Modern Apartment Smart Home Tech Tour (2022))

What's going on everyone, it's Justin here and welcome to this year's smart home tech tour where I show you guys some of the tech products that I have integrated in my personal place. As always, we're going to start in the living room and talk about the TV and speaker setup, as well as the home appliances for coffee making, the Bartesian, as well as a revolutionary toaster before moving over to the home office where we take a look at some of the changes that I've made to my desk setup, as well as of course the bedroom, which has a few updates as well. The biggest update of all though is that this is actually going to be the last smart home tech tour in this property because I'm in the process right now of having my dream condo renovated where I've gone all out when it comes to tech fixtures and a lot of them will be integrated into the walls, ceilings, and completely customized from the start. So I'm going to talk about some of the selections that I've made towards the end of this video. But without further ado, I hope you guys enjoy the 2022 edition of this. And as always, if you would like to win an item from this video, just make sure you subscribe to the channel, drop a thumbs up on this video, and leave a comment down below as to what your favorite part is, and I'll be picking a winner in the comment section in one month. So make sure you leave your Instagram username as well for me to contact you directly. So beginning with the living room, this is an area that hasn't seen a drastic amount of change over the past few years. It had a big update in 2019 and I was very happy to get rid of the big fireplace that was here originally and instead move to a smaller fireplace. But there was one small design issue. As you can see, the TV actually looks pretty good, but I have also put my soundbar behind me over the years and I always remember getting comments saying the Sonos soundbar should not be behind me. So I think if I was to make a change here, I would drop the height of the fireplace even more and then have the soundbar below the TV. But for now, it still gets the job done and this is a 55 inch TV, which I think fits the space really nicely. It's a Samsung one from a couple of years ago, but if I was to upgrade the TV, I would probably get something that either has a mini LED panel or just something that is brighter in general because this is an area that gets a lot of sunlight, as you can probably see. Over here though, I just have my Sonos 5 speaker as well as my dual shock controllers for the PlayStation 5 and I actually have all of the IO for home tech and the entertainment system inside of this cabinet here. So I had a whole cutout in the back and it's meant to be a bedroom wardrobe, but it happened to fit perfectly. And so all the tech products are actually enclosed in there and the cables are able to run through this hollow portion of the wall to a very seamless setup that I can still easily access and the PS5 is just on the corner here. Over on this side, I actually made a few changes to the audio setup. So this is the Sing Cell Alpha Trifonic speaker. It is something that looks really weird and we featured in our home tech series, but it sounds really good. It is perfect for this type of room because it's a weird shape. The room actually goes all the way to the dining room over there and it's relatively narrow on this side with the windows factored in. So this speaker actually utilizes the space that it's in to be able to customize the sound characteristics specifically while also delivering a lot of power. So wherever you are in the room, you can still get a very immersive effect and you can even get more than one and pair them together. But it's definitely not cheap, so I don't plan to do that anytime soon. But having this really weird looking speaker here that has so much technology behind it is really cool to see. Another addition I also made around the house is the Aroma Tech. Previously, I had something from the Edition Hotel, which I showed you in last year's episode. And even though it had a really nice scent, I would have to order the canisters from the U.S. and it would cost quite a bit of money relative to what it was worth. And so the Aroma Tech is a better looking system, but it has a whole bunch of options in terms of the scents that you can pick for it and you can customize the intensity. I have it set to a custom mode where it only goes off for a very short period of time, a couple times a day because it just becomes too much, but it just gives you a very nice hotel scent. I just got back from New York and I noticed that the hotels had a very nice characteristic to it and that it was actually very similar to the scent that I had in my place. So now we're here in the kitchen and one category of product that we checked out a lot of in the past year is countertop appliances. As you can see, the kitchen over the years has held up quite nicely. I still love the two-tone design and there's some small tech aspects in the appliances, including the fact that this dishwasher from Samsung opens up five inches as soon as it is done its cycle. It's from the Chef Collection and the reason why it does that is because say you're not home or maybe you're running a load overnight, it will actually open up and let the steam out so that all of the dishes and everything can dry after they're done their watch cycle without it condensating. So I think that is a really cool feature. But beyond that, when it comes to some of the appliances that I have on my countertop, one category that I love to always check out is coffee makers. There are countless amounts of cool coffee makers on the market at the moment, but one of the most revolutionary ones