Product category:
Electrical Services
News Release from: Echelon
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 January 2007
Echelon and 4HomeMedia Partnership
Echelon Corporation and 4HomeMedia formally announced their award winning collaboration at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2007.
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON), a global networking company providing technology and solutions for controls, smart metering, and energy and environment management, and 4HomeMedia, a provider of end-to-end solutions for delivering broadband services on home networks, formally announced their award winning collaboration today at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2007 (CES) The initial product resulting from the collaboration - 4HomeMedia's ControlPoint 1000 residential hub reference design for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners - has been selected as the Best of Innovations Award winner in the category of Integrated Home Systems at CES 2007
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 5 Jul 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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The ControlPoint 1000 is a dedicated network appliance to be offered to service providers, retailers, and hardware OEMs on a royalty-free basis in order to allow such partners to rapidly develop compelling solutions for entertainment and home control, and to accelerate their time-to-market.
The reference design includes Echelon's power line signaling technology to communicate with other automation devices over a home's existing electrical wires - eliminating the need for new or retrofit wiring; Echelon's interoperable self-installation (ISI) technology, which enables products to install themselves automatically without using any installation tools; and 4HomeMedia's ControlPoint software for delivering next generation broadband services, which includes an intuitive, cross-platform, and contextual graphical user-interface.
This combination of an intuitive user interface, a fully-featured platform for delivering a wide range of broadband services, affordable and highly reliable power line communications, and self-installation technology eliminates the major causes of homeowner headaches that have hampered previous efforts at creating a mass market for home control and will make makes installing, personalizing, and operating home automation and entertainment devices a viable proposition for any member of a household.
Further reading
Control technology for world's highest railway
Echelon has announced that its LonWorks control technology has been chosen by Sifang Rolling Stock Research Institute for use in China's new high-tech train to Lhasa, Tibet.
Improved energy savings and student comfort
Singapore Management University deployed Echelon's LonWorks technology in their new city campus as the foundation for their state-of-the-art Intelligent Building Management System.
Echelon expands standards coverage in China
Echelon announced that its control technology has been incorporated in the Chinese national standard for commercial buildings and residential community construction.
"We selected Echelon's ISI technology for our home control initiatives based on factors such as reliability, ease of use, and expandability" said Brad Kayton, vice president of marketing at 4HomeMedia.
"High reliability, which ensures low product returns, reduced technical support costs, and higher customer satisfaction, is something that has been missing in the past in home automation and control".
"And by using this ANSI/CEA 709.1 protocol, and bridging to TCP-IP via our ControlPoint software, the home power line can be used as a back-bone network able to link together dozens of different types of devices from thousands of vendors globally all in a single, unified interface".
ANSI/CEA 709.1 is the North American home control communications standard and is a leading control standard worldwide in related industries such as intelligent communities, residential electricity metering, and commercial buildings including apartments and condominiums.
The ControlPoint 1000 is designed to be the center of a home control network.
Unlike previous hardware designs, the ControlPoint is designed to support the new generation of plug and play standards, and to enable partners to create home control solutions by choosing products to match the end application, regardless of manufacturer.
The user interface (UI) provided by 4HomeMedia's ControlPoint platform supports any browser-based display device, including network-enabled televisions, personal computers, dedicated display panels, cell phones, and video gaming systems.
"Echelon and 4HomeMedia have collaborated to make home control simple, extensible and affordable," said Anders Axelsson, Echelon's senior vice president of sales and marketing.
"As the first member of the Digital Home Alliance, 4HomeMedia has taken a leadership position in delivering value to consumers overlooked by other industry players".
"The combined solution delivers simple self-installation, highly reliable communications, and a powerful user-interface -- the three essential ingredients to making a mass market for home control a reality".
"We have felt for some time now that the market for home controls will accelerate once ecosystems of highly reliable, inter-operable products combine with compelling end-user applications that are easy to install and use," said Bill Ablondi, Director of Home Systems research at Parks Associates".
"The relationship between 4HomeMedia and Echelon represents an excellent example of a partnership created to deliver on this set of requirements.".
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