[00:00:08.28] - Gordon
Hello.

[00:00:09.08] - Taylor
Hello.

[00:00:09.19] - Gordon
My name's Gordon from Drayson Design.

[00:00:11.18] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:00:14.19] - Gordon
And welcome to "This Week With Taylor and Gordon," a weekly podcast and vidcast, where we talk about things that have affected our businesses over the last seven days. And thank you so much for joining us.

[00:00:25.17] - Taylor
Welcome back.

[00:00:26.10] - Gordon
It's been an interesting week for me because I've been away, which I'll talk about in a moment. Any news, first of all?

[00:00:34.27] - Taylor
No.

[00:00:35.02] - Gordon
No news from you? I think I mentioned that I was getting a charger for my phone, like a USB thing, and it was causing me lots and lots of problems because of delivery. Well, in case you've been awake at night and not able to sleep, trying to figure out if it arrived or not, it did. It arrived. So I do now have one and it's something I took with me when I went away. Shall I get straight into that?

[00:01:07.20] - Taylor
Yeah, go for it.

[00:01:08.18] - Gordon
So this week I've been to Trix. Now, Trix is spelt T-R-I-X, and it used to be called Trix in the Stix, and it's a convention for children and family entertainers. We've moved location. It's no longer in the sticks, so it's now called just Trix. And it's a way for entertainers to get together and talk to each other about what they do, what we do. We share ideas, we talk about things that are happening in our business. We have lecturers who talk about what they do, and we have cabaret and a gala show, and it's a lot of fun. It's also a lot of work and very tiring. The tiring bit is because you've got, I think there were over 140 people that all came together in Stoke-on-Trent. I went up on Sunday and then had the Monday morning and afternoon to do things. And then in the evening, it all started with the cabaret and then went on through into the Tuesday where we had a full day of lectures and it finished quite late. And then everyone went and chatted and had drinks. And then I left on the Wednesday, lunchtime-ish, and got home.

[00:02:45.01] - Gordon
And I didn't have a great deal of sleep. Now, the reason for that is because there's lots of people that I know because I've been in this industry for quite a long time. And your face becomes familiar to people, even if it's just a matter of seeing people at other conventions and events. And then all of a sudden you might stop and chat to someone, and by then you've got a new friend. And so you'll see them next time and you'll chat to them. And it gets to the point when you know lots and lots of different people, but you don't see them except maybe once or twice a year. So you've got lots to catch up on. You've got lots of people stopping you and saying hello and people to spend time with. And the lectures are great. It's always nice to sit down and watch lectures and see what people have because they're experts on that particular topic. We had topics like doing road safety shows in schools as a magical presenter, which was a very interesting talk. And we had another talk from someone about using tech in magic and how he uses technology to make his show bigger and better, mainly sound effects and visuals and so on, plus other things.

[00:04:06.12] - Gordon
But there's also people who go along like magic shops where you can buy things and they've got everything laid out and you can just pick them up, play with them. And there was a whole stand full of puppets, and you could just try them on and see if you can find a voice for them and that sort of thing. There was another lady who's there who's very well known who does Punch and Judy. So she carves and makes Punch and Judy figures and she has all the booths and everything and lots of other people that are there, people selling balloons, etc. But for me, what I normally get the most out of is sitting and chatting to people and networking and talking about what we do, because I can't necessarily sit with family and say, "oh, do you I had this gig the other day and this happened and this happened." They go, "Oh, that's very nice, darling. Well done. Dinner will be on the table in a minute." And it's like... Because they just don't understand because that's not what they do. They're not in that industry.

[00:05:15.23] - Gordon
So to be able to sit down and go, "Do you know what? I had this child at a party and this is what they did and this is what they said. And how would you deal with that?" And talking to them about situations that maybe they've had a similar experience with and just getting lots of different opinions, very similar to my podcast, which I'll mention in a minute. But that's, for me, is one of the better bits, because you can talk about a routine that you're working on or a particular prop that you're playing with, and you get all these ideas from people. And we've actually got one of those coming up that will happen for both of us, which, again, I'll talk about in just a minute. So that is that. But you never get very much sleep in these places because you're up at 7:30, 8:00 for breakfast. And then by the time you get to bed, there's a fair bit of drinking that goes on in the bar because, well, you're in the bar and it'd be rude not to. So getting to bed at three, four o'clock in the morning and then back up again for 7:30, eight o'clock for breakfast, you don't get a lot of sleep and it makes you very tired.

