[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. Hey guys, it's Eric G coming up in this episode of around the house. We're going to start out by talking about a brand new way to use wifi around your house for security, for safety, for even taking care of a loved one that can't take care of themself. And then later on in the show, we'll be talking with Roy Nova self from Comcast Xfinity about storm ready.

[00:00:27] Eric Goranson: So you can have that wifi signal, no matter if you've got power or not. We've got so much ahead that I don't want you to miss. If you need more info about the show, head over to around the house, online. com, where you can catch everything about the show, the podcast, the radio show, and of course around the house, Northwest, the television show.

[00:00:46] Eric Goranson: You can stream just about anywhere. And that's over at around the house, online. com. Now let's start this show off. We got a good one coming. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to [00:01:00] know, but we've got you covered.

[00:01:02] Intro: This is around the house. You

[00:01:06] Eric Goranson: know, guys, I love home technology and what it can do to make our jobs easier.

[00:01:11] Eric Goranson: We've got Tony here from origin AI. Welcome to around the house.

[00:01:16] Tony Nicolaidis: Thank you very much. Eric is. Great to

[00:01:18] Eric Goranson: be here. How are you good, man? I love what you guys are doing out there because, you know, we went through this period of smart home stuff and it got kind of crazy, right? Where your rice maker was giving you the weather and stuff like that, that had like no value to things.

[00:01:35] Eric Goranson: And now you're doing some stuff out there. That's groundbreaking to make well, owning a home a lot easier.

[00:01:41] Tony Nicolaidis: Absolutely. You know, um, and it's funny that you say that because sure enough, the smart home is Is evolving a lot of the stuff before was maybe not adding a tremendous value amount of value, but it had more of a cool factor.

[00:01:54] Tony Nicolaidis: And now with, like, what we're doing, for example, um, you know, using the WiFi in your house [00:02:00] that exists. To make sure we bring a tremendous amount of value from that to the homeowner. That's really what we're focused on. Our purpose at our origin, Eric, is to, you know, touch millions of lives in the world, make their lives more secure, happier, and safer.

[00:02:14] Tony Nicolaidis: So that's really what we're all about

[00:02:16] Eric Goranson: in. And that is great. Let's talk about wifi sensing, because this is a great new technology that you guys are really harnessing. And I think it's something that most people have no idea what I'm asking about. Yeah. So

[00:02:28] Tony Nicolaidis: in your house today, in all of our homes and all of our businesses, we've got wifi.

[00:02:32] Tony Nicolaidis: It is ubiquitous. Uh, it is part of our lives now. Uh, and it's a necessary part of our lives. What, uh, origin does and, and, and origin has been around for a while now, um, but, uh, has a, a, a, a huge number of patents is when people are in. A, a, a place that has wifi as they move and do things, it disturbs the wifi waves that are happening in that [00:03:00] area.

[00:03:00] Tony Nicolaidis: Our technology and our AI understands what the, the disturbances mean. So for example, if you're just moving, uh, in a room will know you're moving. If you're sitting still and breathing, we'll know you're breathing. If you've fallen, we know you've fallen. So it. There are characteristics of the disturbance in the Wi Fi that we understand, know, and contextualize

[00:03:25] Eric Goranson: for the homeowner.

[00:03:26] Eric Goranson: Man, so that can be from something to sensing a light turning on in a room as you're heading over that direction to making sure, you know, grandma is safe in her home when she's the only one there. You got

[00:03:37] Tony Nicolaidis: it. You spot on. I mean. Two use cases that we're doing today. You

[00:03:41] Eric Goranson: got it. That is great. And so, you know, it's funny.

[00:03:44] Eric Goranson: It's, you know, electricity when we use it, it gives off different sounds and it's kind of the same thing with this. And so you could really use this even for home security. You could. And Eric, that's really a key

[00:03:57] Tony Nicolaidis: vertical of ours. We have basically, uh, [00:04:00] three verticals, uh, security, Home security, uh, network service providers and increasing their value and what we call smart spaces.

[00:04:08] Tony Nicolaidis: Security is one of the biggest things that we do. And basically, uh, what imagine our technology, we'll know if somebody is there, we'll know if somebody is not there. We'll know if somebody is there, uh, working along with your network provider that we know is not friendly. And we can do this, uh, just by like, for example, the router in your home.

[00:04:27] Tony Nicolaidis: And all the connected devices you have in your home already, no need to buy extra plastic need to buy anything extra. So we can do that in a very, very lightweight manner and give the homeowner security and peace of mind matter.

[00:04:39] Eric Goranson: That is so different than your traditional security systems that have like, you know, motion sensors in this area versus, you know, um...

[00:04:49] Eric Goranson: We see in the movies where you got the laser lights around the art installation, right? You know, it's it's funny, right? Everybody's climbing through it doing and I don't want to get step on anybody's [00:05:00] movies But you know, we've seen that a million times in the theaters But it's funny. This is actually going to be a you know, a 360 degree thing in every level of the house

[00:05:10] Tony Nicolaidis: You got it and look even when you look at those large security companies They're still there's going to be a place in the market for them You're going to have people that are going to want A security company to come in and put up all the sensors and so forth.

