Back to Basics

Part of Brilliant’s professional services to integrators like yourself is consultation on large jobs.  That runs through me, and I often find myself looking at advanced electrical plans with 5-ways, gang boxes built with 8 switches, and all sorts of interesting devices.  Not exactly a “basic” job.  And while Brilliant can deliver an amazing experience in these situations, it still comes down to getting controls and switches dialed in from a day-to-day experience perspective.  I find myself making sure these core features are set up on each control, whether there is one control in the home or many.

Display Off Unless Touched or Motion Detected:  By default, the controls are set to be on 100% of the time.  24-hours a day.  7-days a week.  That’s energy that’s being used when you’re not in the room.  It can also be a distraction if it is still in your line of sight while not being engaged with.  Brilliant was designed to be large enough to use, but not so large that it becomes a focal point of the home.  Modern technology should hide in plain sight, appearing when needed, and fading into the background when not.  I make sure that each control will turn on with motion and turn off after 1 minute of no motion, though you can select 5, 10, or 30 minutes as well.

Timed Parameters Around Motion Detection To Turn Lights On & Off: The simplest feature that adds the most “wow factor” in my opinion.  Locations of Brilliant Controls are generally in high traffic locations like kitchens, living rooms, offices, etc…  The difference in natural light between these locations may vary dramatically.  In my house, my kitchen gets a ton of natural light, whereas my living room does not get nearly as much.  In that kitchen, that I’m constantly in and out of, I have it set so that the lights turn on with motion 5 minutes before sunset through midnight.  I also have it set to turn off after no motion for 10 minutes.  In my living room though, I don’t need the motion as a scene simply triggers the lights to turn on 30 minutes before sunset, no motion needed as we spend all our time there (it’s a small house).

Adjust the Fade In/Out Rate of Each Wired Load: A lesser-used feature that can dramatically impress in the right lighting fixtures.  With controls going in high-traffic locations, oftentimes it will be wired to a chandelier or elevated sconces.  On those upgraded lighting fixtures, I’ll slow the fade-in and fade-out rate to 3-seconds.  My other main use lights, like ceiling or bedroom cans, I speed up to fade in and out at .5 seconds from the default of 1 second.  Bringing this to life, imagine you programmed a “Movie Time” scene.  You now just mimicked that movie theater effect in the client's home with a slow fade out.  Elevated experience on a simple core feature.

Other features in the running for the back-to-basics were the digital photo album and scene creation.  What have you found to be the go-to basic features that you tweak or set-up on each control that have resonated with your clients?  Let me know and share your ideas.

Oki

Hi, I'm Ryan "Oki" Okimoto - and yes, the nickname stuck.

I've spent the better part of 15 years making tech feel less like a chore and more like a superpower. I cut my teeth at Sonos, where I helped people fall in love with music across their homes. From there, I joined eero to help the world's connected devices just work. Now at Brilliant, I'm knee-deep in the smart home space, helping builders, integrators, and homeowners realize that home automation doesn't have to be complicated, because within the next decade, every home will be a smart home.

If it plugs in, makes your home smarter, or has an app.  I've probably tried it or trained someone on it.  Pull up a chair — let's talk tech.