Lutron Announces Alexa Voice Control for Its Caséta Wireless Lighting System

Lutron announced integration with Amazon’s Alexa voice service Thursday for control of its Caséta Wireless lighting control system. Caséta owners can control lights by voice using an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap or Fire TV, Lutron said, but Caséta is the only Lutron system currently compatible with Alexa. Lutron has been studying Alexa since it was released, Neil Orchowski, product development manager for strategic alliances, told us, and the technology was put through all of Lutron’s testing requirements to ensure reliability against false commands. Caseta is also compatible with Apple Siri voice control, Orchowski said. To enable Alexa control, users have to install the free Amazon Alexa app for Apple, Android or Amazon devices and have a Lutron Smart Bridge and at least one Caséta dimmer installed. They can then set up Alexa on the Amazon devices by following steps in the app on their smartphone or tablet, or by using the Alexa Web interface, Lutron said. When users are out of range of an Alexa device or don’t want to use voice, they can control lights remotely using Lutron’s Pico remote control, Lutron said.