[00:05:23] Tony Nicolaidis: So believe me, uh, there's a place for everyone. There's also a place for what we call very, very lightweight security model that allows us to, uh, give the homeowner a way into home intrusion. And be able to see what's going on in their home without having to do that. But there is going to be a place for

[00:05:41] Eric Goranson: everybody in this.

[00:05:42] Eric Goranson: Yeah, no kidding. You know, it's if, if somebody has got that 25 million, you know, 25 million piece of art, there's a place for that. You better believe it.

[00:05:50] Tony Nicolaidis: Uh, there's the, the market's a huge market. And we're looking to, to make it easier for the homeowners that maybe

[00:05:57] Eric Goranson: don't want all of that. That is cool. So, you know, [00:06:00] this is an emergent, emerging technology.

[00:06:02] Eric Goranson: Where are we at today? And where do you see us in, in maybe four or five years?

[00:06:06] Tony Nicolaidis: So we already have, uh, we've already launched, uh, with, uh, Verizon, a massive partner of ours in the Northeast. Uh, we are now in all of their Fios routers and, uh, we are, um, uh, now in those homes with a great product called Home Awareness.

[00:06:21] Tony Nicolaidis: If you're a Verizon customer, you can sign up for that. Um, and we are going to be launching, uh, here in Europe with Deutsche Telekom doing the same thing across the pond. Um, and then those are the big network providers we're going to be launching with, and then we're going to be launching with other companies.

[00:06:38] Tony Nicolaidis: Uh, in the security space here, keep your eyes out here over the next, um, six months between the U S and Europe. So we're going to be really hitting those verticals. Like I told you, and over the next, by the time we get in the summer of 2024, we're going to be launched on both sides of the pond in all of these critical verticals.

[00:06:55] Tony Nicolaidis: So, and that's where we are just in the next six months. In the next 2 years, we [00:07:00] plan on being in hundreds of millions of devices across the world as it becomes much easier, uh, and regulatory things that are happening with Wi Fi, with 802. 11bf, with PRPL and other standards. Uh, working with the chip manufacturers where our technology is going to be embedded everywhere.

[00:07:16] Tony Nicolaidis: And there's no more that you've got to call and sign up for it. It's there. You turn it on and it works automatically. So it's going to be a thing where over the next two years, we're going to be around you. You don't even know us. And if you want to service what we just spoke about, you can turn it right on and you're there.

[00:07:30] Tony Nicolaidis: Now it's a little more, uh, working with customer by customer. By the time we get two years from now. It's we're going to be as, as, as ubiquitous as wife. Nice.

[00:07:39] Eric Goranson: Nice. You know, there's a lot of concerns out there with people that don't really understand this space about, you know, their own personal security, whether it comes to, you know, we're hearing a lot of the news about AI, and there's all these different things going on, you know, how do you resolve people's concerns with that kind of stuff?

[00:07:54] Eric Goranson: Because anytime there's new tech out there, that's the 1st red flight that comes up. People go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay. [00:08:00] What does that do for my privacy? So

[00:08:02] Tony Nicolaidis: we don't identify people. Uh, all we know is there's a person there or there's a person not, or there's a perfect person moving or person not. Um, you know, when it comes to, so we don't really do identification of anybody.

[00:08:14] Tony Nicolaidis: We don't, we don't do that. Uh, our customers own all, all, all the data, the horizons of the world. We don't really touch the data. And then on top of that, like I said earlier with the intrusion detection, um, When I said we recognize somebody walking in what I meant by that is their devices, right? That like the router at home will recognize.

[00:08:33] Tony Nicolaidis: Their phone, for example, but we don't know, uh, anything other than that. So it really is not an intrusive thing. The only place that we kind of follow what people do from a trend standpoint is in the elderly care portion, because they're caretakers like me, my parents are, are, are, are aging in place. I do want to know if they're spending a lot more time in bed versus in the kitchen this month versus last month.

[00:08:59] Tony Nicolaidis: Uh, [00:09:00] or change in their habits. And that's because me as a caretaker, as their son, I want to know that that's the only place that we get a little bit more, um, uh, more detailed in how we track, but for the caretaker, it's what they want. Right. Like me, for example, but we're not identifying people. We're not, we're not, uh, saying, Oh, this person's doing that.

[00:09:20] Tony Nicolaidis: And that person's doing the other. None of that is very kind of high level data that we're talking about here, but very, very effective contextual data.

[00:09:27] Eric Goranson: Don't go anywhere. We're just getting started with home technology today. Round the house. We'll be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.

[00:09:35] Eric Goranson: And if you need more information about us, head over to around the house, online. com. We'll

[00:09:40] Intro: be right back.[00:10:00]

[00:10:09] Intro: What's up, this is Dixit India and Satchel

[00:10:12] Tony Nicolaidis: from

[00:10:12] Eric Goranson: steel Panther. And

[00:10:14] Tony Nicolaidis: you are listening to around the

[00:10:16] Eric Goranson: house

[00:10:16] Tony Nicolaidis: with Eric. Gee, we love

[00:10:20] Eric Goranson: Eric G and you

[00:10:21] Intro: should too.

