It’s All About Security

Life is a series of challenges, of changes, and of growing and learning. Which, according to Kyle Stephens, is why he has ActiveHome. As he says, "In an ActiveHome our lifestyle has been greatly enhanced by the utilization of the technology." Now it’s not just Kyle and his family that are challenged and changing, and learning and growing, it’s their house itself growing with them.

"Our home has become more efficient and safer in so many ways," Kyle says. "The technology has allowed our family to control every part of our house." While Kyle is talking about his own house, he’s actually speaking specifically about his parent’s home. Kyle’s parents are getting on in age, and they’ve had to move into a "retirement" community where they will be looked after on a regular basis. "While this is a good place, with a good reputation," Kyle said, "you still never know."

When his parents moved into the community, Kyle went though the condo and completely revamped the residence. The first thing he did was beef up the security system. After that, he put all of the appliances into appliance modules, and he ran all the lights through lamp modules. "Their favorite part of the setup is that they don’t have to get up to turn off the lights, or to turn off the coffee pot," Kyle says. But he says that his father has a habit of putting the remote in some pretty weird places, and then forgetting where he put it. So Kyle made sure to stock plenty of remote controls so that there would always be one on hand.

Another feature Kyle found convenient was XRay Vision, which he installed on his computer at home. In his parent’s living room, with their permission of course, he set up the XCam2 WideEye so that he could keep an eye on them even when he wasn’t actually there in person. He could look in on them as often as he needed to. "But don’t think for a minute that this gets me out of going to visit them often," Kyle says. "Mom still insists that I don’t come visit enough, even though I spend most of my spare time there. But you know how moms are."

Kyle also programmed ActiveHome macros to turn on the upstairs lights near bedtime, and to turn everything off a few minutes later. He’s also programmed a macro to turn everything on in the morning, "including the coffee pot. Dad would die without a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. And the beauty of the whole setup is that it’s adaptable. Anytime changes need to be made to accommodate his parent’s needs, it’s a simple operation to Kyle to set it up.

Thanks to ActiveHome, Kyle feels safer. His family feels safer. And his parents feel safer. He is in constant contact with his mother and father, and if anything does go wrong, he’ll know about it quickly and he will be able to respond just as quickly. As Kyle says, "That’s security."

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