Amazon Echo Overview

Voice recognition has been slowly creeping its way in to home and consumer technology for the past couple of years. From Apple’s Siri software on the iPhone to Samsung’s voice control for their TVs, the reality of a voice controlled smarter home is not too far away.

Amazon have recently released the Echo, a voice recognition tool for your home. You activate the Echo by starting your question or request with ‘Alexa’ and it is always ready, hands-free and fast (ish). Echo in its fundamental form answers questions, plays music, reports the news, traffic and weather.

We asked a family who we had just installed an Amazon Echo in their home to help answer the question “How Does Amazon Echo Work?” and how they consume this technology on a day to day basis.

Amazon Echo Client Review

How Does Amazon Echo Work For A Family Of Five?

“Seeing a new gadget in the room may have quite inconspicuous to most – but to the 3 kids (8,11 &13) the Amazon Echo was spotted almost instantly. One evening the I activated Alexa by playing some music – this did cause a lot of excitement in the room and it was instantly apparent how to use it.  No instructions necessary. Genius!”

Which Child Uses The Amazon Echo?

“Our 8 year old loves music! Connecting it to Spotify this was the best thing ever. There was no longer a fight over remote controls. Before having the Amazon Echo, controllers would go missing and would often be found buried at the bottom of duvets to prevent siblings from gaining control of the music stream. More recently however it was discovered that Alexa was great at helping them with their homework & finding out the weather forecast to determine whether a jumper or umbrella is necessary”.

Apart From Your Kids, How Do You Use The Echo?

“Mostly music and enjoying the kids consume the tech. We’re looking to configure it further and check out calendar and to do lists. Having a voice activated device has been great for entertainment and function. We really enjoy having Alexa in the family.”

amazon echo device

What Else Can It Do?

Well of course, the Echo can do more! Companies such as Lutron and Control 4 have been some of the early adopters of adding the ability to control their systems using the Amazon Echo to enhance home automation.

In the mean time if you would like us you’re looking for some help with installing an Alexa into your home, please get in touch. It could be the first step to an exciting home automation journey!
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