Speaker 1: Master Class.
Speaker 2: The Master Class with Real is brought to you by
Speaker 2: Decorates joe bergs Africa's premier decor and design expo, and
Speaker 2: we're going to be exploring how cutting edge technology is
Speaker 2: transforming modern homes, from smart appliances to energy management, home automation, automation,
Speaker 2: and even how AI is finding its way into our
Speaker 2: living spaces.
Speaker 1: So I want to find out from you.
Speaker 2: I mean, are there any tasks you fully automated in
Speaker 2: your home? Do you trust AI to manage things like security,
Speaker 2: lighting or energy?
Speaker 1: How? How ahead of the curve are you here?
Speaker 2: And then is it possible to even keep up with
Speaker 2: the curve? Things are changing so quickly, aren't there all
Speaker 2: the time? So I'd love to hear from you. Just
Speaker 2: remember our phone numbers are one to one double A
Speaker 2: three seven two. You can tweet me at radio seven
Speaker 2: o two using the hashtag se no two afternoons. You
Speaker 2: can email me on seven oh two afternoons at seven
Speaker 2: o two dot co, dot z or WhatsApp me on
Speaker 2: seven two seven o two one seven oh two. You
Speaker 2: can also send what'sapp, voicemails, voice notes and we'll play those.
Speaker 2: You can also SMS me briefly on three one seven
Speaker 2: o two and also send a message on the YouTube
Speaker 2: homepage if you are watching us through that. My guests
Speaker 2: on this masterclass is smart Living is Nission pla digital
Speaker 2: and academic of Digital transformation Space and Laserdi Lebojor, Managing
Speaker 2: director of Techroid Solutions. A very good afternoon to both
Speaker 2: of you.
Speaker 1: Can Hi, Nishan Li Sadi.
Speaker 2: Let's start off with you when we talk about and
Speaker 2: let's start basic when we talk about a smart home,
Speaker 2: what exactly is that?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, thank you very much for putting into Jane
Speaker 3: so smart poly so thick about appliances that you have
Speaker 3: in your house. It could be that would be your spots,
Speaker 3: could be your feede right that energy right, So, so
Speaker 3: smart home technology is integration.
Speaker 1: Oh is that a smart intervention there? Yeah?
Speaker 3: We can we can go ahead, okay, okay, thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, so it has a long chain right from energy
Speaker 3: monitoring and the devices themselves. Right. But in order for
Speaker 3: you to you know, necessarily understand how the ecosysteam works,
Speaker 3: it's all about you know, how automation or acts with
Speaker 3: devices and integration to to to like the likes of
Speaker 3: your mobile phone that you can use to control you
Speaker 3: control everything in your home.
Speaker 1: Nissan, Do you want to add to that? I mean,
Speaker 1: what are you seeing?
Speaker 4: So I think, I mean, a smart home is really
Speaker 4: about the customer. It's the use, it's me and you,
Speaker 4: and so I think the idea of smart home, or
Speaker 4: the evolving of smart home has been around a technology
Speaker 4: they call Internet of Things, which is this idea that
Speaker 4: you know, your fridge traditionally wasn't ever connected to the internet,
Speaker 4: or you know, your kettle or your doorbell, and so
Speaker 4: now things that were in your home for a while
Speaker 4: and now connect to the internet, and what are the
Speaker 4: possibilities of that that integration and that sinking of the
Speaker 4: of those appliances together. So smart home really is around
Speaker 4: the For me, it's around the efficiencies it brings to
Speaker 4: the users of that house by connecting things we wouldn't
Speaker 4: have thought could be connected to the internet.
Speaker 2: So if that's cooled the smart home, I wonder what
Speaker 2: you call a home full of smart people.
Speaker 1: Smart smart home.
Speaker 4: With a lot of books. It's a lot of books into.
Speaker 2: Integrated books nissansor I mean, tell us what's out there?
Speaker 2: I mean, there's so many things like Alexa, Google Home,
Speaker 2: Apple Home Kit, I mean.
Speaker 1: What are they?
Speaker 2: What are we seeing from the lights that are out
Speaker 2: there to the appliances that we can have access to.
Speaker 4: So, Jena, I must tell you I love this topic.
Speaker 4: It's really because I'm not just speaking from a point
Speaker 4: of theory. I've had a smart home in an integrated
Speaker 4: home for a few years now, so experimented as the
Speaker 4: technology has gotten to the mainstream, and so you find
Speaker 4: that Android is probably the leader, at least locally in
Speaker 4: terms of integrating tech and smart homes because I think
Speaker 4: it's it allows the platform is open to a lot
Speaker 4: of third party integrations, which means, you know, you can
Speaker 4: connect a lot into it compared to Apple, So the
Speaker 4: two big ones, Apple and Android, and so what is
Speaker 4: out there. At the very basic level, You've got your
Speaker 4: you know, your lights that you can adjustifire your cell
Speaker 4: phone to the point where your fridge can order groceries
Speaker 4: if it sensors that missing milk and so it can
Speaker 4: tine and order groceries. Or you can control your sound
Speaker 4: by your voice, or you can pause your your Netflix
Speaker 4: as you're watching with your voice. So there's a range
Speaker 4: of solutions, and ultimately it boils on being connected on
Speaker 4: the Internet and sitting on a platform. So Android is
Speaker 4: simply a platform where that integrations happen. But as an example,
Speaker 4: if you have a make of fridge, whether it be
Speaker 4: Algae or whether it be Samsung that has a platform,
Speaker 4: and so a lot of the smart tones do depend
Speaker 4: on what platform you choose to integrate and get the
Speaker 4: value from.
