Smarthome Announces First Insteon(TM) products

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LAS VEGAS, CES 2005, LVCC, South Hall, Booth 26624, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Smarthome, Inc., the world's leading provider of electronic products to improve the home, today announced initial Insteon(tm) products for lighting and appliance control at CES 2005 in Las Vegas this week. These first Insteon products will be demonstrated at Smarthome's booth 26624; shipping is scheduled for second quarter of 2005.

Insteon (for "instant on") is the first dual band wireless home-control network technology combining radio frequency (RF) communications with the home's existing wiring, or powerline, to deliver a secure, reliable and fast connection for automatic or remote control of lighting, security, entertainment systems, appliances and climate.

To install Insteon, users simply need to plug-in two SignaLinc(tm) RF access points into their home's electrical outlets. Once the SignaLinc RF modules are in place, Insteon home-control products can be installed using a simple "Plug and Tap(tm)" process. Initial products include wall switches and plug-in modules for lighting and appliance control. Pricing starts at $19.99.

"Our customers have been requesting a reliable, secure and affordable home automation technology since Smarthome began 13 years ago," said Joe Dada, president and CEO of Smarthome, based in Irvine, Calif.

"Our engineers designed Insteon with the customer in mind and since it's backwards compatible with X-10(tm), the current home-control networking standard, customers will be able to easily adopt it without having to immediately replace all of their existing products," Dada said.

"By starting with a customer base of home automation enthusiasts, we believe Insteon will grow to mainstream markets and become the de facto home-control networking standard," Dada said. "Many OEM design engineers, home builders and remodelers, lighting, electrical and HVAC contractors, and even interior designers have been waiting for an affordable, reliable and easy-to-use home-control network technology for some time, and we believe Insteon will meet their needs."

Developed over the past four years by Smarthome engineers, Insteon utilizes an integrated dual band wireless network to create a cost effective, robust and reliable home control network.

Insteon is designed to be incorporated into products to perform essential tasks such as remotely locking the front door or automatically filling the swimming pool. Examples of Insteon applications for homeowners will be many but can include whole home scene lighting, unlocking the front door and turning lights on in the house with a key fob before entering the house, controlling thermostat settings wirelessly from another room or over the Web, having a pleasant tone ring upstairs when a washer/dryer cycle downstairs is completed, or sending a page or email alert to parents when kids return home from school.

Purchasing two SignaLinc RF products is the first process in establishing an Insteon network in the home. Once the SignaLinc RF is in place, any Insteon product can be installed, including:
  • SwitchLinc(tm) II Dimmer: A wire-in remote control dimmer that allows remote on/off control of lighting to personalize mood lighting for anyoccasion. For the first time the switches are available in white, silver/gray, black, brown, ivory or almond. Additionally, the level brightness lights are available in white, blue, red or green.
  • LampLinc(tm) II: Allows remote on/off control as well as dimming/brightening. The two- or three-pin plug-in module can also remember different light settings for different "scenes," such as "movie time" or "dinner time."
  • ApplianceLinc(tm) II: These three-pin modules can remotely control any appliance, such as room fans or coffeemakers, or non-dimming lamps.
  • KeypadLinc(tm) II: A wire-in controller that controls individual lights, or triggers whole-house mood lighting scenes with the touch of a button. Includes six or eight button interchangeable keypads.
  • ControlLinc(tm) II: A plug-in desktop controller that remotely controls any Insteon or X-10 module, switch and or dimmer in a home.
  • PowerLinc(tm) II Controller: Available with a serial or USB interface, PowerLinc II Controller is a stand-alone downloadable computer or alarm panel interface for controlling lights, appliances, heating/air conditioning and alarm systems.
"Integrating wireless with powerline is the most cost effective and reliable network technology for the home," said Dan Cregg, Vice President of engineering for Smarthome. "Previous home networking development has not focused on real consumer needs. Insteon is designed to directly meet the homeowner's need for a network to communicate simple data such as security, lighting and climate control inexpensively throughout a home. We believe this will open the electronic home improvement market to the broad consumer market."

For more information regarding Insteon, please visit Smarthome's Web site,
http://www.smarthome.com or http://www.Insteon.net or call 1-800-SMARTHOME.
 
I wonder how much for the mandatory "two SignaLinc RF products"?

Do we need the PowerLincâ„¢ II Controller to work with HA software? Or can we still just use a CM11a (or similar) and the Insteon will convert ot RF automagically?
 
INSTEON(tm) Wireless Technology Challenges ZigBee for 'Home Run' in Home Automation Market

Report Finds INSTEON(tm), a New Dual-Band Networking Technology Developed by Smarthome, Stands to Revolutionize Home Automation With a Solution That Augments the Reliability of Any Wireless Network in the Home Through the Addition of Powerline Control

Distribution Source : PRNewswire
Date : Wednesday - January 05, 2005

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- West Technology Research Solutions LLC (WTRS), a market research firm focusing solely on wireless technologies, today announced the availability of their analysis concluding that INSTEON(tm) is designed to become a pervasive technology in the home control market and there are no identifiable risks to adopting the technology.
link to full press release

There is a 70 page analysis available at http://www.westtechresearch.com/INSTEON.htm for $3,000

OK Martin, when can we preorder? ;)
 
I just saw that press release too, I look forward to seeing the hardware for sale.
 
Where's the beef? Did they give an estimate of when the "stuff" would start selling?
 
Rupp said:
Where's the beef? Did they give an estimate of when the "stuff" would start selling?
in the first paragraph... "shipping is scheduled for second quarter of 2005."
 
Darn it. If only they'd got these out sooner, I'd have a stack of these by now.

The two signalinc-RF modules. One really good reason for having two of these would be for each phase in the house in order to provide bridging between the two.

Did anybody else notice the phrase "dual band wireless"? Want to bet that it has an X10 RF transceiver as well as using something like 900MHz or 2.4GHz ISM?

They've really got a lot of work cut out for them in order to get the X10 routing/repeating magic that they are talking about to work well... I hope they're focusing more on reliability rather than speed...
 
We are starting to get a lot of disparate threads starting about Insteon so I closed this one.

Please submit all related Insteon posts HERE.

Thanks,

BSR
 
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