[00:06:29.26] - Gordon
Plus it's a four-hour drive each way for me. So that is, again, something very tiring. So when I got home on the Wednesday, I was very tired, had a little something to eat and then straight to bed, really. And that was a good plan because I slept through till later than I normally do in the morning. But the thing I was going to come back to was my FACE: The Podcast. Because I knew that there were going to be 140 plus children and family entertainers coming from all over the world - we had people from Sweden and Denmark and Belgium and all over the place coming to Stoke-on-Trent - I knew there was people who had a long journey. And I've got a podcast called FACE: The Podcast, which stands for Family and Children's Entertainers, FACE: The Podcast. And it's where I interview different children's and family entertainers. And I had one that I recorded at the end of last year, and I just haven't had the time to put it out. And this is going back to something we were talking about the other day, about completing and carrying on with things that you've already done and put in place.

[00:07:43.11] - Gordon
And all the framework for this is all done. There's a website, it's all ready to go. Well, it's not ready to go. It's already up. But adding new ones is all created. It's all been created. All the bits that I need to put a podcast up is designed in there making it nice and quick and easy to do. And I just needed to edit it. So I thought last week I would do that. I got it all edited up and put it online on the Friday, knowing that people were going to have a weekend of shows and then come up to Stoke-on-Trent, and it gave people a bit of time to know about it and then a chance to listen to it. And we had lots and lots of people who came to me during the convention and said, "you don't know me, but I listen to your podcast and it's great. Thank you very much for doing it. When's the next one coming out?"

[00:08:33.26] - Taylor
That's awesome.

[00:08:34.18] - Gordon
Which is really good. And I had some... I've got a sponsor that I've spoken to, and he does stickers. So he made me a load of stickers, and I was able to give out limited edition FACE: The Podcast stickers, which is really nice.

[00:08:49.06] - Gordon
So that was really nice to come. And I've actually got another one already recorded. So that needs editing. And then I can put that one out. And also, it's a great opportunity to talk to various people and say, "would you be a guest on my podcast in the future?" And everyone I asked said, "yeah, I'd love to," which is great because there's nothing in it for them other than promoting them. So I don't pay them and there's no money coming back to me. The sponsorship deal that I've got is just for one episode and that's for getting some stickers that I can then use to promote it. So I'm not really gaining financially in any way. So that's really good. And that went up and that was all wonderful. And so what I'm trying to say is that conventions are really important for your business. It's the networking, mainly. If you get to present, which I have done at this convention in the past, you gain publicity, you gain a wider audience for who you are and what you do. And that's always good. And in fact, we've got one coming up, haven't we, Taylor?

[00:10:01.22] - Taylor
We do.

[00:10:02.10] - Gordon
In about three weeks, I think. Maybe not even that, two weeks. Yeah, two and a half weeks time. We are off to Switzerland. Yeah. No Stoke-on-Trent here. This is Switzerland we're going to. Do you want to mention it briefly?

[00:10:17.10] - Taylor
Yeah, so we're going to WordCamp, which is an annual conference in Europe. There's lots of WordCamps around the world, both big and small. The European one is the largest in the world. And it's called the European WordCamp or WordCamp Europe because it changes location every year. So it is in somewhere in Europe. So last year it was in Turin in Italy. So just across from Milan. We've had Athens. Before that we had Porto. And Porto was the first one I ever went to. But yeah, they change every year and they announce next year's venue and location at the end of the the current year.

[00:11:01.09] - Gordon
Yeah. And I went last year for the first time. Taylor had already been before. And it was great. You got to talk to professionals in the WordPress community. You got to talk to people who are developing. There's a lot of developers, mainly developers, in fact, I would say, who go to the WordCamp in Europe. And it's really really interesting to, again, talk to people and find out their experiences, find out what they do, get little tips and tricks as to what they do and how they handle a situation. And so we've got that coming up. And I might actually suggest now, and this may or may not happen, that we do an episode while we're there. And maybe we can grab a couple of people that we know, because there's several people in the industry that we know that are going to be there, and we can get them to join in our podcast. What do you think?

[00:11:54.13] - Taylor
Yeah, maybe.

[00:11:55.05] - Gordon
Yeah, maybe that will happen. Watch closely, you'll find out. So, yeah, that's all very exciting. It's funny that they're happening so close together for me, two conventions together. I also do the big one at Blackpool in February, but that's it for magic.