[00:10:29] Intro: Welcome back to the

[00:10:30] Eric Goranson: round the house show. Now we've been talking to with Tony Nicolettis from origin AI about some of the new technologies that you can use inside your house without even having extra, extra hardware for like security and healthcare, things like that. And this has been pretty interesting stuff.

[00:10:47] Eric Goranson: So let's get back to this conversation. And then after we're done with this interview here, we're going to be talking. With, uh, Roy Novosel from Xfinity and another interview, we're going to be talking about storm ready wifi. So when your power goes out, [00:11:00] you still have that internet connection, which is great for you guys working from home or the kids still wanting to watch stuff.

[00:11:05] Eric Goranson: That's a good one there as well. And some new information on that. Now let's get back to Tony. Nice, you know, there's a lot of concerns out there with people that don't really understand this space about, you know, their own personal security, whether it comes to, you know, we're hearing a lot of the news about AI and there's all these different things going on.

[00:11:23] Eric Goranson: You know, how do you resolve people's concerns with that kind of stuff? Because anytime there's new tech out there, that's the 1st red flight that comes up. People go, whoa, whoa, whoa. What does that do for my

[00:11:32] Tony Nicolaidis: privacy? So we don't identify people. Uh, all we know is there's a person there or there's a person not, or there's a perfect person moving or person not, um, you know, when it comes to, so we don't really do identification of anybody.

[00:11:45] Tony Nicolaidis: We don't, we don't do that. Uh, our customers own all all all the data, the horizons of the world. We don't really touch the data. And then on top of that, like I said earlier with the intrusion detection, um, when I said, we recognize somebody walking in [00:12:00] what I meant by that is their devices, right? That, like, the router at home will recognize.

[00:12:04] Tony Nicolaidis: Their phone, for example, but we don't know, uh, anything other than that. So it really is not an intrusive thing. The only place that we kind of follow what people do from a trend standpoint is in the elderly care portion, because they're caretakers like me. My parents are, are, are, are aging in place. I do want to know if they're spending a lot more time in bed versus in the kitchen this month versus last month.

[00:12:30] Tony Nicolaidis: Uh, or change in their habits. And that's because me as a caretaker, as their son, I want to know that that's the only place that we get a little bit more, um, uh, more detailed in how we track, but for the caretaker, it's what they want, right? Like me, for example, but we're not identifying people. We're not, we're not, uh, saying, oh, this person's doing that.

[00:12:51] Tony Nicolaidis: And that person's doing the other. None of that is very kind of high level data that we're talking about here. We're very, very effective

[00:12:57] Eric Goranson: contextual data. You know, that makes a [00:13:00] lot of sense because, you know, Tony, when I look at this, taking care of my mother, for instance, she's in her mid eighties and she's three and a half hours away.

[00:13:09] Eric Goranson: That is all very valuable data to make sure that she's a well cared for that you got,

[00:13:14] Tony Nicolaidis: and you would have that nobody else, right? So, um, that's the only place that it gets detailed. Other than that, it stays at a very high level. We're not going to be in a, in a position you can't wifi sensing will not be able to identify me versus you.

[00:13:28] Tony Nicolaidis: It's just. If the physics, you know, it's

[00:13:30] Eric Goranson: impossible. Absolutely. That is great stuff. And, and this doesn't require a lot of other hardware within the home.

[00:13:37] Tony Nicolaidis: No, for example, the intrusion detection that like, for example, Verizon, we are embedded on the Verizon Fios router. It automatically connects to all your connected devices in your house.

[00:13:47] Tony Nicolaidis: For example, in my house, I don't know how many connected devices you have. I have 14 connected devices in my house between smart TVs, couple of Lexus, a couple of smart speakers, whatever they're in my house, the average in the [00:14:00] U S a 17, uh, average, and we know that's only going to grow. So you already built.

[00:14:06] Tony Nicolaidis: Yeah. I'm in the mid fifties. You already have that. Yeah. So embedding our tech into a router, for example, or a gateway in your house, it'll automatically connect to those devices. And you don't have to do anything. All it has to be is on the wifi and boom, you create this coverage around your house. So very

[00:14:22] Eric Goranson: lightweight, you know, that is great stuff.

[00:14:25] Eric Goranson: And I, I can only think about where we go with this in the future because, you know, right now you've got, uh, all these apps on your phone, for instance, for a lot of people to turn on the, the dining room light or the porch lights or things like that. And now all of a sudden. You're just, it's just going to be intuitive because it knows, Hey, this person's heading to another room.

[00:14:46] Eric Goranson: It's heading that direction, right? Wow. We could turn the lights on there or wow. They're never in this room. Maybe we don't have to heat and cool this room as much. I could see where

[00:14:54] Tony Nicolaidis: this is going. Obviously you've done your homework and I first very much say I appreciate that because I can tell you read about us.

