Sweets & Smarts—A Tasty, Automated Combination for Valentine’s Day
By Crystal Watts | Posted February 12, 2014Valentine’s Day is all about showering your special loved one with candy, chocolate and the like. But what would be the real icing on the cake? Taking her to pick her own goodies in a fully automated sweet shop.
Okay, so it’s unlikely that a lot of us can just swing by Roanoke, Texas to sample the goods—but this project was certainly worth a little love.
Hey Sugar Candy Store was originally someone’s home, and as far as we know, the oldest home still standing in Roanoke. When the new owners took possession, the entire building was gutted to make one large showroom, a small kitchen for candy preparation in the back, and a small storage room.
Control4 installer, H.Customs Audio Video, was called in to add some smarts to these sweets. With Control4 home automation, they created “Open” and “Close” scenes for the employees. From just one touch of the “Open” button, the music starts to play (by means of a Control4 iPod dock, or with streaming tunes from TuneIn or Rhapsody) at appropriate levels throughout the store and outdoors, lighting is fired up at pre-selected levels, and the televisions start to play chosen DVDs throughout the course of the day. With a press of the “Close” button, all of it is reversed and the store is put to sleep quickly and easily.
To assist with security, there are six IP cameras scattered throughout the store. And since the owners travel year-round, they love that they can log into their Control4 mobile app from their iPad or iPhone and quickly check-in on the store from anywhere in the world—and even change the temperature for their food products if they’d like.
They enjoy the Control4 system so much, that they plan to expand in the near future. Since they use a mobile system to project outdoor movies onto the neighbor’s brick wall, their hope is to soon tie the projection in with their Control4 system and have it integrate with the main building. Also in the plans—integrating their current roller window shades.
Hey Sugar is the talk of the town. And with the brains to back up this beauty, you can certainly see why!
Fun Facts about Valentine’s Day Sweets:
Okay, so it’s unlikely that a lot of us can just swing by Roanoke, Texas to sample the goods—but this project was certainly worth a little love.
Hey Sugar Candy Store was originally someone’s home, and as far as we know, the oldest home still standing in Roanoke. When the new owners took possession, the entire building was gutted to make one large showroom, a small kitchen for candy preparation in the back, and a small storage room.
Control4 installer, H.Customs Audio Video, was called in to add some smarts to these sweets. With Control4 home automation, they created “Open” and “Close” scenes for the employees. From just one touch of the “Open” button, the music starts to play (by means of a Control4 iPod dock, or with streaming tunes from TuneIn or Rhapsody) at appropriate levels throughout the store and outdoors, lighting is fired up at pre-selected levels, and the televisions start to play chosen DVDs throughout the course of the day. With a press of the “Close” button, all of it is reversed and the store is put to sleep quickly and easily.
To assist with security, there are six IP cameras scattered throughout the store. And since the owners travel year-round, they love that they can log into their Control4 mobile app from their iPad or iPhone and quickly check-in on the store from anywhere in the world—and even change the temperature for their food products if they’d like.
They enjoy the Control4 system so much, that they plan to expand in the near future. Since they use a mobile system to project outdoor movies onto the neighbor’s brick wall, their hope is to soon tie the projection in with their Control4 system and have it integrate with the main building. Also in the plans—integrating their current roller window shades.
Hey Sugar is the talk of the town. And with the brains to back up this beauty, you can certainly see why!
Fun Facts about Valentine’s Day Sweets:
- Candy accounts for 47.5% of the gifts most often given on Valentine’s Day.
- About 8 billion candy hearts will be produced this year; that’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona 20 times and back again.
- Over $1 billion worth of chocolate is purchased for Valentine's Day in the U.S.
- More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.
- Physicians of the 1800s advised their patients to eat chocolate to calm their pining for lost love.
- Richard Cadbury produced the first box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in the late 1800s.
Photo Credit: Adam Hazlett Photography