that I've checked out recently is from a company called Osma, and it's not only one that just looks so good in this whole matte black, walnut, and white theme, but it's actually able to make cold brew in like a minute. It utilizes like a vacuum-based technology that like takes the water through and pulls the espresso shot and everything. I don't know the technicals of making coffee, but I find that to be a really cool product and had a lot of fun checking it out. And on a more simpler note, there's also the Fellow Accessories, which I've loved for many years now because it is just very straightforward, well-designed, but it has just the right amount of tech integrated. This right here is the Stagg EKG kettle, and you just go ahead and fill it up with water, turn the dial to the temperature that you need it to, and you can make a very easy pour-over. But there's also some really weird kitchen appliances that I've checked out recently that I would say not everyone needs, but if you're really into home tech or looking for a crazy gift, could be a good idea. One of them is a revolution toaster. This allows you to visualize the whole process of putting a piece of toast from frozen to crisp and it shows the color and the shade of that toast on the screen. And another product that is also kind of of the future and we're going to see a lot more of is from Bartesian. It allows you to make your cocktails within a few seconds using the pod system, and you just have all your favorite spirits and alcohol pre-installed into each of the canisters. So you just go ahead and put the pod in, it will scan it, and then you can set the intensity of the drink. It is such a well-designed and good-looking system, but yeah, I think it's more of like a party trick because it comes in at a price just like a lot of these crazy home tech products. But now let's go ahead and talk a bit about the dining room before we head over to the home office and the bedroom. So before I show you guys the home office, which has an overwhelming amount of tech, here is a look at the dining room. I've switched out the Sonos One for a Sonos Move because this is kind of a space to entertain where having a grab-and-go speaker to be able to bring to the balcony is really nice. It still looks really minimal, takes up the same amount of space, and delivers great sound quality, so it integrates with the whole ecosystem of Sonos products that I already have around the house. I also don't know if it was changed last year, but I did switch out the light up here. I just felt like the light that I had before didn't really fit that well, so I went ahead and picked up a new light, and I also swapped out the painting that I had before for some posters in the back, and the reason why they are so low is because we actually use this dining room to film sometimes, and so the horizon line of the posters fit and frame at this height. But from an interior design standpoint, it seems a bit odd, and they should definitely be placed about a foot higher if this place wasn't being used as a filming set as well. So let's go ahead and hop over to the home office where there are also a few updates So one of the most important aspects of smart home is your cordless vacuum, and I want to give a huge thanks to Dyson for sponsoring this video, and in front of me I have the V12 Detect Slim. It's a slim version of their flagship V15 Detect, which is that famous handheld and cordless vacuum that has the laser technology that is able to show you the areas of dust that still exist, but it also has great power, battery life, as well as information that is displayed on the screen, and this V12 Slim has all of those features as well while coming in at 24% lighter than the flagship V15. This is really good for anyone who has a condo or a small house because you're able to get 60 minutes of runtime while having a smaller and lighter unit overall that still has all of those great features that the V15 Flagship Detect Vacuum has. With the LCD screen on the back, you're able to adjust between the eco, the auto, and the boost mode, and you can also see the types of particles and particle sizes based on the scientific information displayed for the user here alongside the battery life estimate. One of the biggest features, of course, is the laser, and with the fluffy head that is included for hardwood floors, it is perfect for ensuring that you clean every element of your house. I know a lot of you guys who watch these videos are looking for home inspiration for condos and apartments, and so the new V12 Detect Slim is a perfect product, and I'm going to link down below. So now let's check out the home office, which is also known as the main bedroom in this condo. In my new place, I am using the main bedroom and have a room that is dedicated to being the home office, but if you guys have probably known, ever since I bought this place in 2017, it has always been an office. It's definitely evolved over the years. I remember having my desk here at some point, and then it was over there and on the wall, but a couple years ago, it was switched over to a big L-shaped setup, anticipating the but it is still very much where I spend most of the day working. So let's go ahead and take a look at what is at the desk first, before we take a look at what is on this side, because there is a ton of tech to go over. So the setup that you're seeing right now is after working in the video field for over a decade, so it is overkill, but it was built up over time. So this is a custom desk that we kind of made, which combines an Ikea Carlby kitchen countertop with a Bow Concept desk that has been installed onto an L-shaped standing desk frame. So when it comes to the monitors, it is a two Pro Display XDR setup from