Like most, we all want smart over stupid when it comes to things involving technology and people. I want to share my journey that began with a temporary basement office, into an updated full-time workspace that reflects what I need to be productive.
Completely un-planned, I found myself transitioning from a pre-pandemic, Monday-to-Friday corporate office job, to a back-up contingency planned basement workspace. Finally ending up moving to a new company and life as a full-time basement home office cave dweller.
Now that I was full-time remote, I decided that my space had to be completely re-designed so that my professional life could be as productive as possible. On top of that, it had to incorporate my fitness and creative life into the equation. After much researching and planning in January, I began my mission.
A large part of it all had to be environmental. Being able to control the mood of the space depending on what time of day it was, or what I was doing had to factor into the planning. Whether I was an IT Service Management pro during the day, creator, gym-rat, or TV binger at night. Each had to have its own distinct vibe and ambience in the same space.
It all had to begin with lighting. Something I am obsessed with, going back to my days working in television. I wanted, no needed to take my life from one, to sixteen-million colors. The requirements were simple:
- Schedule Scenes that could be triggered by time of day or on-demand.
- Lighting controlled by my voice or devices, and
- Not have to sell an organ to get it done.
I quickly realized that some of the popular brands on the market weren’t going to be an option for the number of lights I had to deal with. Twelve ceiling pocket-lights just for starters. The main players; Phillips Hue, Nanoleaf and others were going to completely destroy my bank account. My search would have to go deeper.
To mitigate the risk of ending up with cheap products, I figured I’d have to test drive before I committed to a brand that wasn’t mainstream. I started with a couple lamps I had laying around, buying two “smart bulbs” from a company called Sengled as accent lighting behind my desk. They worked, but only with their own app to set scenes colors and schedules. No support for HomeKit which is what I wanted, so I moved on.
Then I found a company called VOCOlinc on Amazon. They claimed to work with Siri, Google assistant and Alexa. so, I ordered a 2-pack of their pocket-lights at what seemed to be a very reasonable price that was within the budget.
Setup was simple, which was a huge bonus. In addition, you don’t have to use their stand-alone application. Like we need another app! I can’t speak for Google or Alexa setups those ladies aren’t invited in this house. I’d be interested in hearing those experiences in the comments.
With a simple scan of the HomeKit QR Code on the light it was recognized and added to the list of devices in the home app. From that point, it was just adding the lights to a home, room, and scene with whatever colors I wanted set. DONE!
The only trick was scanning the QR code first, then screwing in the bulb while homekit trolled the Wi-Fi network to complete the connection. After running for a couple days and playing with schedules, colors, and scenes, I got it just how I wanted it.
After that experience and ten more bulbs and three of the VOCOlinc LED stands later, I had kitted out the entire basement. Since, I’ve been experimenting with scenes for different things I am doing throughout the day, and even changing scenes depending on what MS Team calls I have throughout the day. Too Much?
The biggest win overall was the cost of entry. When you compare the price of main-stream smart lighting, the VOCOlinc products are more affordable. I saved approximately seventy-dollars per 2-pack by going with VOCOlinc. It adds up.
I realize sometimes you get what you pay for. And to be fair, the reviews on Amazon weren’t all favorable. Sixty-three percent are five-star, while 13% are One-Star. Most of those seem to be related to network connectivity issues, which could be related to people’s home network configs.
At this point, knock -on -wood, I have had no issues so far. I suspect there’s always the risk of how durable these things will be over time. But being an optimist, so far, it’s been worth it. I guess we’ll see.
“Hey Siri, Basement Goodnight”