[00:14:59] Tony Nicolaidis: And I [00:15:00] can tell you understand what we do because these everything you've mentioned today are use cases. We're working on turning the lights on automatically when you walk into the room, and then you can set the time on your watch on your phone when you want to turn the lights off a minute after there's no occupancy, um, managing energy, which we know is a massive issue with, um, with everything that's going on globally.

[00:15:21] Tony Nicolaidis: So these are all things that we are doing and all use cases we're going to be tackling over the

[00:15:25] Eric Goranson: next year, and that is great. And I think that's the biggest challenge with people right now is that so many people out there, you know, especially even in my audience, they like to get kind of started with the smart home stuff.

[00:15:37] Eric Goranson: But a lot of this more complex stuff is not intuitive to them and it's work and they don't want to have six apps on their phone to run everything. The more things happen automatically. I think the more people adopt this technology. And

[00:15:51] Tony Nicolaidis: by the way, this won't be another app you have to do because let's say if you're a Verizon customer, you go to your Verizon app.

[00:15:57] Tony Nicolaidis: It's all right there. So, [00:16:00] um, and it makes this whole fragmented smart home kind of, uh, a fragmentation that's happened that you mentioned earlier. Now it starts to lessen that. And, uh, the smart home really becomes a reality. In the best way possible for the home. That's great.

[00:16:15] Eric Goranson: And you think about doing like HVAC stuff out there now that we're seeing all these zone systems and you're seeing many split heat pumps where you've got 4 or 5 different units in a house that could really give you some energy savings by just noticing who's in what room and who's not.

[00:16:31] Eric Goranson: I

[00:16:31] Tony Nicolaidis: mean, think about it. Um, you know, every time you knock down 1 degree, whether you. Thank you. Keep it one degree warmer during the summer or one degree cooler during the winter because somebody's not there. That's you can reduce your heat or air conditioning by 3%. Think about that. So it's money right in your pocket and you're not running electricity.

[00:16:51] Tony Nicolaidis: You're helping. You're helping all the stuff going on globally. So you're spot on

[00:16:55] Eric Goranson: that. We can make an impact. Yeah, and that's a big deal right now, especially when you look [00:17:00] at power companies right now that are really trying to stop that usage around the house, because, you know, if they can bring down our usage and be more efficient than that.

[00:17:11] Eric Goranson: Makes makes it so they don't have to build another power plant to charge the next electric car. So, you know, there's such a focus on that. Right?

[00:17:18] Tony Nicolaidis: That's why I think we, our purpose really is to make millions of people's lives easier, more secure and safe

[00:17:24] Eric Goranson: for sure. That's why. Yeah, and with our baby mooters getting older, I can really see where this is.

[00:17:31] Eric Goranson: This is going to be smart for people out there. I like it. So, Tony, I got another question for you here. When it comes to, you know, builders and remodelers, what are your suggestions out there so that we can be, you know, bringing homeowners into this early on, instead of having to, you know, a homeowner goes in and buys this brand new track house.

[00:17:51] Eric Goranson: And all of a sudden, now they've got to do some remodeling right off the bat to make their smart home stuff work correctly.

[00:17:57] Tony Nicolaidis: You know what, that's an absolute opportunity that [00:18:00] we're looking at because it's, it's, it's, it's 1 of the single biggest opportunities Eric to make the smart home a real reality.

[00:18:08] Tony Nicolaidis: We are looking to talk to any remodel or any home builder out there and show them how to set up the devices. Or the smart switches, for example, and smart plugs and smart, um, uh, lights and everything in there. You put them in the home. All the homeowner has to do is come in and say, hey, do you want the service?

[00:18:29] Tony Nicolaidis: Boom. They turn it on. They don't have to buy anything. They don't have to do anything. Automatic coverage. They can get their security system from there and it makes it very, very, very impactful for the homeowner. And more importantly, I think it's another revenue generator for the home builders. So

[00:18:45] Eric Goranson: around the house,

[00:18:46] Intro: we'll be right back.[00:19:00]

[00:19:00] Intro: Hey, this is Ron Keel,

[00:19:01] Eric Goranson: the metal cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel band and Steeler. We are rocking around the house with

[00:19:09] Intro: Eric G.

[00:19:09] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round the house show. If you want to find out more information about us head to around the house. Online. com. Now we've been talking about wifi sensing and how this can help you in your home.

[00:19:23] Eric Goranson: Now let's get back to that conversation with Tony. You know, that is great because great example, just a few years ago, I had a business associate of mine, uh, move into one of the biggest, um, smart home. It was this whole development that was all solar based down in Florida. And it was this whole huge plain community.

[00:19:40] Eric Goranson: And. They bought the smart home package, a smart home package ended up being all stacked, not installed in the top closet of the whole closet. Cause that's where all the locks and the, and the light switches were. And when they went to go hook up their internet, they forgot to put the fiber optic to the house.

[00:19:59] Eric Goranson: And so. [00:20:00] Ended up having to call the fiber optic to provider. And for about a month, they had it duct taped to their driveway and up their walkway to get in the house until they dug their house up in the front yard. It had to reinstall this stuff because oops, they forgot the smart part of the smart home.