Speaker 2: And Lecedie, what are you seeing? How smart is your home?
Speaker 3: Now? What I have in my house is just as
Speaker 3: smart TV afric Alexa, but I bell implemented it because
Speaker 3: it doesn't support most of the appliances, especially in sortificated
Speaker 3: implemented INCA. So once once the reedit to implement locally,
Speaker 3: I'll be able to use a Lexa.
Speaker 5: And yeah, I also there's smart lighting you know where
Speaker 5: if it's like x p M, I cantroll it just
Speaker 5: you know, you know, light the lights and then it's
Speaker 5: in the morning six am the lights just reach off.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's what I have currently.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's go back to that French because that absolutely
Speaker 2: fascinates me. So say you say you short of milk Nation,
Speaker 2: how does it I mean, what does it do?
Speaker 1: So it alerts you that we've got a shortage of milk.
Speaker 2: Does it get through to pick and pay or checkers
Speaker 2: or Willis or whatever you fancy.
Speaker 1: What's the next step.
Speaker 4: So I think there's stages of automation. So one of
Speaker 4: the things it does is its similar to kind of
Speaker 4: the if you've heard about the Amazon ghost stores, and
Speaker 4: these are stores where there's no cashiers and you go
Speaker 4: in and you pick an item, and you walk out,
Speaker 4: and it automatically knows what you've put into your trolley
Speaker 4: and and it charges you for it. What it does
Speaker 4: is the fridge can either work on image recognition. So
Speaker 4: what you do is you'll have a place to put
Speaker 4: your fridge and I mean for it to put your milk,
Speaker 4: and a place where you put your vegetables. And what
Speaker 4: you do is you'll give it an inventory and you'll say,
Speaker 4: you know, I've now I now added these grosses into you.
Speaker 4: And what it does is it either uses weight or
Speaker 4: it uses image recognition to know actually you're low on
Speaker 4: these on these quantities. And so what you can do
Speaker 4: is you can display the missing items, so it goes
Speaker 4: you know, you need these things because this is what
Speaker 4: you put in the beginning of the month, and now
Speaker 4: you have by the middle of the month, you've you've reduced,
Speaker 4: and this is what you need. But what you can
Speaker 4: also do is you can tighten an automation or smart workflow.
Speaker 4: And so the minute your milk gets below a certain point,
Speaker 4: it can trigger routine. So I don't want to be
Speaker 4: I don't want to use too many because you know,
Speaker 4: when you live in the tech world, you can often
Speaker 4: use words that a lot of people don't necessarily instinctively get.
Speaker 1: So routine, I'll give you an example of it.
Speaker 4: So I'll give you an example of routine. When I
Speaker 4: get up in the morning. I've got a Google Home
Speaker 4: speaker in my bathroom, right and the speaker is part
Speaker 4: of an ecosystem of speakers through my house. And what
Speaker 4: I'll do is I'll go and I won't say hey
Speaker 4: and the word because it'll activate my smart systems in
Speaker 4: my office. But I would say to Google a good morning.
Speaker 4: That routine goes into a its platform, and the minute
Speaker 4: I say good morning, it kicks into several routines. One
Speaker 4: is it gives me time of the day, It gives
Speaker 4: me weather, it tells me how long to get to work.
Speaker 4: I've also added that it must tell me a funny joke.
Speaker 4: I like a good smile on my face in the morning,
Speaker 4: it'll tell me any outstanding tasks I have. So if
Speaker 4: I've put any reminders into into you know, over the
Speaker 4: lo it'll tell me the reminders and perhaps my meetings
Speaker 4: for the day if I have, and how long it
Speaker 4: will take me to get to those meetings. And then
Speaker 4: it goes into my news reports. So there's several like
Speaker 4: tech check or CNBC that often have podcasts that they
Speaker 4: release once a week. It will then play those in
Speaker 4: order that I wanted to find little play raterers. So
Speaker 4: this is the routine I kicked in by simply saying
Speaker 4: good morning. It kicks into this while I'm shaving, brushing
Speaker 4: my teeth, et cetera. And so these are smart workflows,
Speaker 4: and so you build these, you know, as you use
Speaker 4: smart you can build these routines in. And that's how
Speaker 4: the fridge would work. You'd build a routine in and
Speaker 4: it could easily API into your Checkers app and place
Speaker 4: the order.
Speaker 2: Got I do love the idea of that because it
Speaker 2: also focuses you nicely in the morning. For example, if
Speaker 2: you've got everything set up for you, We've got a
Speaker 2: caller on the line from Johannesburg, David who owns a
Speaker 2: business and I think you've got a question around SLA.
Speaker 6: Hello David, Hi, good day.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 6: So we're a company that install for both residential and
Speaker 6: commercial installations. We use a product that is AI driven.
