Steve
Senior Member
It was good to see the vendors and fellow Cocooners again at the show. The show this year was smaller than last year. The claim I heard was 9,000-9,500 attendees. While it wasn't a madhouse, the major players that actually brought stuff to the show seemed to be pretty busy most of the time. Of note was the strange OnQ booth which I heard they paid a ton of money for, but all the had to show were some Harleys. Leviton was also completely absent from the show as were several other previous exhibitors. Others, that at least attended, had drastically smaller booths than before, an example is Russound and Channel Vision. And yet others had exactly the same footprint and visibility, such as Nuvo, Colorado VNet and many others.
You can see some pictures of the show at the Ehx Gallery.
Drilling down into individual categories/companies, here are some of the things that I saw and learned:
Lighting control
UPB
The big news here was from PCS. They were showing off their new Multibutton controller with load control. The load control has been added to both their 6 button and 8 button devices. See the pics in the Gallery. PCS has been working hard on their products, expect this to be an exciting growth year for them. It appears HAI may have been tweaking their plastics. HAI UPB switches have often been described as 'mushy', but the switches I played with at the show definitely seemed a
little more 'clicky'. SAI and Web Mountain were absent.
Insteon/X-10
Smarthome was doing training at their demo home but there were no Insteon or related products that I saw.
Wireless
Wireless lighting control wants to dominate. Besides the big guys like Crestron and Control4 that use 'Zigbee based' control, there are also other Zigbee based systems such as Colorado VNet and JetStream by Centralite. OnQ acquired a wireless technology from WattStopper ('Miro') that they are going to market as Enspire, but instead of displaying those, they just had, umm, Harleys and a dart board. There were also the familiar technologies such as RadioRa and Vizia RF+. The Colorado Vnet switches were 'different'. They are a decora shaped clear plastic fixed paddle with soft green LEDs off to the side. The switch is capacitive and just requires a brush of your finger. The paddle can be configured from anywhere from 1 to 4 'sections'. Besides the capacitive technology the thing that sets them apart in a love it or hate it way is the styling. The switch is a clear plastic behind which you install a laser quality color sheet that can be as simple as a label or a complex bitmap. Designers love it because you can totally coordinate the look of the switch and wall plate. But they are totally unappealing to those who want a basic white switch. There was some ZWave stuff there as well but I did not spend any time there. There were no new announcements that I am aware of.
Out of all the wireless devices that I saw, my personal favorite would have to be Centralite's JetStream. While they do have work to do on their plastics to get a better switch feel, and they certainly could use more depth in the product line (although they are announcing a thermostat and a motion detector (PIR), their configuration software was a major standout. Their software makes it so pleasantly easy to setup and configure switches. It was like an easy to use, intuitive UpStart for Zigbee. Another huge bonus is that the JetStream switches are field firmware upgradeable. Not something that you will use often, if at all, but its a huge bonus if you ever need to fix a bug or add a non hardware related feature. It seems like Centralite has made a big investment in Zigbee and they should be watched for some new stuff this year.
Hardwire
The typical Centralite and Homeworks stuff was visible, nothing different or exciting there. And no ALC either.
Controllers
The big winner at Ehx this year was HAI. They won 5 awards, 4 Platinum and 1 Gold. You can read about them here.
ELK
It was great seeing the 'Herd Leader' David aka Spanky as usual. Also present at the show was Kirk and Trudy. Always a pleasure to speak to them. Elk had a nice simple booth this year, displaying most of their current items. There was some 'controversy' as to what they were showing or what could be spoken about, so if you want details I'm sure you've read about them now in another thread. All I did see and won't really say much about is the new TS071 touch screen and the Elk RMS Configurator which will let you customize your Elk RMS screens. Jayson was there showing eKeypad but unfortunately I did not get a chance to see it. But I did hear some very positive comments from others. I will say that I know announcements of new products is a touchy subject. I fully agree you can't announce new products too prematurely for competitive and other reasons, but at the same time when a product is really close you should take the opportunity of a dedicated trade show to show off what you've got, especially when your competition is doing so. I know they have some strategic plans in place and I'm confident they will announce some cool new stuff when the time is right. Elk is still a very lean company and on top of that they like to take their time and get things right the first time. Don't count them out, they are a great company with some great, fun and intelligent people.
