I’ve just returned from the wise house show (22-25 March 2007) as well as in this, its third incarnation at the NEC in Birmingham, the public was treated to the very best show yet!
In a very first for Automated Home, we have videos (youtube.com/automatedhome) from the show which must provide a great taste of the event for those that couldn’t make it as well as ideally show some products that you may have missed even if you did visit.
The very first thing that struck me as I went into Hall 9 were the crowds, as well as undoubtedly every exhibitor I spoke to, without exception, verified a extremely healthy boost in visitors numbers to their stands this year. It’s motivating to see the rate of interest in house automation grow amongst the general public. The other thing I observed within a few minutes was the high quality of the stands themselves. There were over 60 exhibitors this year as well as they were the most expert I have seen yet. Here’s a taster of a few of our personal highlights…
www.schneider-electric.com
A prime example of a fantastic stand was Schneider Electrical who brought their Clipsal brand to the show for the very first time. The Schneider stand was awash with house Automation goodies, from the ubiquitous colour touch screens, the new Delta8 Phone/Data/TV distribution system, CCTV cameras, the wireless Ulti variety as well as of program the extremely regarded C- Bus products. Still no indication of the MRA (multi-room audio) range, although we hear the UK will most likely now begin off with the Mk2 variety sometime in the near future, bypassing the Mk1’s that were released in Australia. other fascinating news was the possibility of the addition of an IR receiver to some other C-Bus switch varieties in the future (an IR receiver is currently only developed into the Neo range).
www.t3.com
T3 Magazine’s stand had a vibrant Viiv Media Centre presentation in association with Intel. It tried to communicate the power of a media server as the hub for house entertainment. For the guy (or woman) in the street, a fundamental presentation such as this that really shows what a media PC can do is invaluable. personally I truly want to be able to get a basic silent media center extender. ideally I am trying to find an affordable FreeView sized, fan-less box that I can put in each bedroom as well as reception space in our house as well as enable everybody to stream their own recordings from the Vista Media center box. definitely this can’t be far off? We online in hope.
www.h2m8.com
The H2M8 stand (formerly O2M8) was showing their WebBrick product in a range of applications. Their bit Lego home was a great focal point on the stand, as well as it provided a great visual indicator of exactly how parts of the home reacted to inputs from different touchscreens, switches, sensors as well as even macros terminated from phones. Andy showed us their new Windows Media center interface to the WebBrick too, enabling individuals to activate any type of WebBrick event from the comfort of your sofa.
www.sensibleheat.co.uk
Dave from practical warm showed us some new touchscreen gadgets which have just recently been integrated into their Honeywell HomeTronic heating manage products. zone managed heating with choices for manage by means of the web and/or the telephone, in addition to controlling lights, blinds as well as other ancillaries. You could, for example, phone your holiday house as well as introduce a macro that would bring on the heat, lights as well as retract the blinds.
www.ivoryegg.co.uk – www.enoceanshop.co.uk
Colin as well as Laurence from Ivory Egg showed me the interesting as well as ingenious EnOcean variety of modules. These wireless gadgets do not need any type of outside power, mains or battery, as they produce their own electrical energy from the action of the switch being pressed! With a variety of 30 metres without a repeater, their retro-fit-friendly wireless nature as well as a expense of around £100 per circuit (switch as well as actuator) these gadgets are sure to produce a great deal of interest. Laurence verified there is a PC gateway on the way, which will be offered with a USB, RS-232 or RS-485 interface. other gateways will allow interoperability with Ethernet, LON as well as EIB networks too.
www.intamac.com
Long time buddies of the UKHA community, Intamac, were selling their BT branded, house safety product direct from the stand. This is an simple to in shape diy system that, in conjunction with Intamac’s tracking system as well as affordable webcams, can send an MMS message to your phone, total with picture, when there’s an alarm event at your home, or even just when the alarm is disarmed.
www.cytech-technology.com
Cytech had great deals of new additions for their comfort Intelligent house safety panel at the show. new switches that integrate temperature sensors as well as an completely new .Net application forcontrolling comfort with Windows Media center Edition. now you can arm the home to night mode ideal from your TV screen for example. You can likewise manage any type of comfort event from the Smartphone/PDA interface too. Lying on a beach as well as controlling your house is always a winning concept. Nigel Harding will be running some a lot more comfort training sessions around the UK & Ireland soon, as well as you now get to take away great deals of comfort hardware included in the cost of the training – perfect for self home builders as well as diy installers.
www.brilliantliving.co.uk
As normal there were rather a few AV installation specialists at the show. The ever prominent house Cinema space is frequently the very first thing that introduces the public to the idea of house automation. There were lots of integrator stands, as well as business like dazzling Living who were showing the DF options multi-room media server. Iain Shaw demonstrated this is a extremely robust PC based system which can serve 6 DVD streams simultaneous over a 100mb LAN. look out for the gorgeous AMX touchscreen in our video of his demo too.
www.singlepointnetworks.co.uk
While “future proof” was the most over utilized phrase at the show, in the primary CAT5 still seemed to be king. nevertheless a few business showed CAT6 as well as CAT7 cords as well as SinglePoint Networks showed their “CAT8” cable. With 1.2Ghz of bandwidth they pledge to provide anything you might ever requirement over one cable. Their special faceplate style enables the different baluns to be connected such as Ethernet, Phone, RF, element as well as SCART.
www.invisionuk.com
There was a great deal of buzz round the InvisionUK stand, especially since of the new harmony 1000 universal remote. A similar type aspect to the Philips TSU9600, the 1000 is one of the new breed of “two-handed” remotes. You can manage as much as 15 gadgets as well as together with the normal harmony activity based setup, as well as a cost of around £275, the 1000 appears like a prospective winner.
As in previous years the complimentary seminars were a huge hit with the public, packing in the audiences as much as six times a day as well as covering a variety of subjects from multi-room audio, to cabling as well as environmental issues. I heard the great old “2 CAT5’s as well as 2 CT100’s minimum to every room” in one of the lectures as well as this is still great recommendations to any individual thinking about a new develop or renovation.
Green problems were to the fore for the very first time this year. The minimizing the “carbon footprint” of our houses seems to be something the market has latched onto, which makes sense as effective house energy administration is an perfect application for house automation. I picture this will be a major motorist for the market in coming years.
TIll next Year… Automated house is thrilled to be connected with the wise house Show. If you are thinking about wise house technologies or even just a multi-room AV installation, then there’s no much better location to research study your job as well as to satisfy expert business that can supply the devices as well as bring out the work. Now, can I have my Media center extenders before next years show please?
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