Speaker 6: The products for the residential site will learn your load
Speaker 6: profile and will automatically read the load shedding schedule and
Speaker 6: understand how much battery capacity you need for a two
Speaker 6: hour or four hour load shedding and automatically charge your
Speaker 6: battery ahead of a load shedding should you have not
Speaker 6: enough battery capacity for that's determined load shedding. You can
Speaker 6: also add smart switches on tur its so for excess
Speaker 6: solar you can then heat up your gizer with excess
Speaker 6: solar or run non essentials off the excess solar, like
Speaker 6: your heat, your pool pump, your heat pump for your gizer,
Speaker 6: whatever it might be. For companies, we can also install
Speaker 6: it so that you can take advantage of the different
Speaker 6: time of uses, so you can now snot arbitraging power,
Speaker 6: so you can charge the batteries off grid and then
Speaker 6: discharge it during high peak time off peak and peak,
Speaker 6: so you can make a saving like that, and it's
Speaker 6: all integrated by AI and the system continue learns your
Speaker 6: load profile and continues to improve the efficiency of the
Speaker 6: plant using the assets that you required, either the solar panels, batteries,
Speaker 6: whatever it might be. So it's all a driven.
Speaker 2: And David a premium for that kind of information.
Speaker 6: No, so it all comes standard with the package. The
Speaker 6: product is very very well priced. What comes with a
Speaker 6: ten year warranty on the batteries and the inverters far
Speaker 6: better than what's currently out there with the other products.
Speaker 6: They've only got a five year warranty and it's a
Speaker 6: swap out warranty, so it's it's not a carry in
Speaker 6: repair warranty, and it's all come standard and part and
Speaker 6: parcel of the products, so it rarely very it's a
Speaker 6: it's a very clever system. And for businesses, specifically for
Speaker 6: business big commercials. We can save customers thousands millions in
Speaker 6: a year just by working heavily with the time of use,
Speaker 6: demand charges and so forth. So it's it's a very
Speaker 6: very viable solution for businesses and reservation.
Speaker 2: Sadie, What do you make of that? I should imagine
Speaker 2: you see quite a bit of that in the word
Speaker 2: that you do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely techinically, Jim, Yeah, so I think nowadays, Like
Speaker 3: I referend who stays in the US, right, he got
Speaker 3: one of his houses in so you know what he
Speaker 3: does he cons his home with smart ticketage while it's
Speaker 3: in the US. So I think once we adopt to
Speaker 3: tech and understand how it works, it will be you know,
Speaker 3: efficient and use of the in a on a user's
Speaker 3: perspective to use smart technology definitely is much you know,
Speaker 3: more helpful is spicly going in South Africa.
Speaker 1: Okay, David, thank you very much for those comments.
Speaker 2: And it's wonderful to know what is what's out then
Speaker 2: and what we have access to. I mean a nasion.
Speaker 2: I mean, I suppose smart technology in a way, it
Speaker 2: can make us a whole lot smarter, right once we
Speaker 2: learn how to control the information that goes into it.
Speaker 4: So Jane, it's it's right because technology can't exist by itself,
Speaker 4: so there's no use to it. And so the technology
Speaker 4: by itself, we've got to go what do we want
Speaker 4: it to do? You know? And as an example, I'll
Speaker 4: give you an example recently. Ring. So Ring is mostly
Speaker 4: in America, but Ring is a digitized doorbell. So what
Speaker 4: it is is it's a doorbell that has a camera,
Speaker 4: on it, and so in America it's quite popular and
Speaker 4: Ring recently announced that they have AI built into their platform.
Speaker 4: So what they will do for premium users is that
Speaker 4: if somebody rings your doorbell, it will automatically identify who
Speaker 4: it is and it will send you a message to say,
Speaker 4: this person is at your door. Now that's quite interesting
Speaker 4: because some people people would say, well, is that not
Speaker 4: an invasion? You know, like what sort of information are
Speaker 4: they collecting to be able to identify me? While other
Speaker 4: people might say, I'd love to know before I open
Speaker 4: my camera and look at it and open the door,
Speaker 4: I'd love for an ogation to say, you know, Jane's
Speaker 4: at the door, Niches at the door, or you know
Speaker 4: that mother in law is at the door. You know,
Speaker 4: you'd love that kind of information. But people have a
Speaker 4: different view on it. Is it about being too invasive
Speaker 4: or it does it add value? And ultimately it's got
Speaker 4: to be where it'd add value. So the previous caller
Speaker 4: talked about a system that adds value, and that's what
Speaker 4: you've got to decide is how much is going to
Speaker 4: add value? Because maybe a fridge that's going to cost
Speaker 4: you one hundred thousand ran that simply tells you what's
Speaker 4: missing in the fridge is maybe doesn't add as much
Speaker 4: value as you like, but perhaps speakers that you could say,
Speaker 4: please play a song for me and you anyway in
Speaker 4: the house and it plays that song could be massively
Speaker 4: valuable to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a listener wants to know the name of
Speaker 2: that fridge. I mean, where do you find these fridges
Speaker 2: and how much can you pay?
Speaker 4: So they are quite extensive. So the fridges that have
Speaker 4: that are connected to the Internet and they generally have
Speaker 4: LEDs LED displays on the front of the fridge. I
Speaker 4: know Algae and Samsung and there's some boutique technology companies
Speaker 4: that are working on it. Those fridges. They are going
Speaker 4: to be very expensive. So you would look at probably
Speaker 4: close to one hundred or two hundred thousand rand for
Speaker 4: a fridge that will tell you what's missing in it.
Speaker 4: The capability is there, and the question is whether you
Speaker 4: know any new technology is massively EXPERI I remember when
Speaker 4: I started experimenting in the space, it was expensive to
Speaker 4: buy my first Google speakers, but as time went by,
Speaker 4: an Xbox had it integrated as part of its console.