HAI
It was great to meet Brian Yokum, Aaron Ard and Fred Hebert (engineers) as well as Jay (Pres). I think there were probably some more engineers there but I did not get a chance to talk with them. HAI is definitely a bigger company than Elk with probably about twice the number of engineers so it would make some sense that HAI has more stuff in the works and making announcements at a faster pace. They certainly are on a roll with no signs of slowing up. HAI received an exciting 5 Mark of Excellence awards this year. They can be seen here. HAI seems to be making a big push into the media realm. They have several new touch screens they were showing and a hot new tablet that was really nice. They were actively showing their Home Automation Studio which is similar to Elk's RMS Configurator. It allows you to fully configure all aspects of the touch screen interface with respect to anything accessible within HAI's line. I'm thinking there will be alot less need for supplemental software like CQC, Mainlobby, etc as the Automation Studio gives you a good amount of creative control. And with strong integration of media, including cover art, etc, there will only remain a few supplemental things, such as maybe true TTS or email support as a few examples where external software is needed. They also showed some nice Zigbee based thermostats and a cute little wireless energy monitor display.They also showed off full their new Access control functionality which is a great add on, especially for light commercial installs. It will allow robust badge access in the small to medium size installs for a fraction of the cost of dedicated access control systems.
Others
I think Cortexa was at the Insteon demo house but I did not go there. Of course Crestron, Control4 and others were well represented on the high end. Cocooners will continue to wrestle with the Elk or HAI question as they are both great companies with very competent and personable people. It will likely come down to a few personal items to base a decision on. And with HAI now firmly dedicated to the CocoonTech community, I predict an exciting year for them. This Cocooner wishes the best of luck to both companies.
Miscellaneous Other
There was one really exciting thing I saw that has alot of potential. That is the touch screen line by IEI. IEI has long been in the industrial market but they make some nice CE and larger Atom based devices. They are looking to expand their markets and I am working on a distribution channel for them. Hopefully before too long there will either be an affordable way to purchase them online or some sort of Group buy to get their devices in your hands. With these arrangements, you should be able to get a full Atom based touch screen for less than $1000! I will share more detail when it available. In the interim, check out some of their products here. Here is a nice detailed sheet as well. I think these will be a great complement to anyone running touch screen software like CQC, Mainlobby, HSTouch or others.There were no other truly exciting things that I saw.
Nuvo did show their full wireless control pad which also won a platinum award as well as an early preview model of a color touchscreen keypad that could interchange with standard Grand Concerto keypad. They also showed their power line based Renovia system which has alot of potential in certain environments. Russound had a similar offering in the new product pavilion (see Gallery).
Of course there was the free beer and Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader to keep the troops happy! That's about all I can think of. Enjoys the pictures and feel free to ask any clarifying questions. I'll do my best to answer. Until next year...
You can see some pictures of the show at the Ehx Gallery.
Drilling down into individual categories/companies, here are some of the things that I saw and learned:
Lighting control
UPB
The big news here was from PCS. They were showing off their new Multibutton controller with load control. The load control has been added to both their 6 button and 8 button devices. See the pics in the Gallery. PCS has been working hard on their products, expect this to be an exciting growth year for them. It appears HAI may have been tweaking their plastics. HAI UPB switches have often been described as 'mushy', but the switches I played with at the show definitely seemed a
little more 'clicky'. SAI and Web Mountain were absent.
Insteon/X-10
Smarthome was doing training at their demo home but there were no Insteon or related products that I saw.
Wireless
Wireless lighting control wants to dominate. Besides the big guys like Crestron and Control4 that use 'Zigbee based' control, there are also other Zigbee based systems such as Colorado VNet and JetStream by Centralite. OnQ acquired a wireless technology from WattStopper ('Miro') that they are going to market as Enspire, but instead of displaying those, they just had, umm, Harleys and a dart board. There were also the familiar technologies such as RadioRa and Vizia RF+. The Colorado Vnet switches were 'different'. They are a decora shaped clear plastic fixed paddle with soft green LEDs off to the side. The switch is capacitive and just requires a brush of your finger. The paddle can be configured from anywhere from 1 to 4 'sections'. Besides the capacitive technology the thing that sets them apart in a love it or hate it way is the styling. The switch is a clear plastic behind which you install a laser quality color sheet that can be as simple as a label or a complex bitmap. Designers love it because you can totally coordinate the look of the switch and wall plate. But they are totally unappealing to those who want a basic white switch. There was some ZWave stuff there as well but I did not spend any time there. There were no new announcements that I am aware of.
