HORIZON WEST Imagine being able to turn on lights, close draperies and monitor security cameras in your home with the tap of a button or touch of a smartphone app.
Horizon West resident and tech expert Dwayne Ward can make that happen with the help of some well-placed wiring and his knowledge of programming and installation. He started his own company, Simple Home Tech, just more than a year ago to offer these services.
Ward has always loved technology and previously worked for a phone company and a large-scale, low-voltage company. However, after he got laid off from both of those jobs, he decided it was time to open his own business — Simple Home Tech was born.
Ward gained most of his experience working with the phone and electric companies and continues to research technology and electricity, as well as attend online trainings. He will be going to a training out of state this fall. In this field, with ever-evolving technology, continuing education is vital to running a tech-related business.
“I have a pretty strong networking background,” Ward said. “When I was with the phone company I did a lot of developing systems for neighborhoods and stuff like that. I’ve always been into integrating technology in the home and controlling things from my phone.”
Simple Home Tech works on everything from television installations to full-home automation systems and everything in between. Installation of security cameras, home-theater systems, WiFi and draperies in a house — and controlling it all with the ease of one app — is sometimes referred to as creating a “smart home.” Another name for it is home automation.
“If you want the lights to come on at a certain time and the shades to come open, those things will happen automatically,” he said. “We’ve worked with everything, from a guy that lives in an apartment who just wanted a TV installed to 15,000-square-foot homes where everything can be turned on from a remote device.”
Music throughout the whole house is another type of integrated system, which allows occupants in different rooms to listen to their own music. For example, one person can have country music playing on the porch, another can be listening to rock bands in the kitchen, and someone in the bedroom can be listening to Top 40 music.
Ward also works on landscape lighting, which focuses on “painting a picture with light.” This is done with low-voltage wire buried under the ground.
“You match light intensities and colors to the types of plants you have to make things stand out and pop,” he said.
The main issue in creating and installing home-automation systems and more is figuring out where the wiring in each house is located and determining whether it is compatible with the requested system. Ward mainly installs tech systems in homes that have already been built, but he has also worked on homes that are new or under construction.
“If it’s new construction you’re starting from blueprints, engineering the system and designing the blueprints for the wiring,” he said. “The install, program and testing takes a couple of weeks. If it’s an existing home it’s a little more difficult because there might not be wires where there need to be, so you may have to use wireless technologies or find out how to get those wires where they need to be.”
Once the wiring is solved, installation, programming and testing unfold from that point. Ward tries to keep prices reasonable for his clients and works to find space- and price-savvy solutions for everyone, whether they live in an apartment or a mansion. Additionally, all of the systems are low voltage and won’t make the energy bills skyrocket.
“Because all of it is LED it has very little effect on the energy consumption,” Ward said. “There’s also energy-monitoring services built in to a lot of the systems, so you can go in and see what your usage is and get estimates on light bills.”
Three of the most popular services Ward offers are the installation of home-theater systems, security cameras and TV installations. Prices depend on the project at hand, the wiring locations, exterior walls and other variables, but a typical camera installation can start at $2,000, depending on how much wiring has to be put in. Home-theater systems vary but can start in the $1,000 range if the wiring is already in place, and TV installations start at around $200.
Although he is based in Horizon West, Ward provides his services to people all over the Central Florida metro area. He’s had clients in Eustis, Lake Nona, Winter Park and even Davenport, in addition to locals in Windermere and Winter Garden.
Eventually, Ward said, he wants to get to a point where he can have more employees and continue to both offer and expand services that allow people to access their homes remotely. One of his biggest hopes is to have a brick-and-mortar showroom so he can demonstrate his products.
However small and simple or large and complicated the task at hand is, though, Ward is always happy to help anyone with any technology-related needs they may have.
8:30 PM: PANEL: Seanan McGuire (Mira Grant) on “Shipwreck: Literary Erotic Fan Fiction Competition,” Shop Studios, Level 4, 528 W 39th St
To celebrate the upcoming release of his new novel FELLSIDE (UK | US | ANZ), M. R. Carey will be appearing at a number of book events across the UK over the next 2 weeks.
M. R. Carey is also the author of the word-of-mouth bestseller THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (UK | US | ANZ), which is soon to be released as a major motion picture starring Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton and Paddy Considine.
We release the paperback of Jim Butcher’s Number One Sunday Times bestselling SKIN GAME today, which seems like a fantastic time to announce some of the dates for Jim’s first ever UK visit! As well as appearing at Eastercon 2015 from 3-6 April, we can announce today that Jim will be appearing at:
Mine was back in the mid-1990s. A close friend excitedly showed me a book called THE SWORD OF SHANNARA (UK | ANZ) that his jetsetting pilot father had picked up for him from a bookstore in America. I remember being impressed at its sheer size and being immediately drawn to both the cover (a glowing magic sword, what more could a thirteen-year-old boy want?) and the gorgeous interior illustrations by the brothers Hildebrandt. I forget what gushing eulogy my friend gave about the book, yet it was positive enough for the novel to stick in my mind. Faced with the horrors of a two-week family holiday a short time later, I purchased a copy of THE SWORD OF SHANNARA, thinking it might prove a decent distraction for a fortnight.
It didn’t – because I burned through the novel in two days. I was already a fan of fantasy, having devoured Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and the late Brian Jacques’s much-loved Redwall series, but this was the first time I’d read an adult book – and I was hopelessly smitten. I loved every page, every word. For hours at a time I lost myself in this mythical world, enthralled by the plucky heroes’ dangerous adventure to save the land from darkness. I may not have realised it at the time, but that reading experience was a watershed moment in not just my reading tastes, but my entire life. (more…)
Orbit is so excited to announce that Terry Brooks will be visiting the UK for the first time in over 5 years! He will be in London on holiday but has spared an evening to schedule an event at Forbidden Planet – on Wednesday 3rd April at 6pm. He will be signing copies of the first in his new series, Wards of Faerie (now available in paperback) and his new hardback Bloodfire Quest (out 12th March). Like our Orbit UK Facebook page for full details and updates.
And for all Terry’s UK fans who can’t make it to London, never fear… whether you can attend the signing or not, every person who emails a question for Terry to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk will receive a Bloodfire Quest badge! We will film his answers so everyone gets to ‘meet’ him. Plus the top three questions will win a signed and dedicated book. (UK entrants only).
Join us to celebrate a great year for a legend of the fantasy genre! 2013 is an especially exciting year for Terry as his full Dark Legacy of Shannara series will available, with the last novel in the trilogy, Witch Wraith, publishing this July.
This Friday (26 October) SF authors Charles Stross and Michael Cobley, and urban fantasy authors Kate Griffin and Benedict Jacka, will all be signing copies of their latest books at Forbidden Planet in London.
The signing will take place from 6 – 7 pm at Forbidden Planet’s flagship store on Shaftesbury Avenue. We look forward to seeing you there!
Orbit is going to New York Comic Con! We’ll be in the Hachette booth, #1027, with giveaways, raffles, and several author events, so be sure to stop by if you’re in town. Here’s the schedule of events:
4 PM: Senior editor Devi Pillai will be on the panel “Publisher’s Paradise: Adult Publisher Spotlight” in Rm. 1A06
1:30 PM: Creative director Lauren Panepinto will be on the panel “Ladies Who Steam: The Publishing Industry on Women in Steampunk” in Rm. 1A01
We’ll also be running raffles every day of the convention, with prizes including books by Gail Carriger, Joe Abercrombie, Iain M. Banks, and Rachel Aaron. See you there!