Speaker 4: So now I had it into Greatest as part of
Speaker 4: the tech I was buying. And so now the price
Speaker 4: point has dropped significantly to be able to automate QR
Speaker 4: I mean little NFC tags that can enable some of
Speaker 4: this automation. Sometimes five rand for a little sticker. So
Speaker 4: the price has come down, but it's almost separating the
Speaker 4: trend from what is functional in your life and what
Speaker 4: will become useful for you.
Speaker 2: Nicka from Polokwania, I have that answers the question about
Speaker 2: the fridge, and le said Nicko also wanted to know.
Speaker 1: About the TV.
Speaker 2: You were talking about the smart TV, but I think
Speaker 2: what you were saying was that maybe it's not smart enough.
Speaker 1: You could definitely go smarter. What direction would you go?
Speaker 7: Okay?
Speaker 3: I would say, you know and the best when it
Speaker 3: comes to smart TV, so that like basic stuff like
Speaker 3: you know, your Netflix, intact it with your Gmail account
Speaker 3: so that it can have access to all of those
Speaker 3: so so so the smartest of the television, it's more
Speaker 3: around you know, asking the's a Netflix switch, say if
Speaker 3: you want to to to watch at that stage or
Speaker 3: you could easy to go to you know, any other
Speaker 3: channel and you know, use your voice to access the
Speaker 3: til that you want to you want to watch at
Speaker 3: that stage smaller tis that we have currently that we use.
Speaker 1: And process.
Speaker 2: Smart technology to help me to be more efficient with
Speaker 2: energy or to improve security is absolutely a necessity. But
Speaker 2: a smart fridge is an absolute waste of money and
Speaker 2: promotes laziness. Just check what needs you need yourself, stand
Speaker 2: up and go and buy it.
Speaker 1: I mean he's got a good point, hasn't.
Speaker 2: I mean, do you do you think the smart technology
Speaker 2: starts to make us lazy? Do we start relying on
Speaker 2: on this technology when actual fact we should be doing
Speaker 2: it ourselves.
Speaker 4: Jane, you know there was I was sorry, Sorry, sorry,
Speaker 4: I got ahead. Oh okay, I was saying that, Jay.
Speaker 4: I mean recent research came out that said that, you know,
Speaker 4: use of chatch Ept like jenitebay I can actually make
Speaker 4: us dumber and and and I think the question is
Speaker 4: about what skill do you need to experiment now that
Speaker 4: will become a norm in the future. So uh, it's
Speaker 4: it's I think I believe it is necessary to experiment
Speaker 4: with technology in your home. So if you, if you
Speaker 4: allow me, I'll give you an example. I've got a
Speaker 4: I've got an h old daughter, and I've been talking
Speaker 4: to my house for many years, you know, asking it
Speaker 4: to for a recipe to play a song, to pause
Speaker 4: the TV, to switch on the lights, and children learn
Speaker 4: from what you do and h The other day, I
Speaker 4: was at gym and my my Spotify account. The song
Speaker 4: I was listening to completely changed, and I was wondering,
Speaker 4: what is going on into some Korean kind of song,
Speaker 4: you know, k pop, And so I changed it back
Speaker 4: and it changed again, and I realized that what had
Speaker 4: happened was my daughter was engaging with my home So
Speaker 4: she was chatting to my Android system, my Google home
Speaker 4: hub and asking it to play a song that she
Speaker 4: had heard on TV or something she watched on Netflix.
Speaker 4: And so she had learned to engage. Maybe so she
Speaker 4: had engaged with that technology, and so she has now
Speaker 4: learned to skill to how you ask technology to give
Speaker 4: you something, because there's a very specific way you've got
Speaker 4: to ask it to play a song on Spotify, so
Speaker 4: not just a song on its native app, but through
Speaker 4: a specific platform. And so now I've got to actually
Speaker 4: create a profile for her in a voice print for
Speaker 4: her because she's engaging with the technology. And so I
Speaker 4: believe that the needy is we've got to experiment with
Speaker 4: the technology, We've got to play with it, because if
Speaker 4: we don't, then the future is going to pass us by.
Speaker 4: So the minute we have more tech, think of smartphones.
Speaker 4: You know you we removed but from smartphones. If we
Speaker 4: weren't playing with the technology and need it in our life,
Speaker 4: we would never have We never learned the skill of
Speaker 4: operating a phone without buttons, and now zero buttons on
Speaker 4: the phone. And so the question is what's skilled do
Speaker 4: you want to learn in terms of tech that's going
Speaker 4: to add value to your life going forward. So I
Speaker 4: do believe you have to experiment with it. Maybe it
Speaker 4: isn't the fridge, because the fridge is I do agree,
Speaker 4: you've got to get up and look at what's in
Speaker 4: your fridge.
Speaker 2: We all want to know that we can afford it,
Speaker 2: but maybe we shouldn't go that route.
Speaker 4: But there's other aspects where it's good to learn. It's
Speaker 4: good to know how you engage with your voice assistant
Speaker 4: on your phone. Why because you don't want to touch
Speaker 4: your phone when you're driving. But if you know how
Speaker 4: to engage with your assistant, you can easily make a call,
Speaker 4: sender WhatsApp, check your messages without picking up your phone,
Speaker 4: and that could be useful as well as safe.
Speaker 2: All right, we're speaking about managing transforming modern homes and
Speaker 2: what it is that you need to do to upgrade
Speaker 2: your home to get a smart home with my guests
Speaker 2: Nasion Pillay and lace Le Bojo, and we're going to
Speaker 2: be taking your questions and your WhatsApp notes which have
Speaker 2: been coming through seven or two masterclass, so master Class
Speaker 2: today Smart Living, How technology is transforming modern homes.