[00:20:16] Eric Goranson: It

[00:20:18] Tony Nicolaidis: is a man. That's the definition of growing pains. Isn't it? Trying to get to this. Realization of the smart home. We'll get over these times. My, my cup is half full with this. It'll happen. Homebooters are going to realize this is going to be a revenue generator for

[00:20:30] Eric Goranson: them and they're going to call it.

[00:20:31] Eric Goranson: Yeah, that makes sense. And you know, wifi is getting so great out there and you're seeing internet speeds now really picking up, you know, even the people out there, like the Comcast Xfinities, which, you know, had their millions and millions of miles of coax cable now have figured out technology to be able to put in.

[00:20:48] Eric Goranson: You know, fiber optic speed. Into someone's home using that old material that they had going into the house. You

[00:20:55] Tony Nicolaidis: got it. And you know, when you look at these internet service [00:21:00] providers, you know, though, they need help though. Um, cause it's all about speeds and feeds and that, um, is troublesome for them because, uh, they're going to get, it's going to become more and more competitive, right?

[00:21:12] Tony Nicolaidis: Look what you just said about Comcast. Now, how's their competition going to react? And it puts a lot more pressure on their You know, profit loss, and they need other value to expand their services becomes even more sticky to their customers. And that's where wifi sensing and origin comes in. This is why we've the largest network providers in the world.

[00:21:32] Tony Nicolaidis: We're working with them. And we're launching with them between now and the end of 24. So, um, we're very excited and it's a very, very big vertical of ours is working closely with network, uh,

[00:21:41] Eric Goranson: service providers. You know, that's great. I can't wait to see what you guys are doing because, you know, it seems like, uh, in 2023 and even last part of 2022, that interoperability between companies is actually starting to happen.

[00:21:55] Eric Goranson: And I'll be honest, I thought we were many years away, but you're starting to see companies that [00:22:00] absolutely, literally hated each other. Now working together in the smart home space to, to let the Samsung and LG appliances work side by side without fighting each other.

[00:22:13] Tony Nicolaidis: Yeah. And, uh, those are the walls that need to come down so that we don't have 800 apps on our phones, like we said earlier, right?

[00:22:18] Tony Nicolaidis: So. It's again, it's going to happen. It's a matter of time and getting over some of these hurdles, you know,

[00:22:25] Eric Goranson: yeah, and it's going to be really fun to see this because I think we're just getting to that point. And you guys are a big part of this. Of that big point of us taking our, you know, I mean, our dial up back in the day, right with insert that noise.

[00:22:39] Eric Goranson: It's going through many of our heads right now, but of it. To all of a sudden having something that, wow, I'm not waiting for something to download those first few years where speeds were just bouncing and going up faster, faster, faster. And instead of waiting, we got that time back. I think we're just turning into that now, or we're going to laugh and look back to [00:23:00] 2022 and 2023 going.

[00:23:02] Eric Goranson: Remember when you actually had to touch that light switch? Remember when you actually had to adjust that? It just didn't do it automatically.

[00:23:08] Tony Nicolaidis: That's right. And you know, when we, when we work with those type of manufacturers and we put our tech into things like light bulbs, the specifications are very stringent because It takes about a half second for you to turn and flip that light switch.

[00:23:24] Tony Nicolaidis: So if we're going to replace that light switch, we got to be as good, if not better than that. And that puts a lot of pressure on our engineering team, but very confident we've already done it. And we can do that kind of thing where we can replace those kinds of things like switches.

[00:23:36] Eric Goranson: You know, and it's, it's so funny because that's one of the hardest and the most basic things, because I've done a lot of testing of different switches here, and there's some that work really, really well.

[00:23:45] Eric Goranson: And there's some, uh, I tried one out and not going to be negative with this, but it just shows that how people out there that are pushing in technology, right? That, you know, I had it in my closet and in the middle of the night, it would just automatically turn on. And I'm like, [00:24:00] awesome. This is cool.

[00:24:02] Eric Goranson: Unfortunately, that company didn't make it. They're no longer around, but There's also people out there that are just flawless in their operation.

[00:24:11] Tony Nicolaidis: Look, high tech is, is, uh, it's, it's always a risk. And, uh, it's always, obviously it's high tech, so it's complicated. Uh, and, and, and the battle you have, uh, Eric, I'm sure you've heard about it is when do you launch is your, does your product need to be perfect?

[00:24:27] Tony Nicolaidis: If it's going to be ultimately perfect, are you going to be late? Um, you know what I mean? So there's this very, very, very fine balance. Where the stuff's got to work. Otherwise people are like, ah, the tech's not ready. Uh, and, but you're going to market as quick enough to, uh, get it off the ground. So it's always a challenge in any high tech environment, no matter

[00:24:44] Eric Goranson: what you're doing.

