With the smart-home market often singularly focused on expanding access to voice activation features, we were pleased to see NuBryte emphasize the potential convenience offered by wall-mounted home automation consoles, a posture realized by their new Touchpoint system. We first saw the system at the 2017 NAHB International Builders’ Show (IBS) in Orlando, Florida, where the company was showcasing Touchpoint and the soon-to-be-released Smart Switch series in their booth―fittingly located in the CEDIA Smart Home Pavilion.
“Recent market research shows that over 70% of homeowners interested in home automation want built-in home security, followed by over 50% of them looking for automated lighting,” said NyBryte co-founder and CEO Alan Yuan. “What makes NuBryte different is that our groundbreaking technology incorporates both of these must-have features, along with several others like energy monitoring and wireless intercom, into a single solution, giving homeowners a platform to actively protect and connect their whole home.”
Available in single and dual-switch configurations, NuBryte Touchpoint replaces the standard light switch and enables a broad range of smart-home, security, and convenience features beyond the expected elegant lighting control capabilities.
The heart of the NuBryte system is Touchpoint, an elegant touchscreen replacement or retrofit for the standard light switch. In addition to control over lighting, the system incorporates a built-in security camera, intercom, and what NuBryte calls Home Hub―access to weather data, temperature and humidity monitoring, calendar, and more―from a series of tabbed touchscreen pages. Touchpoint comes in both single- and dual-switch configurations.
An available NuBryte app for Apple iOS and Android extends many of the same smart-home capabilities to smartphones, to facilitate both in-home as well as remote access to home automation technology.
Steven Gutteridge, the company’s vice president of product development, demonstrated the products for us. “We are excited after our announcements at CES 2017 where we unveiled integration of Google Calendar with our NuBryte Family Calendar, and integration with Amazon Alexa for voice control,” said Gutteridge, as he tapped the bright Touchpoint LCD touchscreen to display the various capabilities.
Up to 4 NuBryte Smart Switches can be paired from a single lighting switchbox.
The new Smart Switches are coming in Summer 2017 and can extend many of the same NuBryte smart light switch services throughout the home―and up to four of the switches can be paired at a single switchbox. Another key element of the NuBryte system is Link, a flat-form-factor integration hub that connects the Wi-Fi-based Touchpoint with ZigBee-based Smart Switches. Link simply plugs directly into any wall outlet.
We are planning an in-depth review of the NuBryte system, where we will bring the products into our Digitized.House Zero Energy Living Lab, a living and breathing smart home. Stay tuned.
