Addressing everything from lighting systems and security, to home entertainment, window treatments and faucets, Alliance members are embedding INSTEON's powerful dual-band (powerline and radio frequency) communications technology into their products, ensuring many core home systems are networked and working together. Both the technology and the Alliance guarantee that all INSTEON-enabled products are interoperable and easy to use -- for both developers and end-user homeowners.
"Our customer-centric approach and extensive knowledge of the market contributed to the design elements that has made INSTEON a force in the market and lead to its remarkable adoption and rapidly growing INSTEON Alliance membership," said Rajeev Kapur, Smarthome's vice president, sales and marketing. "The flexibility, cost efficiencies and robust dual-band nature of the INSTEON technology platform are meeting the needs of an enthusiastic and growing INSTEON developer community."
Three levels of INSTEON Alliance membership are available: level one membership (for the developers kit -- $99), level two membership ($250) and level three membership ($2,000). Level two and three memberships are able to influence the direction, development and marketing of INSTEON.
"Smarthome made it so easy to join the Alliance and start using the INSTEON protocol that we were able to jump-start our participation in this rapidly growing market and quickly initiate the development of new INSTEON-enabled products," said Eric Eichensehr, CTO/Partner, Exceptional Innovation, LLC. "Compared to other home control networking technologies in the market INSTEON had the lowest cost of entry to initiate the development cycle; that, combined with the flexibility and depth of the technology, made it an obvious choice."
Membership in the Alliance provides insights into the INSTEON community, along with maximum industry exposure of member companies and their products. Alliance members are invited to participate in members-only forums and events throughout the year. INSTEON websites, press releases and trade show pavilions will also provide new avenues of promotion for Alliance members. Members will have the opportunity to leverage an extensive retail channel, working with Smarthome to place Alliance members' INSTEON products on INSTEON.net, Smarthome.com, Amazon.com and Home Depot.com or in the Smarthome catalog.
Smarthome will be showcasing its products at EHX Nov 9-11, 2005, and at CES Jan 5-8, 2006. The INSTEON Alliance will be offering a series of training seminars and demonstrations (online and live) in the months ahead, as well as launching its inaugural developer's conference in the spring of 2006.
About INSTEON
The new standard in home control technologies, INSTEON delivers a dual-band (powerline and radio frequency) mesh networking technology optimized for home management and control. Simple, affordable and reliable, INSTEON links together core home systems such as lighting, security, comfort control, consumer electronics, appliances and safety sensors for remote monitoring and control. All INSTEON devices are peers, meaning that any device can transmit, receive and repeat other messages, without requiring a master controller or complex routing software. Adding more devices makes an INSTEON network more powerful, by virtue of a simple protocol for communication retransmissions and retries.
About Smarthome
Founded in 1992, Smarthome Inc. is the world's leading authority on electronic home improvement and automation. Smarthome is organized into three divisions: Smarthome.com, "the Amazon of electronic home improvement" (Newsweek, 2004); Smarthome Design, creators of best-in-class home control products; and Smarthome Technology, the pioneering architects of INSTEON. Smarthome's INSTEON Alliance offers a focused community for developers to incorporate the INSTEON standard into their products. Smarthome products are sold to an international customer base via the Web, phone and retail outlets, as well as to professional dealers and installers through SmarthomePro. The company's online catalog can be found at
http://www.smarthome.com. Information regarding INSTEON can be found at
http://www.insteon.net. Smarthome is headquartered in Irvine, Calif.
O'Leary and Partners for Smarthome Inc.
Michelle Laird, 503-705-4577
[email protected]
or
Jennifer McLean, 949-224-4027
[email protected]