[00:24:45] Eric Goranson: Yeah, no question. How does it work with, uh, like with the wifi sensing when you've got pets and things like that around the house? Cause people always hear in my show, sometimes there's a dog around, if you know what I mean. It's a big focus

[00:24:59] Tony Nicolaidis: of ours, [00:25:00] Eric, especially in the security space, because. Uh, one of the biggest reasons why, why the security companies churn customers is because of false alarms.

[00:25:09] Tony Nicolaidis: One of the biggest cause of false alarms is pets. Okay, so we have a patented way in our, in our tech stack that we can discern. Um, I'm not going to say pet versus human. I'm going to say human versus non human. How's that? Perfect. So we'll be able to definitively say there is a human being there. We'll be able to definitively say.

[00:25:29] Tony Nicolaidis: There's something that's not human there, uh, and not human could be pets. It could be an oscillating fan. It could be a curtain moving because the air conditioner, uh, just turned on whatever. So we have a human non human. We call motion classification. We spent a lot of time on that. That's launching in January coming up next on 2 months and, um, it's going to it's going to take this.

[00:25:49] Tony Nicolaidis: Our security home security proposition to a whole new level.

[00:25:53] Eric Goranson: That is exciting stuff because, yeah, I think there's nothing more frustrated and false alarms. And, uh, it's something that a lot of the old [00:26:00] school companies deal a lot with with the wind blowing a door a little bit. And the sensor goes off right there, or somebody doesn't shut that door all the way and the wind blows and it's open.

[00:26:09] Eric Goranson: And now the police are showing up, walking into somebody's backyard because the latch didn't. You

[00:26:15] Tony Nicolaidis: got it, man. All these things are reality. Yeah. All of these things are reality in the security industry, and we want to try to eliminate false alarms.

[00:26:21] Eric Goranson: Yeah, and I like that too, because I can see how many challenges and this is where I got to tip the hat to you guys.

[00:26:27] Eric Goranson: You know, there's a big difference between the dog walking across the yard and grandma can't get up off the ground because she went to pick something up and isn't strong enough to get back up into our Walker, for instance,

[00:26:38] Tony Nicolaidis: very serious situations, man. These these situations lead to the worst thing, which is the deterioration of their health.

[00:26:46] Tony Nicolaidis: The worst thing, you know, so, uh, you know, taking care of. The people who are elderly around us is really critical.

[00:26:52] Eric Goranson: That's really cool. That what we've seen with this, because, you know, we've come a long way already since the I've fallen. I can't get up [00:27:00] stuff that you see out there. And that was the only option for so many people for so many years.

[00:27:04] Eric Goranson: Is that you hoped that, uh. You know that she was able if she, if she got in a situation where she couldn't do something, as in my mom, that she could hit a button. But now, for instance, my son who's got some medical issues, he's got seizures and stuff, which is well under control, but he's got a watch now that they can sense it before it happens.

[00:27:23] Eric Goranson: You know what I mean? There's so much great tech out there, and I think it's really going to take over the healthcare industry. It is,

[00:27:30] Tony Nicolaidis: and our goal is to, let's say, a mother or a son, whatever, is not wearing their watch or their pendant. Our goal is in the house. You don't need any of that. We'll know. If you, as long as you have wifi in the house, we'll know.

[00:27:43] Tony Nicolaidis: Um, and, uh, so we're another complimentary technology that can really help you do that. So where do people

[00:27:49] Eric Goranson: find out more information

[00:27:50] Tony Nicolaidis: about this? Go to our website, origin, origin AI. Uh, and, uh, you can look up our website and you can put wifi sensing in. We come up automatically. [00:28:00] Uh, and you want a demo hit, uh, put your name in there.

[00:28:03] Tony Nicolaidis: And one of our team members will be back to you very, very shortly. Uh, and if anybody wants to reach out to me, they can, uh, just reach out to me directly, you know, through, uh, uh, tony. nicolaitis. org and wireless.

[00:28:14] Eric Goranson: ai. com. Perfect Tony. Thanks for coming on around the house today, Eric.

[00:28:17] Tony Nicolaidis: Thank you very much.

[00:28:18] Tony Nicolaidis: Appreciate it. You guys have

[00:28:19] Eric Goranson: a great day. Don't go anywhere. Coming up next, we'll be talking with Roy Novosel from Xfinity. about storm ready Wi Fi, so you've always got a signal around your house.[00:29:00]

[00:29:02] Intro: It's the end of the

[00:29:03] Eric Goranson: show. Now drinkin down people, it's time

[00:29:05] Intro: to go. It's that time again. It's Last Call. Last Call. That's it, it's the end of the night. Last Call.

[00:29:16] Eric Goranson: It is storm season for us. This is that time of year that we fight power outages and everything else. Today, we've got my friend, Roy Novosel from Comcast Xfinity, and we're going to talk about something I actually tested last week, myself, their new storm ready wifi system, welcome back to around the house, my friend.

[00:29:34] Eric Goranson: Oh, thank

[00:29:35] Roy Novosel: you, Eric. A pleasure to be here and appreciate you inviting me back to

[00:29:38] Eric Goranson: your show. Oh, man, it's always great to find out, uh, what's new out there and, uh, you know, a few months ago, you guys sent me that, uh, storm ready wifi program. And. You know, when the power went out of my house last week, that worked well.

