Bridgetek brings us closer to smarter living

Currently the home automation market is very disjointed, with systems from different manufacturers each relying on their own proprietary control technology and thus needing users to access a multitude of specific apps.

This proves both inconvenient and highly frustrating. Users want to be able to centralise the control of these functions rather than having separate stand-alone controls for each respective system.

PanL home automation hubs comprise an array of different wireless and wireline connectivity options - including Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 4.2, Zigbee and PoE-enabled Ethernet (100Base-T).

This gives them the scope to connect with numerous systems simultaneously. Their processing capabilities are derived from the Bridgetek FT900 series of 32-bit microcontrollers. Inclusion of one of the company’s second generation FT813 Embedded Video Engine (EVE) high resolution graphic controllers in each unit takes care of the human machine interface (HMI) aspect.

This provides simple and intuitive control to the user, with access to rich graphical content and multi-touch functionality. Another major benefit of PanL’s centralised approach is that it allows coordinated operation of different systems (so that the lighting and heating could be brought on at the same time, for example).

Furthermore it means that data from different systems can be consolidated together (allowing parameters like overall household energy consumption to be monitored).

Announcements over the course of 2017 will see the PanL portfolio expand. These will make use of the innovative modular framework that has been put in place. Further developments will result in additional wireless technologies being integrated into the platform, thereby enabling direct connection to the cloud.