Ultamation News

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Augmented Reality in Manufacturing

Last week was an unusual week for Ultamation, as we demonstrated the first glimpse of our “proof of concept” for next generation user interaction.  As a company with a reputation for innovative control solutions; we took our latest venture to a new market and attended the UK’s biggest digital manufacturing exhibition – Smart Factory Expo in Liverpool.  This event, run by The Manufacturer magazine, is the UK’s biggest showcase for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) – a revolution in manufacturing agility, innovation and thinking.


We developed this new User Interface with the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), part of University of Liverpool, with the home automation market in mind.  However, as we have gone on to develop the concept further, by adding voice control, we starting thinking about other applications for this burgeoning technology.  What started as a speculative move has transformed into an exciting new world of opportunity for us.

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ULTAMATION BREAK NEW GROUND WITH AR UI

Ultamation have a proud history of serial innovation:  The first company to embrace Crestron’s custom Smart Graphics technology in releasing a number of unique controls, including analogue clocks, colour pickers and lighting visualisation; releasing productivity tools to universal acclaim amongst Crestron GUI designers and programmers; cracking the technical challenges around the hugely popular IP control module for Apple TV devices; to say nothing of a string of unique features for Crestron Residential systems that continue to push the envelope of home automation, be it around location tracking or voice control.

While we develop the business as one of the global leaders in delivering Crestron solutions, we continue to innovate in order to enhance our standard products.  Sometimes, these innovations offer the possibility to break the mould, and we’re excited to release the first glimpse of our “proof of concept” for next generation user interaction.

This week we present our concept for a new method of interaction with control systems in residential, commercial, industrial or marine environments.

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The Man Cave … still going strong

Two years ago we were very proud to work with Intuitive Homes on a project which went onto receive many awards.  It became known as the Man Cave and seemed to excite people from around the globe.

An existing client wanted to take their basement car park and change it into a one-of-a-kind man-cave with the centerpiece being a rotating turntable to park and display one of his supercars.  Combined with this, he wanted the fun factor turned up to eleven, with an HD distribution system to the games room, HiFi audio distribution throughout and a space that bristles with hidden sensors to give the cave an intelligence of its own.

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Our shop

As a multi–award winning company specialising in high-end Crestron home automation we are used to writing modules for jobs we are working on.   With one of the, globally, few Gold Crestron Master Programmers at the head of our team, we excel in the more challenging modules and have written drivers for equipment that had previously been considered too complex to integrate. 

We now enjoy a reputation for high quality, tried and tested modules which we have made available to other Crestron programmers and integrators, both saving them time in completing jobs and being able to offer sophisticated integration that otherwise might have been unachievable for their clients.

The Ultamation Shop is our vehicle to deliver these products to you!

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The reason we do it ...

We all know you get out of bed each morning and go to work, to get money, to pay the mortgage and bills, and try to have a life around it ... but the best position to be in, is when you love your work - and one of the highlights is when a customer that gives you that reason.

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Apple TV moves into 5th Generation

In September 2017 Apple unveiled a new, fifth-generation Apple TV device.  This latest device brings new features such as 4K and HDR to Apple TV for the first time. According to Apple "4K gives you a crisper picture using four times more pixels than standard HD. High Dynamic Range (HDR) delivers brighter, more realistic colours and greater detail" and who doesn't want that?

This is all great news and as our Apple TV module is consistently one of our top sellers, we knew it wouldn't be long before our informed customers would be asking if it was compatible. 

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SLACK in the intelligent workplace

A couple of years ago, if you called someone a slacker, you might have been treated to a knuckle sandwich.  Times have changed, and now slack doesn’t mean a floppy rope or a workshy colleague; now ‘Slack’ has become the dominant collaboration platform for many organisations, such as Ticketmaster, Samsung, and ebay.

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Celebrating ten years in the business

This months signifies ten years since Ultamation was founded.

In 2007 few people had heard about Home Automation and the iPhone had only just been launched.  According to Forbes (2007) "As both digital television and cellular phones converge with the infinite content of the Internet, new forms of content navigation and device management become necessary. In the living room, remote controls are swiftly approaching an unmanageable array of buttons for various devices and on-screen menus so extensive that it can take an hour to get from channel 1 to channel 1001."

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A state of control: the interface is the system

AV Nation broadcast a regular podcast and video discussing the latest topics within the industry and bringing in experts to add their viewpoint.

This weeks edition sees our very own Oliver Hall starring in the debate about 'The interface is the system'.  The episodes usually talk about programming and code but this video is more about the creative side and how to create a high quality interface.

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