Out of all the wireless devices that I saw, my personal favorite would have to be Centralite's JetStream. While they do have work to do on their plastics to get a better switch feel, and they certainly could use more depth in the product line (although they are announcing a thermostat and a motion detector (PIR), their configuration software was a major standout. Their software makes it so pleasantly easy to setup and configure switches. It was like an easy to use, intuitive UpStart for Zigbee. Another huge bonus is that the JetStream switches are field firmware upgradeable. Not something that you will use often, if at all, but its a huge bonus if you ever need to fix a bug or add a non hardware related feature. It seems like Centralite has made a big investment in Zigbee and they should be watched for some new stuff this year.
Hardwire
The typical Centralite and Homeworks stuff was visible, nothing different or exciting there. And no ALC either.
Controllers
The big winner at Ehx this year was HAI. They won 5 awards, 4 Platinum and 1 Gold. You can read about them here.
ELK
It was great seeing the 'Herd Leader' David aka Spanky as usual. Also present at the show was Kirk and Trudy. Always a pleasure to speak to them. Elk had a nice simple booth this year, displaying most of their current items. There was some 'controversy' as to what they were showing or what could be spoken about, so if you want details I'm sure you've read about them now in another thread. All I did see and won't really say much about is the new TS071 touch screen and the Elk RMS Configurator which will let you customize your Elk RMS screens. Jayson was there showing eKeypad but unfortunately I did not get a chance to see it. But I did hear some very positive comments from others. I will say that I know announcements of new products is a touchy subject. I fully agree you can't announce new products too prematurely for competitive and other reasons, but at the same time when a product is really close you should take the opportunity of a dedicated trade show to show off what you've got, especially when your competition is doing so. I know they have some strategic plans in place and I'm confident they will announce some cool new stuff when the time is right. Elk is still a very lean company and on top of that they like to take their time and get things right the first time. Don't count them out, they are a great company with some great, fun and intelligent people.
HAI
It was great to meet Brian Yokum, Aaron Ard and Fred Hebert (engineers) as well as Jay (Pres). I think there were probably some more engineers there but I did not get a chance to talk with them. HAI is definitely a bigger company than Elk with probably about twice the number of engineers so it would make some sense that HAI has more stuff in the works and making announcements at a faster pace. They certainly are on a roll with no signs of slowing up. HAI received an exciting 5 Mark of Excellence awards this year. They can be seen here. HAI seems to be making a big push into the media realm. They have several new touch screens they were showing and a hot new tablet that was really nice. They were actively showing their Home Automation Studio which is similar to Elk's RMS Configurator. It allows you to fully configure all aspects of the touch screen interface with respect to anything accessible within HAI's line. I'm thinking there will be alot less need for supplemental software like CQC, Mainlobby, etc as the Automation Studio gives you a good amount of creative control. And with strong integration of media, including cover art, etc, there will only remain a few supplemental things, such as maybe true TTS or email support as a few examples where external software is needed. They also showed some nice Zigbee based thermostats and a cute little wireless energy monitor display.They also showed off full their new Access control functionality which is a great add on, especially for light commercial installs. It will allow robust badge access in the small to medium size installs for a fraction of the cost of dedicated access control systems.
Others
I think Cortexa was at the Insteon demo house but I did not go there. Of course Crestron, Control4 and others were well represented on the high end. Cocooners will continue to wrestle with the Elk or HAI question as they are both great companies with very competent and personable people. It will likely come down to a few personal items to base a decision on. And with HAI now firmly dedicated to the CocoonTech community, I predict an exciting year for them. This Cocooner wishes the best of luck to both companies.
Miscellaneous Other
There was one really exciting thing I saw that has alot of potential. That is the touch screen line by IEI. IEI has long been in the industrial market but they make some nice CE and larger Atom based devices. They are looking to expand their markets and I am working on a distribution channel for them. Hopefully before too long there will either be an affordable way to purchase them online or some sort of Group buy to get their devices in your hands. With these arrangements, you should be able to get a full Atom based touch screen for less than $1000! I will share more detail when it available. In the interim, check out some of their products here. Here is a nice detailed sheet as well. I think these will be a great complement to anyone running touch screen software like CQC, Mainlobby, HSTouch or others.There were no other truly exciting things that I saw.
Nuvo did show their full wireless control pad which also won a platinum award as well as an early preview model of a color touchscreen keypad that could interchange with standard Grand Concerto keypad. They also showed their power line based Renovia system which has alot of potential in certain environments. Russound had a similar offering in the new product pavilion (see Gallery).
Of course there was the free beer and Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader to keep the troops happy! That's about all I can think of. Enjoys the pictures and feel free to ask any clarifying questions. I'll do my best to answer. Until next year...