[00:12:11.26] - Gordon
There's no other convention I go to regularly. It's just February and May, and now June for WordCamp. And that's my conventions. That's three conventions I go to in a year, and I'll try and continue doing that for as long as I enjoy doing them and find them of value. So, yeah, see if there's any conventions that are around for you. I mean, obviously the Switzerland one is going to be more expensive than the Stoke-on-Trent one, but I don't think it's any less worthy to go to. I think it's very beneficial for many, many reasons. And you probably already go to conventions, but have a look, see if there's any new ones or ones that you could go to with your business that will be a little bit different to ones that you've been to before that will I'll give you a brand new market, maybe. Who knows? That's it for my convention travelling news. Taylor, what would you like to talk about?

[00:13:07.29] - Taylor
So I would like to talk about Home Assistant this week. So I have been making a list of all of the things I need to purchase and buy for my flat. So things like furniture, so beds and sofas and TVs and cutlery and all of this stuff. And I'm trying to work out a rough budget that I will need based on how much I have to spend. And something that I've always wanted to do that I've started in my bedroom, but because it's just my bedroom, I don't have full control, is making the place smart. So in my bedroom, I have smart blinds, I have smart lights, and I can control a lot of things with the Home - so the smart, the Google or the Alexa and things like that. I can use them and control lights and things just by using my voice. And it works really well and I love it and I use it every single day. However, that's only one room because that's the only room I have full control over. So when I've been thinking about what I could do in the flat, I came across a lot of tools and I came across something called Home Assistant.

[00:14:25.22] - Taylor
So a lot of the smart home things will all have their own separate apps to control their platform or their smart device. So the blind will have their own app, the smart lights will have their own app, the thermostats will have their own app, but none of them will talk to each other. You can get them to connect to whatever smart home device you have. So if you've got the Googles or you got the Apple Homepods or whatever, you can connect them to that. But if the smart device you use doesn't support that, or it doesn't have the best integration, you can't then set up automations to say, if this then that. However, there is a platform or a software called Home Assistant. Now, this is an open source application that you install onto something like a raspberry pi, and it runs on a local mesh network. So it means it doesn't require the internet. You can connect it to the cloud so that you can control it when you're away. But there is a website, there is like an operating system. There is an iPhone and an Android app. There is, you can control it from your computer.

[00:15:36.11] - Taylor
And essentially what it allows you to do is, it allows you to connect all of your devices into one central location and have full control over every single device. So this allows you to then run smart automations and things across devices that you otherwise wouldn't have the connections and the integrations to do because each device is siloed to its own application and its own whatever it's exposed to.

[00:16:03.07] - Gordon
Well, that's something that's interesting because you've got different device makers and they will integrate with certain other device makers. But if someone else comes along after that, they may not want to revisit it and then add integration for that. Whereas Home Assistant just has a way to connect to all these different devices. And because it's its own operating system, it knows how to talk to each other. So it's one set of integrations rather than each maker doing integrations for everything, right?

[00:16:37.12] - Taylor
Yeah. And a lot of the smart devices nowadays are integrating what's called a Matter. So Matter is a standard that they're trying to bring out and make a general standard that all devices can use. And what this does is it allows you, like Home Assistant does, to connect all your devices together without needing every single separate application. And so they're trying to build out this standard protocol that they all can use. And it works really well. And there's lots and lots and lots of devices that are compatible. But you also have, because it's open source, you have people that will give their time to work on the open source software. But you'll also find that there's people that have made their own little add-ons, and their own little plug-ins that, again, are open source. If what you wanted didn't exist or there was no integration, you could add your own support by basically reverse engineering the APIs, for example. One of the examples is SimpliSafe. There's no direct or native integration by Home Assistant, the actual software, or by SimpliSafe themselves. So what someone has done is they've actually reverse engineered the API and watched and seen, "okay, these are the network calls that we need to do." And they then created a little add-on that you can then add your SimpliSafe into Home Assistant. So there's things like that where you can essentially add whatever you need and add only the extensions and add-ons that you want.

[00:18:17.11] - Gordon
So something you saw just, I think it was yesterday, is like a blaster for infrared. So you can basically train the blaster, which is just a little £15 device, with all of the commands for your infrared devices, like your TV and your Sky box and everything else like that, and then add that into Home Assistant and then trigger it with other things. You turn your light switch on in the lounge, it will turn your TV on, it will go to a particular channel, and you can have a motion sensor on the wall, and when you walk out the room, it just turns everything off automatically.

