Gadgets

Automate your home using the Brilliant Smart Hub

Making your smart home smarter.

by
Kayla Matthews
July 18, 2019

Image: Brilliant

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Smart speakers arguably kicked off the smart home trend, but now it probably seems like every time you go to a tech website or store, you’re noticing new smart products to help make your home even more high-tech. If you don’t have all the products linked, it can be a time-consuming hassle to make all of them work together.

Companies have taken this reality into account, and they increasing offer smart hubs that allow people to control all their gadgets from a single interface. Here, we’ll look at the Brilliant smart hub. After reading about it, you’ll likely agree it lives up to its name.

Interact with a touch-screen panel

People who invest in the Brilliant smart hub will have homes that appear more futuristic-looking as soon as they install it. That’s because the Brilliant hub has a wall-mounted, 5-inch diagonal screen that people touch to make alterations to any of the smart home gadgets paired with it.

It attaches to the wall in place of a typical light switch, and by doing so, turns normal lights into smart ones. You can buy Brilliant in versions with one to four switches. So, if you want to put Brilliant in a room that has a light switch panel with two switches, buy the two-switch option. After installing brilliant, you can turn your lights on and off by sliding your finger up and down within the indented horizontal cutout that senses your finger’s movement.

Brilliant also allows you to control multiple systems without using various separate apps. For example, if you use Spotify and Amazon Music to find and play your favorite tunes, the Brilliant interface shows all the connected apps and systems at once. So, you don’t need to launch two separate apps when making playlists for a party, for example.

Link the gadgets you own through a hassle-free process

Wi-Fi is one of the main protocols associated with smart home technology. One of the advantages of smart home products that function with Wi-Fi is that they work with your existing home router. You don’t have to buy a separate hub before using them.

However, if you have smart home products built to work with the Z-Wave or Zigbee protocols, Brilliant supports smart hubs. They allow you to link those Z-Wave or Zigbee gadgets, too.

Adding a new product to Brilliant is simple. The product supports leading smart home brands, such as Nest and Ring. People only need to scroll through a menu of brands listed on the touch panel, then choose the brand and product matching the item they want to link. Moreover, Brilliant offers a complete list of available integrations.

Enjoy integrated Alexa technology

phone with alexa control — Image: Brilliant

One notable perk about the panel is that it has Amazon Alexa functionality built into it. You can give the same Alexa voice commands to the panel that you would if using an Alexa smart speaker.

That feature could be especially convenient if you install Brilliant into one of the main areas of your home. Think of how handy it’d be to put the Brilliant hub into your kitchen, then use Alexa to get recipe help.

Incorporate brilliant into your home’s decor

You probably put a great deal of care into decorating your home. Brilliant has a feature that lets you make the screen a part of your decorating efforts. More specifically, you can take photos on your phone and send them to appear on the Brilliant panel.

Consider doing that the next time you get back from a vacation, or if you want to show off a snapshot of your new pet.

Try the video and audio intercom

If tech enthusiasts decide to get multiple Brilliant hubs for their home, they can take advantage of the audio and video intercom feature, which includes a camera with a sliding privacy screen.

It lets people speak to and see other people who are in parts of the house that also have Brilliant panels. The audio-video functionality also works well if you have a Ring doorbell and want to see who’s on the doorstep.

There’s a growing trend among the millennial and Gen-Z generations whereby people don’t consider opening the door when the doorbell rings and are sometimes even scared by the noise. And of course, some people just prefer the awareness that comes from knowing who’s at the door before they greet the person.

Easy to keep up to date

Brilliant sends users free, biweekly software updates every two weeks. They make it simple to ensure you have access to all the latest integration capabilities.

The Brilliant hub starts at $299, and it comes in several color choices. Based on what you’ve read here, you may quickly decide it’s a product that makes your smart home more streamlined.

What do you think? Interested in the Brilliant hub? What do you use for controlling your smart speaker? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.