Speaker 1: Norman has sent us a voice.
Speaker 7: Note, Good afternoon, Jane. Very interesting topic, nomen in pretoria.
Speaker 7: But what I'd like to find out is what happens
Speaker 7: if you take a system like the ring that he's
Speaker 7: talking about. What happens then when the authorities come and say,
Speaker 7: we would love to have access to this system, so
Speaker 7: that if your system recognizes the most wanted medaer that
Speaker 7: the police have been chasing and it says that this
Speaker 7: person is outside the door at XYZ address, we want
Speaker 7: to be able to get that inform mention immediately from
Speaker 7: your system and then being able to act. Would the
Speaker 7: company that runs this system have their right to say no?
Speaker 7: Or does a country just basically make a rule and
Speaker 7: a law that then makes it impossible for them to
Speaker 7: say no?
Speaker 2: JHN Nasion soon as you brought up that doorbell, would
Speaker 2: you like to answer that?
Speaker 4: Thanks, Jane, I'm having a good smile because it is
Speaker 4: often with technology were the fear is the first thing
Speaker 4: that comes up, right, like what happens with our data?
Speaker 4: And this was an interesting case. I mean, ultimately it's
Speaker 4: about trust, and so the question is the brands you're
Speaker 4: engaging with, do you trust them? So there was a
Speaker 4: case in America where Apple, they had actually asked Apple
Speaker 4: for data and Apple had said no, and they went
Speaker 4: into a court case where the government wanted data. And
Speaker 4: so the question is do you trust ring to be
Speaker 4: able to protect your data and not use it? So,
Speaker 4: as an example, I always think of you know, we
Speaker 4: see those Vooma tel towers, you know the cameras they're
Speaker 4: all over Jannersberg. They've got cameras and they and they
Speaker 4: ultimately have some version of AI or software built in
Speaker 4: where it's image number plate recognition, and so the question
Speaker 4: is do we trust that they are keeping the data
Speaker 4: for themselves? So, as an example, if I wanted to
Speaker 4: track a cheating partner, can I have access on a
Speaker 4: prepaid basis to track a number plate and see where
Speaker 4: it goes around the city? You know, the question is
Speaker 4: do you trust that the intention you give your data
Speaker 4: for is used? So Poppy says, the intention whatever you
Speaker 4: signed off that data, so you signed off the contract,
Speaker 4: the intention that you had it must be used for that.
Speaker 4: But we know with spam calling, we know, you know,
Speaker 4: databases and information gets shared, and so for me, it
Speaker 4: always comes down to how much do you trust. I've
Speaker 4: got a lot of information in the Android ecosystem, but
Speaker 4: it's because it's given me value, It's given me no
Speaker 4: reason to doubt it, and I trust it, whereas other
Speaker 4: people it might be a different experience. For me, it's
Speaker 4: it's not. It doesn't come down to the ts and cs.
Speaker 4: It comes down to reputation and trust of the brand
Speaker 4: that you're engaging with, because they ultimately hold you down
Speaker 4: the city.
Speaker 2: I mean, what sort of research should you do? What
Speaker 2: should you be looking for when you're buying this type
Speaker 2: of equipment?
Speaker 1: What are the red flags?
Speaker 3: I think what you need to do is to, let's
Speaker 3: say Phillips that has the specific the technology you need to,
Speaker 3: you know, go through their website and research more at
Speaker 3: the product that they have because they're the ones who
Speaker 3: knows more about the product, right they will tell you, you know,
Speaker 3: the posts and contact at the product. You know how
Speaker 3: efficiency the product is, you know, how can the product
Speaker 3: help you, you know those kinds of things. Yeah, so
Speaker 3: what I would say, I would say, uh, research base
Speaker 3: is more into you know, going through their website to
Speaker 3: understand specifically what that products have. You know, more information
Speaker 3: about the product.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, somebody has asked how we get in touch
Speaker 2: with both of you, and we can get that information
Speaker 2: out just closer to the top of the hour, so
Speaker 2: we will get onto that. Jackie sent a funny message
Speaker 2: saying jen z z z lived dangerously answering the phone
Speaker 2: without knowing who's calling, and swinging milk from the fridge
Speaker 2: past itself by date.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely right.
Speaker 2: A message here from Sarana saying, Hi, Jen currently have
Speaker 2: about twenty nine smart devices, ranging from air cons speakers, lights,
Speaker 2: humidifier and heaters. But I can never find myself buying
Speaker 2: a fridge and washing machine. They're not smart enough yet
Speaker 2: you still have to put the dishes and laundry and
Speaker 2: that's the hard part. The downside is the subscription costs
Speaker 2: to many devices.
Speaker 1: Nission.
Speaker 4: It is because you know, there's a model called platform
Speaker 4: business model and platform business models is where like Android,
Speaker 4: it's not on the devices where they make their money.
Speaker 4: They make their money on the platform, which is the software.