[00:19:04.29] - Taylor
Exactly. And the infrared blaster that I came across was really, really interesting because it can take any infrared signal. So even something that is not smart or has no smart integrations or anything, not even with the Googles or whatever, you can make it smart by just basically picking up the infrared signals that it emits and then being able to essentially like dummy emit those signals from the blaster, essentially. Which is really, really good because you've got like an AC or you just have anything that's just generic and standard that uses infrared. You can then make it smart.

[00:19:45.01] - Gordon
Yeah, it's a bit like the old all in one remotes that you used to be able to get. You could basically train them with your actual remote. So for example, a telly that wasn't supported on the all in one, you just hold them facing each other and you press the buttons and tell it what it is and it'll learn what code is being sent. And then you can use that all in one with everything.

[00:20:10.01] - Taylor
Yeah. So that's what I've been doing is looking at what automations I want. I've been watching lots of videos about Home Assistant itself because it's a very much set it up how you want it. So it can be quite overwhelming because there's so many options, there's so many add-ons, there's so many different ways you can configure it. So I've been looking at the best ways to manage that. But I've also been looking at the best automations and how people have things set up. So for example, if I had sensors on windows and doors using SimpliSafe, for example, I could automatically have it set up so that when a window opens, the heating is cut out and stopped so that I'm not wasting electricity. I can have it so that on each radiator, I have a little smart device that can control the temperature. So I could very easily say "only turn the bedroom radiator on in the morning and turn the radiator for the kitchen and things like that off" because I'm not going to be in those rooms, so I don't need it on. And so again, that is going to save money. And things like setting up smart curtains.

[00:21:20.28] - Taylor
So if I leave the house and the curtains are open, but I'm out later than I expected, I can have it so that at sunset, the blinds or sorry the curtains or blinds will automatically close. One, making it look like I'm in, but two, making sure that no one can see into the flat and see what I've got. So there's lots and lots of different things that you can set up and automations, geo-location, like geo-fencing and things like that, that I want to explore and see what will work for me.

[00:21:51.10] - Gordon
So just in case you're not sure, geo-fencing basically means that your mobile phone knows where you are. And if you go into a particular area, that could be the beginning of your road as you're driving in or out, you can then have automations triggered based on that. Siri has something a little bit like that. You can say, "Remind me when I get home to do this." And if you've set your home, it will then tell you something when you get there. That's a good example of geo-fencing.

[00:22:23.15] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:22:24.06] - Gordon
So are you looking at... I should actually say this is not an expensive thing to do. If you've already got or you're already going to be investing in certain products like SimpliSafe, which is an alarm system, anyway, then actually adding the home automation part to it is not that expensive. I think basically you're adding time. I think that's the most expensive part of setting up home automation using this system. Because the actual hardware and software that it runs on is really cheap, isn't it? I mean, just give us a ballpark.

[00:23:08.02] - Taylor
I think the main hub that you run Home Assistant because it runs on its own, basically computer 24/7, I think, is roughly between £100-£150-ish to buy. And then obviously, you just need to make sure that it's all connected.

[00:23:24.12] - Gordon
And the software is open source, therefore it's free, right?

[00:23:26.29] - Taylor
Yeah, open source, free. You can modify it, you could write your own code. You can write your own custom scripts as well. So you could hit your own custom endpoint if you had some third party integration with anything like a website where you could, if you wanted to, I wouldn't recommend this, but you could add a public button onto your own website that if someone hits, they can turn your light off, for example. And you could just integrate that using your own custom coding. You wouldn't do that, but it's an example of you can connect with third party.

[00:23:59.19] - Gordon
So you used to, and I'm not sure it's up to date at the minute, but your personal website used to show the weather where you were at that time.

[00:24:11.16] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:24:12.15] - Gordon
And it was also showing the amount of power left in your phone and the current time as where you were or the current time on the browser. I can't remember which. But you could, if you wanted to, using home automation, the Home Assistant, you could, if you wanted, have the temperature of your flat showing and whether your curtains are open or closed, that sort of thing, should you want to. I mean, that's a really bad example. But you could have a light and a dark theme and have the dark theme show at night time and the light theme show during the day and all sorts of little things like that you could do.