Apple. They originally sent out one, and I decided that it was such a good monitor and so important to the workflow with all the video going through, that I decided to purchase a second one, and I love this combination. It's really one that you probably shouldn't buy unless you're really into the video and photo field, where color accuracy is very important, but you could also get an Apple Studio Display, which is pretty hard to find at the moment, but for the most part, has a lot of the same features, minus the brightness of the Pro Display XDR, and of course, the size. So on top of that, there's also a few accessories, including the Logitech 4K webcam, and I'm usually a cam-off during the phone call, but I find that when I do need a webcam, this is the best option. It has autofocus, 4K HDR. You can also adjust the settings through the Logitech app, and I've also recently added a BenQ ScreenBar Halo, which is their top-of-the-line light that sits on top of the monitor, and you can control all the specific color temperature balances depending on the scenario. That is important because you can also see that there is a color grading panel, which pretty much lives at the desk at all times, and that is how I grade the footage in DaVinci Resolve, and it doesn't have lights on the actual buttons. So at night, I can at least have the ScreenBar Halo set to the color temperature of 6500 Kelvin to be able to see what I'm doing on that panel, but otherwise, the setup stays really simple. The computer powering this entire setup is still the Apple Mac Pro 2019, and I've got a bit of a mixed relationship with that computer. It was one that I invested over $20,000 in, and even though it hasn't really lived up to my full expectations of a main computer, it has edited literally two, if not three hundred videos over the years, and so it's definitely gotten its money's worth. When it comes to the speakers, these are ones that I recently picked up, and it is the Totem Kinplay Slim. I was introduced to the brand a couple years ago and purchased the Tribe Tower for the office speaker setup and absolutely loved them, and I figured I might as well go ahead and try the Kinplay Slim because it comes in at a price point where you get a high-quality speaker, but it isn't to an extreme point where it doesn't really make sense for what I do. The speaker that I had before was the Kef LSX, which was not very good. It would have issues all the time, and eventually, when they completely stopped working, I went ahead and purchased the Kinplay Slim, and they've been great so far. Right next to the Kinplay Slim, there's also a Belkin Thunderbolt dock, and this is actually the previous generation Thunderbolt 3 model that has Thunderbolt inputs as well as USB and SD card. They also have a Thunderbolt 4 model, but the Mac Pro 2019 is Thunderbolt 3, so it makes sense just to stick to that for now. And next to that, I also recently picked up the Apollo Solo, which is an audio interface where I connect my XLR microphone, which is the Rode NTG, and that is what I use for voiceovers, and personally, what I find sounds the best characteristic to my voice, and I just find that even after trying a few different mics, it is important to find one that suits your specific voice as opposed to just what is said to be the best mic out there. Of course, one of my favorite things that I've talked about before is the projector setup. Being able to watch hockey or Formula 1 in the morning while being able to work is really nice, and even though it was a last-minute decision and something that I added just for fun, it is something that's got a ton of use over the years. So over on this side, I wasn't really sure what to put. It wasn't enough room to add another desk, but it's also something that you don't really see aside from walking into the room itself. So we went with a bit of a hybrid of pegboards and some Ikea accessories, and this clock that I picked up that I can't seem to find anymore, but a console table is also a good place to have some decor and have a few important elements of tech in any home tech setup. So here is a Sonos Arc, which is Sonos' flagship soundbar, and this has the best sound quality of any soundbar that I've tried so far. I wouldn't say it's the best-looking on the market, but when sitting on a console table, it looks quite clean, and I have a black and a white one, and I would say the white one is the one to get because it is able to hide dust a lot easier. The way it's shaped really projects a sound in all directions, including upwards, and it has quite a substantial size as well. So in this case, it is actually connected to the projector, so when I'm watching sports or listening to music, it comes straight out of here, and this console table was actually very customized as well. It was picked up off Wayfair for, I think, $200, and it just wasn't really good quality, so I picked up some 3M Dynoc over on Amazon and just wrapped all of the gloss black in the matte black wrap, and then used remnants from the countertops of my previous projects and just had them cut a custom size because the tabletop before was some really bad vinyl. I've also switched out the router this year, and this is the Linksys router. I used to have a mesh system, but in a 1,200-square-foot place, all I've got to say about that is that you don't really need a mesh system. If anything, it has a worse effect on the network sometimes because in that space, your smartphone or devices are constantly going to be battling between the different mesh pieces as well as the access point, and I just found the connection to be not as reliable. So instead, I switched it over to a flagship Linksys router, and it has been really good. It's the same router that I use