can pan 260 degree and tilt 130 degree. The camera is very easy, just plug and play. Certified for Skype for Business.

Logitech Meetup – Top quality webcam but expensive

Logitech meetups super wide 120-degree field of view ensures that everyone in your conference room is seen in the video and its HD 4k lens with pan, tilt and zoom capability allows you to quickly change focus wherever you need. Meetups integrated audio is optimised for meeting room acoustics allowing it to deliver excellent sound in small rooms. You have the option to add expansion mic for extending the audio range up to 5 meters.