Speaker 4: And so quite often it's a subscription service. So as
Speaker 4: an example, I don't want ads on my YouTube, I
Speaker 4: pay for a description. I want Spotify to not play
Speaker 4: with ads. I purchase a premium Spotify and so annuity
Speaker 4: income is key for a lot of these tech which
Speaker 4: is income that is recurring, and so there's a lot
Speaker 4: of subscriptions for the different services use. So my advice
Speaker 4: on the cost is try to pick an ecosystem. To
Speaker 4: try to find an ecosystem, I've chosen Android, and so
Speaker 4: as an example, any connectors, I'll buy a dumb TV
Speaker 4: as an example, I'll buy a standard TV that doesn't
Speaker 4: have any smart capabilities, and I would buy a media
Speaker 4: player Android media Player, and I connect it to the
Speaker 4: smart TV. I'm into the dumb TV and what it does.
Speaker 4: It gives me the functions of a smart TV, but
Speaker 4: in an Android ecosystem, so I don't have to be
Speaker 4: on a Samsung Eco half the while. Yeah, exactly. So
Speaker 4: it's it's value for money I would and so I
Speaker 4: would buy so I wouldn't buy a smart light. What
Speaker 4: I would do is buy it and excuse it me
Speaker 4: calling it dumb, you know, but I would buy a
Speaker 4: dumb light, and I would I would buy a little
Speaker 4: switcher that connects to the internet that simply turns the
Speaker 4: electricity on and off on that light, and so I
Speaker 4: can talk to my my Google ecosystem and I can
Speaker 4: switch the light on and off, even though I'm not
Speaker 4: paying the cost and getting into a different platform of
Speaker 4: a different lighting system.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's stick with costs.
Speaker 2: Let's say, I mean, how realistic is it for the
Speaker 2: average South African to adopt smart home solutions? Is there
Speaker 2: a good way of getting in getting your toe in there?
Speaker 2: I mean, do you start with plugs? Are they smart plugs?
Speaker 2: What's your advice?
Speaker 3: So I would say you would start with, you know,
Speaker 3: small devices that are avoriable. I'd seen you know, turners
Speaker 3: and marketplace where you can buy the same product that
Speaker 3: some song silly you could also go through to say
Speaker 3: you do I apply it to ali that devices that
Speaker 3: do cheaper than buying from some some which will you
Speaker 3: know add more quostly And so I would say, rather
Speaker 3: you do your research on you know which other bands
Speaker 3: are there are that cheaper that you can go for.
Speaker 1: And nishan if you were to start.
Speaker 2: I mean, one of the things in my home that
Speaker 2: drives me absolutely bonkers is plugs. And I've got, you know,
Speaker 2: one plug and it's got the wire coming out and
Speaker 2: four wires coming out. I can't stand. It drives me mad.
Speaker 2: I don't know if there is a smart plug option
Speaker 2: out there. I mean, is that a good way of starting?
Speaker 2: Should you start with that kind of framework? Let's get
Speaker 2: the plugs in, let's get that talking to the TV?
Speaker 1: What what way?
Speaker 4: I would say? I mean it always comes down to
Speaker 4: the value to you, because you could follow a trend
Speaker 4: and it adds no value to you and it becomes
Speaker 4: you know, it becomes useless in your life. I would find,
Speaker 4: what is the thing that you want to automate? Is
Speaker 4: it you don't like putting the light on and off
Speaker 4: on your bedside table? You want to which the fountain
Speaker 4: on outside, but you don't want to walk outside and
Speaker 4: turn them and put on the plug. Do you want
Speaker 4: to pause your TV? Do you want? You know, find
Speaker 4: the thing you want? You know, for some people it
Speaker 4: might and for a lot of people, I mean friends
Speaker 4: have given this advice to their coffee machines. So quite
Speaker 4: often that you know, you don't want to go to
Speaker 4: the coffee machine, you groggy in the morning and then
Speaker 4: have to turn it on and now wait for it.
Speaker 4: And so you like that it comes on at a
Speaker 4: certain time and when you go down, it's nice, it's hot,
Speaker 4: it's perfect drinking temperature, ready to go. And so a
Speaker 4: lot of people go, Okay, I've got this coffee machine.
Speaker 4: Let me buy a smart plug. And then once that
Speaker 4: plug is smart, once that that, once you've connected that
Speaker 4: plug to the internet and your platform, you could put
Speaker 4: on and off times. You can. You can talk to
Speaker 4: your phone say switch on the coffee machine and it will.
Speaker 4: It will then actricity on, it'll it will switch on.
Speaker 4: And you know, you can get these things as cheap
Speaker 4: as one hundred to one hundred and fifty rand for
Speaker 4: a Wi Fi enabled plug. And so it's simply it's
Speaker 4: between your electricity and your device and it's simply an
Speaker 4: on and off switch. But it's connected to the internet.
Speaker 4: And I mean recently, I mean I always like stories, Jane.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you another one. I was buying bulbs for
Speaker 4: the house and my daughter said, I said, what color
Speaker 4: cool white or warm white? And she went rainbow color.
Speaker 4: I went, okay, but you know that's not gonna work.
Speaker 4: But through that conversation we ended up buying a Wi
Speaker 4: Fi enabled bulb for her for her night light, and
Speaker 4: so now she can actually change the color of a
Speaker 4: night light because the bulb changes color, and so that
Speaker 4: for her added maximum value and it's simply a way
Speaker 4: to engage with technology.
Speaker 1: Fascinating. God, She's going to be the coolest little kid,
Speaker 1: isn't she.
Speaker 2: We're going to keep talking about how technology is transforming
Speaker 2: modern homes and how to go about It's a quick
Speaker 2: spot break Nextler two masters. All right, we're talking about
Speaker 2: how to make your home smart. And there is a
Speaker 2: question here about home equipment has been very susceptible to
Speaker 2: lightning damage and expensive to replace.