over at my office, and I'm able to get great speeds at this side of the house where I'm spending most of my time and also using my smartphone, but I also get great reception over in the living room, which is completely at the other side of the place. So yeah, I can definitely recommend this router so far after trying ones from D-Link and also having one from Google before, which was good, but it kind of wore out over the years. So when it comes to the bedroom tech, this room stayed relatively simple for many years because I spent most of the time in the home office. One of the biggest changes that I made from a design standpoint was painting this wall Hail Navy and also having some finishing millwork done, which I feel like elevates it a lot and makes it feel a bit like a hotel. When it comes to the tech that I have next to the bedside table, there's the wireless charger from Belkin, which is used to charge the phone overnight. I've also had a gantry light, and I also had the Joy Resolve Coffee Maker for a bit, which is actually an alarm clock that is able to make coffee as soon as your alarm goes off. It's a really cool product. You can store the coffee grounds. There's also a refrigerated container, but the way that it heats up the water and suctions it through the top and showers the coffee beans to deliver you that perfect cup of coffee is really cool, and it's just one of those pieces of tech that everyone has asked about when they've seen it. So the centerpiece of the bedroom tech setup is the TV and the soundbar. Formula One starts at 5 to 6 in the morning in the West Coast, so even though it is unfortunate that you have to wake up that early, having a good immersive setup just adds to that experience, and so this is a 55-inch 4K TV. Just like the living room, it's nothing crazy. I picked it up a couple years ago, but it does a really good job of delivering enough brightness. The colors are still really good. The interface is still good, but I have heard that Samsung's interface has changed a bit over the years, but just like in the living room and the home office, the Sonos Arc is my favorite soundbar by far, and it's the easiest way to get the most dimension in sound with enough power delivered and well-optimized setup in a singular soundbar like this. You can see the white one right here just looks super good. It's extremely clean, and it just sits underneath the TV. Another very important tech product is the Dyson Hot & Cool Air Purifier with formaldehyde sensor. This is something that I have used many times because one of the bad things about being a homeowner is that things break, and you're going to have to pay for them, and my heat pump has actually broken twice in the past three years, and it's costed like $10,000 each time to replace, and that's if they can find it in stock. So for the second time in the past couple years, right in the middle of summer, my heat pump is sitting on a trolley in the hallway right now, and so it can get really hot, and in the winter, it can get very cold, which is what happened the last time the heat pump broke. So by having an air purifier and a fan in the space, it has been a lifesaver. It removes 99.97% of pollutants, as small as 0.3 microns, and it even detects and destroys formaldehyde. And the Dyson Hot & Cool not only does a really good job of purifying the air, while also showing you the analytical data on the screen, just like it does with the vacuum due to the particles, but it also has a built-in HEPA filter to ensure good air quality, and you can control the hot and cold settings from the remote that is included, and also have it set to a night mode, which just ensures that it is relatively quiet, while also sticking to the intensity that you've set it at. So that's why this year's Home Tech episode doesn't have any talks about a thermostat, because the whole heat pump system in here is broken. But now that we've checked out some of the Home Tech products that is in my current place, let's go ahead and talk about some of the tech that I've integrated in my next project, which would actually mark the end of five years of videos made in this place. So even though I'm a huge fan of this living room, some of the changes that I plan to make in my new place is to really make the living room the centerpiece, because I love to watch TV, and whenever I have people over, it's either to game or watch TV. And so the whole media wall has been constructed to be able to house an 85-inch mini LED TV from Sony's new lineup, and I'm so excited to have that in. My unit does have automatic shades, which means I can close the shades and be able to see the screen in broad daylight, but because it is a mini LED panel, it is able to bring out the most brightness possible, while still having some characteristics of OLED, which is always going to be my preference, but at the same time, you get that brightness characteristic. So I'm so excited to have that installed, and when it comes to the audio setup, there's also been a lot of things done there. There's going to be speakers in the ceiling that can bring a 7.1 surround sound setup to that living room, including a subwoofer in the back, the five ceiling speakers, as well as a large Totem Audio soundbar that goes below the TV. Originally, my idea was to maybe even get a Beolab 28 from Bang & Olufsen, and that is like a dream speaker. It sounds and looks incredible, but it just wasn't practical in this case. So for a future place, I might do that, but in this case, being able to use all the speakers around the unit, and because I dropped the ceiling for the light, is going to be the most effective way to bring out that ultimate aspect of that large living room TV. So this new kitchen obviously follows a lot of the