This was posted today at http://forums.controlthink.com/t/1827.aspx
Hi Everyone,
There have been some recent changes here at ControlThink HQ. Attached below is a message from our Director, Ian Hendler ________________________________________________________________________________
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I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself, Ian Hendler, as the new director of the ControlThink division. We are sad to tell you that Chris Walker has left ControlThink, but are glad to say that he is exploring many other exciting opportunities, and I and the entire ControlThink team wish him well in his endeavors.
Here at ControlThink we have always prided ourselves on being an innovative team that is passionate and knowledgeable about Home Automation and Control Technologies and Z-Wave in particular. That will not change, and will in fact be even more apparent in the software updates, new products and activities you will see coming from the entire ControlThink team. As an example of this new focus, in the last 1 ½ months we have dramatically increased the pace of our developments and have produced 5 Betas and a new Release, and this is just the start of some exciting things to come.
Going forward, ControlThink will be working even more closely with our "parent company", Leviton Manufacturing, Co., Inc and our Z-Wave ecosystem partners. Leviton has been a leader in the Home Automation Space since we launched our DHC (X10 protocol based) product line in the early 1980's and created the Intellisense http://www.hometech.com/learn/intellisense.html in the 1990's. Today, that tradition continues with our Z-Wave protocol-based Vizia RF+ and ControlThink Z-Wave technologies and platforms www.leviton.com/viziarf . In short, there are many synergies between Leviton's tradition of leadership in the Residential Automation space and ControlThink innovation's that we will leverage going forward. One of these areas includes online training in ControlThink products as part of Leviton's award winning online EZLearn training Leviton EZ Courses (Vizia RF+ training under products section-Note Registration Required) . Please note that the ControlThink training is currently under development, but the existing Vizia RF+ training will give you a flavor for what's coming here.
Furthermore, ControlThink will also be working closely with our partners in the Z-Wave ecosystem. As many of you know, one of the industry's premier trade shows, EHX (Electronic House Expo) is coming up this week in Orlando, FL http://www.ehxweb.com/. We will be working with many of our partners including ADI, Worthington, DDG, Universal Electronics Inc., Somfy, and others at the show. I expect that some of you may be attending this event, if you are please come to the Leviton sponsored trainings and visit our partners at the show. I would enjoy meeting some of you "face to face" at this event.
Home Automation and computers have always been a passion of mine, and I have been privileged enough to participate in a variety of industry organizations and standards bodies that help to drive the Consumer Electronics (CE) industry such as CEA (Consumer Electronics Association). Many of you are also very passionate about Home Automation and driving the developments in the space. You have provided excellent feedback and feature requests which will assist ControlThink and Leviton in continuing to create the high quality, feature rich products that the market is demanding. In fact, the valuable feedback and feature requests that you make will enable ControlThink, Leviton, and our partner's products to be even better. In order to further these goals and promote this collaboration, we be holding regular "open" webinars (times and dates tbd) and I encourage you all to attend, I will also be inviting many of our Z-Wave ecosystem partners to also participate. I would invite you to check out the TechHome Division of CEA, there are some exciting resources. Full disclosure, I am the Vice Chair of this CEA TechHome division http://www.techhome.com/ http://www.ce.org/Membership/Divisions/103.asp and believe our Divisional activities may interest many of you.
As to our product roadmap, I also wanted to share that we will have an exciting product release on April 1st (no kidding). This free ControlThink Professional edition update (for 2.x users) will feature integration with Leviton's handheld primary controllers http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctD...;minisite=10024 and permit users to easily and quickly exchange data between these devices and ControlThink Professional edition software.
In closing, I want to thank you all for your support and I look forward to your feedback and assistance in driving the innovation and technology that we all enjoy.
Sincerely,
Ian Hendler
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To this end, I will now be administrating these forums. Please address any questions or concerns to me, and continue to provide your feedback so that we can continue to produce the high quality products that ControlThink is known for.
Matt
STE/ControlThink
