Umbra & Somfy Wireless Integration Discovery Day – A Recap.
Our first-ever Wireless Discovery Day brought industry experts and our trade customers together for a day of innovative thinking.
Thursday 23rd March 2023: Umbra held its first-ever Wireless Discovery Day, in collaboration with Somfy. Our goal: to bridge ideas between the industry experts at Somfy with the needs of trade customers and end users, paired with premium quality blind solutions from Umbra.
We invited Ben Flack and Justin Cole to represent Somfy UK. Ben is the UK Channel Manager for window fashions. Justin is the Regional Sales Manager for the South West with a wealth of experience in his field. Between them, they were the ideal duo to bring clarity and knowledge on Somfy’s offerings to the motorised blinds market. With over 7000 employees in 59 countries, Somfy is a well-established market leader in motorisation technology and a truly global firm. Umbra has been manufacturing quality blinds for over 40 years and we’re experts in motorisation and automation for residential and commercial blinds, so today’s partnership is a perfect match.
A day of discovery.
This was our first event held in our brand-new conference room at Umbra. Among the attendees were some of the best installers of smart shading and motorised blinds from all corners of the country. These companies are right at home when it comes to installing premium quality shades in the most cutting-edge residential settings. This was a rare opportunity to learn exactly what trends their customers are asking for and combine that with our products and knowledge in an open conversation.
“For years, the motorised blinds market was an expensive, niche and technically challenging business to operate in” – with 16 years of experience with Somfy, Ben is more qualified than most to comment on the bad old days of motorised blinds technology. Now though, thanks to smartphones and affordable home automation tech, motorised blinds are more accessible, fashionable and affordable than ever before.
Exploring TaHoma.
The event was also the perfect opportunity to understand more about Somfy’s new TaHoma. The TaHoma switch allows users to wirelessly connect and control their smart shades, lighting and other connected smart home technology to create multiple ‘scenes’ and activate them either using the TaHoma app, voice control or using the buttons on the TaHoma device.
With the TaHoma, users can improve security, maximise thermal efficiency and ensure privacy by automating their blinds to react to real-world conditions.
For example, you can set your Somfy motorised Umbra Evolve® roller blinds to automatically open and close based on solar levels using a daylight sensor, or even just at set times in the day.
This configuration shows just how easily TaHoma can be paired with systems such as Google Home and Alexa, providing a user-friendly way to integrate our smart shades with a customer’s existing smart home technology.
Hands-on learning
Guests were then given the opportunity to see how it all worked through live demonstrations in the Umbra Academy. Our purpose-built academy is a working studio full of operational examples of motorised blinds and allows our guests to learn how best to use our products. Harry and Marshall were only too happy to show our guests the possibilities of smart blind automation through a variety of Umbra products.
Everyone loves a freebie.
It wouldn’t be an Umbra event without some goodies for our guests to take home, and today was no exception.
Guests were each given a free TaHoma connectivity kit, as well as a free Somfy Situo remote and display box. What’s more, all guests were entered into a prize draw to win a new Somfy TaHoma. Ben from Somfy presented our prize to Ross from Infiniti3 Shading who was our lucky winner.
The first of many…
Our first Wireless Discovery Day was a great success. Our guests from the trade and Somfy helped us open a new conversation on smart shading. With so many guests already asking when the next one is happening, we’re now busy planning our next big discovery day for our customers. Check out the video below to see more from the day.
Do you have a suggestion for our next event? What do you want to learn? What conversations do you want to have and with who? Click the link here to submit your suggestions and register your interest in future Umbra discovery days.