[00:24:59.17] - Taylor
Yeah, one of the things that I was thinking about was being able to have an automation that when I said, for example, "good night" or "lockdown" or something like that, I could have it run a series of automations. So one of them would be arm the alarm. So put the alarm on, make sure all the doors are locked, make sure the security system is set to home. It will let me know if there are windows open, for example. It could automatically close the windows, sorry not the windows, the curtains if they're already open. Turn all the lights off in other places. So if I forgot to turn the lights off, if I forgot to turn the TV off, change the heating. So if I'm going to be in the bedroom when I say this, most likely. So if I wanted the heating on in my bedroom for an hour, it sets an automation to say, "turn this off in one hour."

[00:25:58.13] - Gordon
And that can be based on the temperature in the flat at the time and the temperature outside at the time in your location. So you can have different variations depending on what the answers to those two questions are.

[00:26:16.26] - Taylor
And so I can make sure that everything is all sorted and set up. And I can do that from my bed, essentially, just using the voice and then using the different smart assistants. And I can have one set up so that if it hits a certain time, let's say 10:30 or 11:30, and I am at home, it will automatically put the alarm on if I forget. Sometimes you may not want that, but it might be quite nice if I ever forget that if I'm at home and it's gone past 10:30-

[00:26:50.02] - Gordon
And you've fallen asleep because you're really tired, it will protect you by turning the home alarm on.

[00:26:56.11] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:26:56.27] - Gordon
Yeah. That's really good. Yeah, so you're making a list of automations currently and what you'd like to do, and then looking at the hardware that you need to get, or are you doing it the other way around, doing the hardware you'd like to get, and then thinking of automations that you can use with them?

[00:27:14.00] - Taylor
It's a bit of both. I think there are some things that I want to be able to do. So for example, set up the curtains and the heating and the security and things like that, lights. And then I think you then look and find, say, what are the best hardware to buy for that and then just check that they're compatible. I can control them, for example, with Home Assistant. And then it's looking at devices and going what other devices are out there. So temperature sensors and things like that, water leak sensors, things like that and go, "that could be quite useful. It's a nice to have, but it's not something that I urgently want or need." But then also going the opposite way of "what would be quite a nice thing to be able to do?" And then going, is there a automation or a smart device or some sort of device that I can use to set it up and build it?

[00:28:08.13] - Gordon
And what's quite nice about this as well is that even if you add Home Assistant and start automating stuff with that, it doesn't stop all these devices working with their own apps as well. So if you're away from home and you've got some sort of smart device that will work over the internet, you can still use your app to trigger something. You could set it up with Home Assistant as well. But you still have, if there's new features that are added, new APIs, etc, that maybe haven't made it to Home Assistant yet, you can still use the app to do what you need to do. So you can add Home Assistant onto an existing smart home and slowly integrate things into the system as you can or as you want to, or as people add the ability to do so. So that's a really interesting thing. I mean, one of the nice things I really like is the idea of walking into a room and having the lights come on for you if it's dark outside. We've got something similar in our bathroom where we've got just a strip light that's got a little movement sensor on it.

[00:29:19.22] - Gordon
And so if you go in in the middle of the night, you haven't got to turn the light on because that's going to be really bright. You've just got this little strip light that comes on automatically as you walk into the room. And then you've got enough light to see what you need to do without blinding you from the lights. Ooh, there we go. We've got someone near the front door. Talking of automation as we do in SimpliSafe. But yeah, the problem with that is you have to then take it away and charge it and bring it back again when it's charged, when it runs out of battery. So having these things that are plugged in all the time and making sure that they're going to work 24/7, it just makes life so much easier.

[00:30:04.05] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:30:05.17] - Gordon
Anything else you want to say?

[00:30:06.25] - Taylor
Don't think so.

[00:30:07.23] - Gordon
Thank you so much for joining us. As always, we can be found on YouTube. And to get the videos as soon as they come out, please like, share, and subscribe.

[00:30:17.04] - Taylor
You can also go to our website thisweekwith.co.uk to find all of our past episodes.

[00:30:22.08] - Gordon
And if you prefer to listen to it as a podcast, we're on all the major podcast platforms. Just do a search for "This Week With Taylor and Gordon." We'll be back with you next Friday at 1pm. Until then, my name is Gordon and I'm from Drayson Design.

[00:30:36.11] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:30:39.10] - Gordon
Goodbye.

[00:30:39.16] - Taylor
Bye.

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