Emaar leads in smart home living

The e-Home system from Sahm Technologies, an Emaar subsidiary, transforms houses into homes that think for themselves by allowing residents to view, control and programme their living environment through the integration of control systems for air conditioning, lighting, security, audio-visual entertainment devices and home appliances.

Omar Saudi, Sahm sales & marketing manager, said: "Technology vendors are developing a wide range of applications with the aim of improving residential quality of life, but Sahm is taking the lead by integrating these technologies in to a practical system that enhances the lifestyle of residents.

"Often in-home technology ends up confusing rather than simplifying life but e-Home makes living easier and more enjoyable and offers peace of mind."

The system, which is now exclusively available in all Emaar properties, controls the living environment through an in-home touch screen control pad or via web access from anywhere in the world.

Positioned as a lifestyle enhancer, home automation systems are increasingly popular in Europe and the United States following the trend set by Microsoft chief Bill Gates who spent many millions automating his home when the technology was in its infancy.

Many installations, however, are stand-alone single residences and, although networked trials have taken place on cluster developments, the Sahm project with Emaar is believed to be the world's largest networked smart home enabled project.

"Emaar is not just selling properties, it is offering a lifestyle that compares with any in the world," said Omar Saudi. "The company is an innovator and its homes are technologically superior to those of other developers in the market."

Sahm expects demand for the novel system to grow rapidly with the introduction of a wider range of smart web-enabled appliances from major consumer goods manufacturers.

The system can be integrated into any home theatre system and the touch panel can control all in-home audio-visual components such as TV monitor, lighting, DVD player, projectors and music systems, while music and radio stations can be piped to multiple points around the home.

e-Home also features round the clock monitoring of security and building services alarms and sensors. If there is someone at the door or movement has been detected in the pool area, the surveillance cameras record images and display them on the touch pad screen or TV monitor.

Emaar residents can also be kept informed of their security or building services status when they are away from home. The 24 hour remote monitoring service will alert customers via e-mail or SMS messages of any problems by capturing and transmitting digital images and then carry out pre-assigned instructions in the event of an emergency.

Setting up any Emaar property as a smart home environment is a straightforward process. All homes have the basic wiring pre-installed leaving residents to simply choose the range of automation services they require from Sahm.

Trials have indicated that e-Home reduces electricity and water utility bills because residents can remotely monitor and modify high power appliances and systems like the air conditioning and swimming pool pump.

Sahm is the Emaar technology and communications company that provides state of the art infrastructure to all the development company's projects.

In addition to e-Home, the company also provides high speed internet services and advanced IP telephony services and early next year it is launching an IP based Entertainment on Demand service which delivers Digital Interactive Television (iTV), Video-on-Demand (VoD), Music-on-Demand, Games-on-Demand, Networked Personal Video Recording (n-PVR) and Internet Multi-Media Streaming.