Speaker 1: Let's SAIDI do you want to answer that that's a problem,
Speaker 1: isn't it?
Speaker 3: Yes? Yes, it does you know affect you know as
Speaker 3: so what I would say is that you know, some brands,
Speaker 3: it's difficult for them to fix that you know product
Speaker 3: like at that specific time. It might take you know
Speaker 3: some time to go and fix it. But I would
Speaker 3: say it is better if you know the company isn't
Speaker 3: isn't in the certificate market. It does you know, local
Speaker 3: support where they could do it locally and then fix
Speaker 3: it in in tailia as.
Speaker 2: Let's say Lebojo, Managing director of tech Roid Solutions. I'm
Speaker 2: going to put this voice note to you, nishi and
Speaker 2: academic in the digital transformation space, let's listen to it.
Speaker 1: It's from Kyle Jane.
Speaker 8: The smart home debate always needs to come down to
Speaker 8: what do you expect something to do. I think we
Speaker 8: watched The Iron Man once and thought that a smart
Speaker 8: home can do all of that. To some degree, it can,
Speaker 8: but if you're going to go down this streete, it's
Speaker 8: important to look into your options. There's an open source
Speaker 8: platform called homer Systems that most people use, and this
Speaker 8: allows all smart devices, or almost all smart devices, to
Speaker 8: talk to almost all other smart devices, so you're not
Speaker 8: stuck onto one company's platform.
Speaker 4: For example, I.
Speaker 3: Have my cameras.
Speaker 8: My cameras can act as therefore as motion sensors, and
Speaker 8: if it's a cat that opens up the water sprinklers
Speaker 8: and sprays cats that come into my property. So none
Speaker 8: of those or all of those four different systems are
Speaker 8: from four different companies, but you are able to allow
Speaker 8: them to integrate into one central.
Speaker 2: Huby Nicham, would you like to respond to that? And
Speaker 2: I must say, it sounds confusing. Is it something that
Speaker 2: somebody like me could do?
Speaker 4: So the Jane, the thing is it's around trying and
Speaker 4: error and trial and error. So you know, sometimes we
Speaker 4: talk about the use cases, like the first time we
Speaker 4: did it, it worked, and I'm sure the caller before
Speaker 4: before he got the system working in terms of the
Speaker 4: sprinklers and the cat and the and the and the cameras,
Speaker 4: there was probably a lot of trial and error and failure.
Speaker 4: And we often think failure is a bad thing, but
Speaker 4: it's not because that's where the learning comes from. And
Speaker 4: so you've got to be able to experiment. So Jane,
Speaker 4: to answer your question directly, it's not you can absolutely
Speaker 4: get into this. It's simply if you go into a
Speaker 4: store and you buy a smart plug or you audit online,
Speaker 4: you plug it into your coffee machine, you're connected via
Speaker 4: the instruction. Now you've got your coffee machine working, but
Speaker 4: maybe you can't get the right voice, and then you're
Speaker 4: experimenting with how to get the right time to activate
Speaker 4: the coffee. Then that adds maximum value you go, you
Speaker 4: know what, I'd love to automate that reading light. And
Speaker 4: then you try that, and maybe you'll try a different plug.
Speaker 4: And so it really is when it comes to technology,
Speaker 4: because it's shifting all the time, and the more we
Speaker 4: use it, the cost keeps on going down, you know,
Speaker 4: economies of scale. Yes, we have to be experimenting with this.
Speaker 4: We have to be trying this out, and we have
Speaker 4: to be playing with the with the tech and the
Speaker 4: systems to find out what works best for us.
Speaker 2: You've mentioned your daughter and how she sounds very tech savvy.
Speaker 2: But is there a danger for kids here in this world?
Speaker 2: What sort of measures can you put in place to
Speaker 2: make sure that they don't face any dangers they're not exposed.
Speaker 4: From experience? As an example, the tech in myles is
Speaker 4: not mobile, so the speaker she's talking to, engaging with
Speaker 4: is stationary. She can't lift it up and walk with it.
Speaker 4: And one of that is that she has to physically
Speaker 4: go to somewhere to interact. And I think that physical
Speaker 4: activity is important. Technology shouldn't prevent us from or disrupt
Speaker 4: our humanness, our ability to be active and get outside,
Speaker 4: and so we must have a balance. It must make
Speaker 4: our life easy and how we protect this is if
Speaker 4: we feel that technology is disrupting our ability to socialize,
Speaker 4: our ability to interact, our ability to go outside, our
Speaker 4: ability to appreciate a conversation, then we need to think
Speaker 4: about Okay, hold on, is it too much of technology?
Speaker 4: Have we have? We have we disrupted something that's useful
Speaker 4: for something that is not, but ware it adds value
Speaker 4: and adds to our life. So, as an example, I
Speaker 4: love that my daughter can play a song because she
Speaker 4: wants to dance with me, or she wants to dance
Speaker 4: while we're cooking in the kitchen. But now that she
Speaker 4: can interact with it by a voice, she doesn't have
Speaker 4: to now get a phone in a different device. It's
Speaker 4: a natural way she interacts to add value to what
Speaker 4: she's doing. And I think that's the key, because you know,
Speaker 4: you can say limits screen times. You know that we've
Speaker 4: read a lot about this, but each individual is different,
Speaker 4: each parent is different. We've just got to focus on
Speaker 4: what is healthy behavior and what is not as human beings.