[00:29:54] Eric Goranson: So, uh, hats off to you. It kept me going. That's awesome.

[00:29:57] Roy Novosel: That's awesome. And it's infinity storm. [00:30:00] Wifi is exactly for that. When there's storms, there's high winds, there's damages. Connectivity is so important to people nowadays that the liability within the home, even when the power's out is is the utmost importance.

[00:30:15] Roy Novosel: And so that's why we launched that product. And it's just, I guess you could say it adds on to your existing packages. Um, and the only thing you have to do is buy, buy, um, one of those storm ready wifi packs from us and there's no additional charge, uh, to get the service.

[00:30:33] Eric Goranson: So let's talk about for people that don't know what I'm talking about here and what you're talking about.

[00:30:37] Eric Goranson: How does this work? So

[00:30:40] Roy Novosel: storm ready wifi, what it is is it's a battery backup, uh, uh, wifi. Uh, when it's not in, I guess you'd say when you don't have a power outage, let's all hope that we don't have to have power outages. It actually works as a extender in your home. So when it's not doing the [00:31:00] secondary purpose, its primary purpose is to be an extender and extends the coverage within your home, just like our X5 pods do.

[00:31:08] Roy Novosel: I don't know if you're familiar with our X5 pods. It works the same function and fashion.

[00:31:13] Eric Goranson: And then when

[00:31:14] Roy Novosel: the power goes out and you lose connection or you lose Wi Fi within the home, it picks up and becomes the primary gateway. Instead of being a secondary gateway to your primary gateway. So, and that's where cell tower picks up, uh, off that, off that connection and,

[00:31:31] Eric Goranson: and keeps your whole house running while the power's out.

[00:31:35] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Mine was early in the morning. It was a tree around the corner that, uh, Just had a little bit too much wind came down, took a bunch of lines down. And, uh, I tell you what, when the power went out, I went, oh, and usually what I would do is I would go out and, you know, it's early in the morning. I didn't really want to wake the neighbors up and be that guy out there starting up my loud generator.

[00:31:54] Eric Goranson: But I thought, you know, I've got it. I'm my I'm up and running so I can keep working [00:32:00] and I'm an early morning person. So I just grabbed my battery backup that I have plugged my computer and my router into it. And, uh, it started working and I just changed my, can my desktop over to the, uh, to the wireless network.

[00:32:12] Eric Goranson: It worked awesome, and, uh, it's on another floor of the house, and, uh, it worked great. So it was something that, uh, I didn't think I'd be using so quickly, but, uh, it is, it is something that I tested and it worked well. Well, it's,

[00:32:27] Roy Novosel: uh, it's always good to be prepared because you just never know what's going to happen with weather.

[00:32:31] Roy Novosel: And, uh, I mean, other than just power outages, you know, that down tree probably took down our hard line as well, too, on the Comcast side. And so this

[00:32:39] Eric Goranson: provides backup to even our wireline main

[00:32:42] Roy Novosel: service into your home. And so that's what's really neat about it's not just for when you have a power outage, but.

[00:32:48] Roy Novosel: You know, there's times when that same tree will take down our wire line as well, too.

[00:32:54] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. And it's no fault of the power company, you guys. It's just Mother Nature at work. And we've got to have those [00:33:00] trees out there, right? Yeah, that's

[00:33:02] Roy Novosel: right. They provide some good shade and a home for our friendly little squirrels.

[00:33:07] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. And by the way, those squirrels are no friend of my wife. I usually, but you guys do a good job of keeping that working. Yeah,

[00:33:15] Roy Novosel: well, at times they like chewing on our stuff too.

[00:33:18] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you guys have been doing a bunch of system upgrades out there as well. Let's talk about that for just a 2nd, because.

[00:33:26] Eric Goranson: That road to TNG in the Northwest is cruising right along to. Yeah, it's, it's coming along

[00:33:31] Roy Novosel: great. And the Pacific Northwest, we're, we're about 40 percent of the way done. We're going to finish out the year,

[00:33:37] Eric Goranson: close to half, half of our network done in the

[00:33:40] Roy Novosel: entire Pacific Northwest. And about the same percentage in the state of Oregon, where you're located, Eric, and in your neighborhood, just recently got the.

[00:33:48] Roy Novosel: Got the recent upgrades and the 1st offering that we have with that is. Is 2 gigabits, uh, speeds with 200 up and then the next iteration, the [00:34:00] next iteration, which will come next year and successive years as well, too, will be upgrading our entire network to FDX DOCSIS 4.

[00:34:09] Eric Goranson: 0, which will be will will bring a true symmetrical speeds to you.

[00:34:14] Eric Goranson: Wow, that's great. And, you know, I've got 1 of those older neighborhoods. It's got the coax cable and it doesn't matter. You guys have figured out a way to keep that going fast, which I like. Because, uh, you know, it's been a good system so far for me.

