ili kitchen automation
A New Zealand company is breaking into the touch panel market with a new product designed specifically for the modern kitchen.
Over time, the role of the kitchen has evolved to the point where it has become the hub of a modern household. Given this, it is increasingly common to see the kitchens of today become privy to the wonders of home automation, with many featuring lighting control and in-ceiling speakers alongside the stainless steel oven and fridge.
In response to this rapid demand, Auckland-based ili Limited has developed OneTouch, a fully customisable touch screen that allows for easy access to recipes, television, music, photos and the internet.
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ili director Rob Willcox says the company decided to target the kitchen area as touch screens can come in handy for people who are standing up and cooking.
“The kitchen is fast becoming the ‘hub of the home’ and it makes a lot of sense to install the OneTouch panel in this part of the home because of the features that it offers,” he says.
“It basically provides a locked-down, easy to use, multimedia product that is suitable for different markets. The current best-selling model is the OneTouch 21b, which is a 21 inch (53.34cm) all-in-one appliance with 640Gb hard drive and multi touch screen.”
The product can be unobtrusively installed in four different ways, including on the wall, in a recess box that sits flush on the wall, in kitchen cabinetry, or on the bench top.
The core features include its recording capability and access to entertainment in one easy to use system. As it doubles as a music player, customers can integrate OneTouch into a single zone of audio or a multi-room audio system and the solutions are also available with smaller/larger touch screens or touch projectors.
“The idea is that you simply push a button to select the function and the control panel changes to suit. This makes it very easy to control the various applications, whether it’s TV, YouTube or the DVD player. We also sell OneTouch as an automation touch screen to allow for more functionality and a better value proposition for the customer,” Rob says.
This ultimately opens the door for custom installers to suggest this product to customers who are interested in adding a control hub to the kitchen and possibly extending this control throughout the home.
“Installing OneTouch in the kitchen makes sense in its own right, but we do find that a lot of people will then expand the service and add in technologies such as CCTV or lighting dimmers such as Clipsal’s C-Bus system and/or HAI Home Automation,” Rob says.
“This initial installation can effectively introduce customers to other benefits of home automation.”
Although OneTouch is primarily aimed at the kitchen, there is no limit to the number and location of touch screens in a house. In fact, Rob says, one New Zealand client recently installed 10 of the touch panels into different areas of the home.
“The software allowed for easy control of the client’s multi-room audio system, as it could be adjusted from one location with just one button,” he says.
OneTouch has been in development mode for the past three years and ili is currently looking to integrate its latest product with other popular touch panels on the market.
“The product is really taking off and one of the areas that we are looking into is the integration of the Apple iPhone and iPad as a remote control. Rather than seeing them as competitor products, we consider them to be complementary. Our aim is to be the touch screen of choice and we see people having OneTouch in the kitchen at least, if not other rooms of the house.”
ili is distributed in Australia by Alloys.
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