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I think Lutron has done an awesome job with Alexa integration, though like others I hope to see more capabilities added. We just provided Alexa integration for a Homeworks QS system to one of our VIP Clients as a Christmas gift/surprise. After being shown his new toy, I am told that literally the first thing he did was say "Alexa, dim the kitchen lights", at which point it had to be explained that wasn't possible. IMHO it does not come off well if people are seeing $99 crap lights on TV ads being dimmed by voice, but then have to be told that their high end lighting system can't do it - so I hope Lutron prioritizes adding dimming capability.
Additionally, I think dimming capability is a natural for voice rec because it's the type of think many people would do a lot more if they didn't have to get up to do it.
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I'm not sure I follow - you praise Lutron's job with Alexa as "awesome" but then go on to say that it doesn't do what your customer naturally tried to do and can't do a major function that cheap systems do. How is that an "awesome job"? At best, the Alexa integration is "tolerable" or maybe "minimally acceptable", at least to me and my customers for the exact reasons you state.
As I've posted elsewhere here, the integration with HomeKit really is awesome. Had you deployed that, your customer could just say "Hey Siri, dim the kitchen lights" and it would work perfectly. They can say "... make it brighter in the living room", "... a little dimmer on the back deck", even things like "... raise the family room blinds a little more", etc.
This proves that it's not a fundamental issue with Lutron's system, it's just with their integration with Echo. Like you, I hope that they improve the Echo integration to match what they already do with HomeKit. I'd love to have it working as well with my Echo as it does with my iPhone, but for now there's no comparison. One is terribly limited, and the other just works the way you and your customers will expect.
--josh
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How about if I just said "good" instead :-)? I think they did some things well, and need to continue improving it. Either way we are in agreement it needs to me improved and IMO dimming capability is if of paramount importance.