Speaker 1: How concerned are you about that? Lessay?
Speaker 2: I mean, what do you see when it comes to
Speaker 2: these spaces and kids and how to protect them?
Speaker 3: Okay? So I would say, like for you, let's say
Speaker 3: if your kids using mobile device, as a parent, you
Speaker 3: can have full control on the mobile device so that
Speaker 3: maybe they can they cannot do no access proloctly, for example,
Speaker 3: and you know stuff that you know it will be
Speaker 3: beat for them. So I would say you put measures
Speaker 3: in place where you could have control over the device
Speaker 3: so that you can be able to block stuff that
Speaker 3: you know are not necessarily for the kids to look at.
Speaker 2: And Nissa, what's what's coming up next? What's coming up
Speaker 2: in the next five years? I should imagine it's hard
Speaker 2: to guess, right because it's changing so quickly.
Speaker 4: For me, there's probably two things. One is proactive tech.
Speaker 4: So you know, I work in a business that manages
Speaker 4: insurance and manages properties, and one of the things we've
Speaker 4: seen is devices connected onto geezers to tell you before
Speaker 4: it's about to you know, bust or tells you when
Speaker 4: something needs maintenance or a car perhaps needs maintenance, or
Speaker 4: something's gone. And so proactive risk, I think we're going
Speaker 4: to see a massive trend in that. And that's talks
Speaker 4: to ring being able to identify users because it proactively
Speaker 4: identifies who you don't know and warns you before you
Speaker 4: get to the door that there's a stranger. And so
Speaker 4: we're going to see the rise of automation and devices
Speaker 4: that's going to be more proactive to add value to
Speaker 4: our life. And the second one is I think location
Speaker 4: devices are going to want to know where we are.
Speaker 4: If we walk into a room, it's going to want
Speaker 4: to know we walked into that room. Why because we
Speaker 4: might want a certain light to come on as we
Speaker 4: walk in and certain music to play. Maybe we want
Speaker 4: the TV to come on so we don't have to
Speaker 4: reach for the remote. And so in terms of home automation,
Speaker 4: I'm going to I predict a rise in proactive technology
Speaker 4: and also location, so so it really understands who you
Speaker 4: are and knows where you are.
Speaker 1: Saidie, what what excites you? And what is your message?
Speaker 2: To any of the listeners who want to get into
Speaker 2: this briefly.
Speaker 9: If you will, I would say take a little of
Speaker 9: Jack said me, because you know we have we have people,
Speaker 9: we are busy, right, we don't have time, so we
Speaker 9: need convenience.
Speaker 3: So once we have convenience in your home. Once once
Speaker 3: you have convenience may be through your phone. You know
Speaker 3: you would be able to attend to methos that you
Speaker 3: know needs your attention, your full attention, all.
Speaker 2: Right, and if somebody wants to get hold of you,
Speaker 2: how do they go about that?
Speaker 4: My number.
Speaker 3: To six. So we have our company website which is
Speaker 3: w take it solution to sue the city?
Speaker 1: All right, thank you very much for that.
Speaker 2: And Nissa and your your word of advice to anyone
Speaker 2: who wants to get in wats any red flags? Any
Speaker 2: any If you could sum up this conversation, what what
Speaker 2: would the takeaway be?
Speaker 4: Don't be afraid, you know it's that he checked his
Speaker 4: guide to the galaxy. Don't panic, don't be afraid. There's
Speaker 4: accessible technology out there. Don't be afraid of it. Experiment
Speaker 4: with the pilot, go small, and don't just think it's
Speaker 4: for a younger generation. My you know, over at old
Speaker 4: grandfather happily does internet banking on his tablet. And so
Speaker 4: technology isn't for for certain ages. It's your willingness and
Speaker 4: hunger to experiment and and fail and fail and then
Speaker 4: finally succeed and grow and learn. And that's that's my advice.
Speaker 4: So don't panic, it's going to be okay, but try
Speaker 4: out technology.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Just want to put this question to you from a
Speaker 2: security point of view. I mean, so much that we
Speaker 2: do now is reliant on our face face recognition, finger recognition.
Speaker 2: Is it safe to put your home in that sort
Speaker 2: of environment with that sort of technology overseas?
Speaker 4: So it is a lot of the reputable platforms are
Speaker 4: encrypted and so they have security layers built in. Example,
Speaker 4: if you have a camera in your house, you can't
Speaker 4: just access that camera if you're in a Wi Fi.
Speaker 4: It requires you to be very close to the camera physically.
Speaker 4: It acquires a log into that platform. So my advice
Speaker 4: for you, if you experiment within, stay within trusted ecosystems,
Speaker 4: reputable ecosystems. You know there's millions of reviews out there.
Speaker 4: Stick within reputable ecosystems to maintain your security. Make sure
Speaker 4: there's passwords and protects and encryption between the technology and
Speaker 4: the world.
Speaker 1: And if anyone wants to get hold of you, how
Speaker 1: do they go about that?
Speaker 4: The easiest way is through my LinkedIn profile. So I'm
Speaker 4: managing director of ASI Financial Services niche PLA n I
Speaker 4: s H A n p I double l A Y
Speaker 4: over LinkedIn. I'm very responsive on direct messages and you'll
Speaker 4: also see some of my thought leadership there as.
Speaker 1: Well, nih PLA and the Cite Leboro. Good to talk
Speaker 1: to you.