[00:34:27] Roy Novosel: That's right. Now, I think the last time I was on your, your, uh, your show, I talked about how it's like construction and I'm sure you notice in your neighborhood, even though we were in there swapping out electronics.

[00:34:39] Roy Novosel: There shouldn't have been really any digging in your yard if. If

[00:34:42] Eric Goranson: so, probably none whatsoever, and we're just in and out of there and half a day and you're up and running. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. I noticed a couple bucket trucks down the road at a couple key spots working on stuff, obviously swapping out hardware, but there was nobody [00:35:00] knocking on my door.

[00:35:00] Eric Goranson: It was just something that, uh, you know, as well told in advance of what was going on. And, uh, it was a great upgrade. Right, I'm happy to hear you had a great experience. Well, you know, and this is the thing, you know, you think about it here and this is something that I wanted to talk about with you today, too.

[00:35:16] Eric Goranson: And why the storm ready? Wifi makes sense. And where these faster speeds. I mean, every time we turn around, our TV speeds are streaming. And, you know, we're adding all these new pieces of smart. You know, to our home and, uh, that connectivity is a big deal and we got to have the speeds to go with it, especially with all the kids out there that are streaming the stuff off YouTube at 4k and everything else.

[00:35:40] Eric Goranson: Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, and

[00:35:43] Roy Novosel: the, the initial offering is 2 gig, but we can, the DOCSIS 4. 0, DOCSIS 4. 0 standard that's be coming to your neighborhood in the next year or so will get us all the way up to 10 gigabits. So, it's, it's a, it's an amazing technology [00:36:00] that we can still get amazing speeds out of our, I guess you say, incumbent co actual network.

[00:36:07] Roy Novosel: Not that we don't build fiber to the home, but we have an expansive, huge incumbent network, legacy network that's been out there for years, and we're still able to get a lot of life out of it. And

[00:36:18] Eric Goranson: it's simply just doing electronic

[00:36:20] Roy Novosel: upgrades and it's pretty amazing. You know, I've been in the industry now going on 24 years and it's just amazing that

[00:36:28] Eric Goranson: the standards just keep evolving and we just get better and better at getting more and more out of the coax.

[00:36:35] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I've been a smart home educator for about 5 years now to the construction trades. And if you'd have told me 4 years ago that you guys are going to do that, I'd have said somebody was crazy, but it's great to see that technology being used because you got how many thousands of miles of that cable out there.

[00:36:50] Eric Goranson: You might as well use it. That's right. That's right. And we have fiber

[00:36:54] Roy Novosel: deep in your architecture. So, the fiber is very close to your home, but we know how [00:37:00] impactful it would be to dig up everybody's yard to put, um, you know, some of our competitors are putting in fiber to the home, but that's very capital intensive and well established neighborhoods.

[00:37:10] Roy Novosel: It doesn't go over very

[00:37:11] Eric Goranson: well when I've got to tell you, I

[00:37:14] Roy Novosel: got to dig up everybody's yard and then replace the line to your home and many times rewire your home as well, too. But I can do the same thing with the same throughput, the same latency. As far as to the home and not have to do any of that ground disturbance.

[00:37:31] Roy Novosel: And so I think it's real important and and also speed to market. I could bring it much faster.

[00:37:36] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah, because there's just so much land to cover out there with so many people. That's a. I would be a big undertaking. So, Roy, how do people track you guys down if they're interested in getting this storm ready?

[00:37:47] Eric Goranson: Wifi and even getting into the newer, faster speeds.

[00:37:51] Roy Novosel: Well, there's two ways that you can either find us online at Xfinity. com. You have all our products on there, and you can upgrade through our [00:38:00] app if you prefer to do that. Or you can visit one of our retail stores, one of the Xfinity retail stores. They have the, the, um, so you can take it home right there, and you can walk in the store and say, Hey, I'd like your Storm Ready Wi Fi, and the retail agents there will hook you up, I guess you could say.

[00:38:17] Roy Novosel: It's currently, I believe it's 256, 256 for

[00:38:21] Eric Goranson: the device, but you're going to own it completely and or you

[00:38:25] Roy Novosel: can do set up payments. It's like 7 bucks a month for 36 months really inexpensive way to get, you know, more reliability in the home if

[00:38:34] Eric Goranson: folks want to be prepared. Yeah, I think it's a must have for the kids that are working from home doing the school work to the parents that are doing the same thing out there trying to get into the office on those days that the storms are out there.

[00:38:47] Eric Goranson: Roy. Thanks for coming on today, man. I really appreciate it. And great to see what's latest from you guys. All right. Thank you.

[00:38:53] Roy Novosel: Thank you for the invite. Appreciate

[00:38:54] Eric Goranson: it. It's good to see you again. Thanks everybody for tuning into around the house show. If you need more information about us, [00:39:00] you can catch us over at around the house online.

[00:39:02] Eric Goranson: com and make sure you can catch the TV show over on that website. As well. We've got a lot of clips up there. If you're tuning in on the podcast catches next Wednesday for a midweek special and on the radio, thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next weekend. Thanks for tuning in to Around the House. Have a great holiday season.