Smart technology that’s clever

In the fast-growing smart technology market, demand for smart home security is booming. But some smart locks aren’t as clever as you’d think, says Nick Dutton, CEO of Brisant-Secure.

With almost 4,000 smart products on sale in the UK, and almost half the population owning four or more smart devices, it’s clear there’s widespread demand for smart products in smart homes.

Security has always been a major homeowner concern, but security now comes with the added benefit of smart technology. We’re getting used to the convenience of smart tech to control our heating, lighting, radios and TVs, and we like it a lot. So, why not have the same technology control the security of our homes and protect against break-ins?

The growing demand for smart security products is creating a new added-value market for fabricators and installers. But some smart locks bring little added value to the end user. If you’re an installer or fabricator who’s keen to start selling these smart security products, there are some important features and benefits to look out for. There are three key questions you should be asking.

What do smart locks actually do? By definition, smart devices connect to an app and send data, but what makes a product truly smart is what it does with that information.

At a basic level, smart locks can tell the homeowner whether their door is locked or not, but they may not be able to do much more than that. And that’s a problem if the homeowner is too far away to return home to lock it if it’s unlocked, or to unlock it to let in a family member in the early hours of the morning.

If all your smart lock does is tell you there’s a problem but doesn’t enable you to do anything about it – like lock or unlock the door – does that count as smart?

For a security lock to be truly smart, it must surely be able to remotely lock or unlock the door with a simple click. To our way of thinking, if a homeowner needs to lock their unlocked door while out doing their shopping, or they have a sudden panic when they’re away on holiday, one tap on an app and the problem goes away is really smart.

What else can a smart lock do? More advanced smart locks can have some really clever access functions. Thanks to the use of GPS and Bluetooth, they can lock the door behind you or recognise you and automatically unlock the front door when you approach. Time-limited electronic keys are an option with some smart locks, which are ideal for family members and carers, tradespeople, or holiday lettings.

How easy is it to integrate a smart lock in the home and smart control system? It’s worth checking how easy it is to integrate smart locks with different doors and hardware options, and whether they can be retrofitted to an existing door. We also recommend looking at how easy different smart locks are to install. The homeowner will also want to know whether their new smart lock is compatible with their existing smart control system such as Alexa or Apple HomeKit.

Our design brief for Ultion Smart was to combine trusted, ultra-secure hardware with the very best smart technology to give customers more control over their home security. Launched in 2019, it features an Ultion lock at the centre of the mechanism and comes with a £2,000 anti-snap guarantee.

The smart side of the lock is from electronic access experts Salto. Its Danalock tech uses algorithms that are AES256-secure to US military standards, encrypted connections and a crypto-processing chip for data authentication.

Compatible with Apple Homekit, Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings, Ultion Smart does everything a smart lock should. It allows users to auto-unlock by unlocking your door as soon as you enter the unlock zone; auto-lock by setting a timer for the unlocked door to be secured; and auto-open by leaving the latch open for a defined time when you unlock the door. Ultion Smart is also suited with our Sweet hardware for a stylish, seamless finish.

We’ve designed Ultion Smart to fit all new and existing doors as it’s compatible with all multipoint locking systems. Instead of limiting Ultion Smart to our own hardware, we’ve made sure all doors are Ultion-ready.

The handle, 12-volt battery supply, and electronics are part of a single unit, so it takes only two minutes to fit. Nice and easy for installers and fabricators. Now that is smart, don’t you think?

www.brisant-secure.com/ultion-smart/