similar designs of my previous places. It has a blend of walnut, as well as strong black color, as well as a white marble look. The first thing that's a bit unique about it is that I'm going with porcelain. It's a different process from quartz, and instead, it's clay with the design printed on top, and it's essentially supposed to give you great levels of durability, but at the same price, if not lower than quartz, but has the effect of marble. Because quartz always has like a nice vein, and I would have gone with it again for this project, but I figured for a more upscale project, going with that marble look will make a strong statement. But real marble is very expensive and also relatively easy to damage, so I didn't really want that. But beyond that, I've also added elements that I'm missing in this kitchen, including a pot filler, a cup washer, and also elements of LED lights that tuck into the bar closet that is going to be on the far right side. I've also gone with a different gas stove, and it's from a company called Pit. I believe they're Australian, and instead of having a large like traditional panel like this, the Pit is just circular elements that are cut into the countertop, and I do have some questions about the durability, but I was assured that it's a good choice, and so I'm very interested in seeing how that turns out. It's just a little bit different from what it's traditionally done, and that's areas that I've tried to implement while also playing it quite safe in many areas in the kitchen. When it comes to what I'm going to be doing in my new home office, it's actually going to have a lot of similar elements to the space with some small optimizations. I'm going to be going with a two display setup for now, but I might add a third one in the future because that new desk is really big. It's 43 inches in its width and 88 inches in length, and there's still going to be an L return, which is great for anyone else working to be able to sit there and work, but also be able to put stuff on the side, and on top of that, there's also going to be a desk against the wall, which is going to have a charging station for all the tech products and the camera equipment. I've also had it custom wired because this is a full gut renovation where all of the HDMI, the ethernet, the gigabit, and all that stuff is going to go through the wall, and it's going to route over to a side console that has all of the RAID drives because right now, I have all my RAID drives either on the floor next to the computer or in the closet, and so the cable is visible, and that also goes for the projector. So right now, my cable actually has a grommet that goes all the way around, but I figured I would have a custom projector cut out built in so that they can actually wire everything throughout the entire room and just have it look very seamless because all the walls are being taken down anyways. The projector itself is also being upgraded to a Sony 4K projector, and even though I'm really happy with the BenQ one, and I would say it's still a really good option at the $2,000 price range, jumping to that next level of price point of Sony will be very interesting because it is something that I found myself using pretty much every single day. As to what I'm doing in the new place, I've actually asked them to build a cove similar to this in the bedroom. It is a bit of a larger bedroom because I am going to be using the main bedroom as a bedroom instead of a home office, and so there's a bit more space, but there will also be a larger TV due to the space that it's at away from the bed. So it's going to be a 65-inch TV, and right now the option that I'm thinking of getting is the Sony A95K OLED TV, and even though I went with mini LED for the living room due to the amount of brightness it's able to deliver in the panel, I'm really excited to have the best OLED TV in the bedroom setup. For sound, I'm going to be going with a Sonos Arc, and in addition to that, there's also going to be speakers built into the ceiling above the bed, which I'll connect back to a Sonos system because I'm able to use that as a music alarm clock as well. By integrating the speakers into the ceiling, it's not only able to save space on your nightstands, but it's actually not as expensive as I expected because you're buying the speaker elements alone, and if your ceiling's already being opened up or dropped down, then they just have to run a wire to the bridge system. So yeah, I'm really excited for that setup, but this setup right here has been really good over the years. So when it comes to some of the updates in the new place, one of the things that I've always wanted is a steam closet. I know it's kind of weird and not exactly necessary, but because all the closets are being customized, I figured it'd be nice to have a steam closet on the end because I wear a lot of hoodies and crewnecks, if you can't tell already. So instead of washing them all the time and shrinking them and having them wear out, putting it in the steam closet at the end of the day or after a couple days is able to clean that and maybe say you go to a restaurant and the clothes smell a bit like food, you can also throw it in there and you can also put stuff such as shoes or maybe a shirt that got a little bit wrinkled. So even though I've never had one before, I'm very curious as to how well exactly it works. But otherwise, thank you guys so much for watching this video of my home tech tour for 2022. And I mean, some things have definitely stayed the same, but there's been a few new products that I've checked out that have really excited me in the last year. And so I hope you guys are looking forward to more home tech videos. But other than that, I'll see you guys in the next one.