Lindsay Turrentine kicked things off by asking what "Smart Home" means to the various panelists.

Carey Smith, CEO of Big Ass Solutions (left), had plenty of fascinating comments.

The panel discussed the challenges faced by customers and companies alike as connected products are integrated into the homes of today and tomorrow.

Yoon Lee of Samsung brings a lot of expertise to the event, and postulated that a new generation of homes might be built to work better with smart home tech.

Greg Hu of Nest wasn't the only one engaged by Carey Smith's no-nonsense attitude toward the actual desires of consumers.

Do we want the smart home to run itself according to conditions and presets we prefer in an automated fashion? Or perhaps we just want to command everything with our voice or an app on our phone?

Charlie Kindel of Amazon described the positive responses to the Echo and how it has enabled customers who face mobility challenges to accomplish more with just their voice.

Rich Brown of CNET suggested that one of the biggest problems consumers face is fragmentation within their own home after finding that their newly added devices will not play well with prior purchases.