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System Integration for the Connected Home

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Zigbee's Smart Energy 2 Enters Testing

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The Zigbee Alliance announces the Smart Energy Profile version 2 draft 0.7 gets approval from the Smart Energy Working Group letter ballot-- a major milestone in the standard's completion.

Zigbee allianceThis means the 0.7 draft is now implementable and enters its testing phase, where product developers test products conforming to the draft for functionality and interoperability.

The Working Group will also conduct quick recirculation ballots approving technical changes done to integrate comments received during the letter ballot process.

Once complete, Smart Energy 2.0 will provide an IP-based energy management solution running on a number of wired and wrireless communications protocols-- with partners including HomeGrid, HomePlug Powerline Alliance and the Wifi Alliance.

Go ZigBee Smart Energy 2

TV, the Future Internet Device of Choice

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Global internet-enabled CE shipments (TVs, game consoles and Blu-ray players) will exceed those of the traditional means of getting on the internet-- the PC-- by 2013, according to IHS iSuppli.

iSuppli says 2010 shipments of such devices total 161M, and will grow to 503.6M by 2013 before reaching 780.8M in 2015.

In comparison, PC shipments will total 433.7M in 2013 (from 345.4M in 2010) and 479.7M in 2015.

Connected CE Shipments

The analyst predicts future consumers will access their online content through their TVs rather than using a PC-- with the home's biggest screen becoming the centre of the so-called "digital living room."

Internet-enabled STBs and Blu-ray players will also grow rapidly in the future-- with Blu-ray players having a predicted CAGR of 37.9% over the next 5 years, thanks to growing HD display uptake.

Set-top boxes will offer their own special features, including content from multiple sources (such as video on demand) together with offerings from cable and satellite providers.

Go It's 2011-- Where's My Connected Home? (iSuppli)

Walmart Beats Amazon in Online Video

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Walmart is currently one the USA's largest online movie retailers, overtaking the likes of Sony and Amazon while competing directly with Apple's iTunes, the Financial Times reports (quoting recent research from IHS Screen Digest).

WalmartThe retail giant is "aggressively building" its online video presence-- buying Vudu and offering digital movies at discount prices. Vudu's US digital movie market share for H1 2011 is 5.3% (up H1 2010's 1%), with supported devices including the iPad.

The FT says "Walmart's growth came at Sony's expense," particularly as Sony had to shut down its online operations following attacks on its global security.

iTunes remains the dominant online movie retailer in the US (with 65.8% market share in H1 2011) while Amazon moves its online movie business to a streaming VOD model.

What does this mean to the European market? It's not too difficult to imagine any of our Walmart-equivalents starting to pay attention to the European online video market, isn't it?

Go Walmart's Online Movies Overtake Amazon (FT.com)

Spanish Eyes for Netflix

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FAPAE (the Spanish producers association) president Pedro Perez says Netflix will launch in Spain on January 2012, ScreenDaily reports.

NetflixPerez says Netflix is contacting various Spanish producers ahead of its launch.

Netflix's choice of Spain to make its European debut is interesting-- known for rampant piracy, Spain is on the IP Alliance's piracy offendors watchlist with an estimatedng 400M illegal movie downloads yearly (compared to yearly cinema ticket sales totalling 100M).

One Spanish distributor (part of local streaming service Filmin) believes the country lacks subscriber numbers to believe a market exist for the likes of Netflix.

Apple launched its iTunes store in Spain back in November-- only to report continually low sales figures.

Netflix should also explore other European countries next year, with a UK launch expected by early 2012.

Go Netflix to Launch in Spain in January 2012 (ScreenDaily)

Cisco Exits Energy Management Business

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Cisco exits the building energy management business, with an easy to miss announcement inside its fiscal Q4 2011 earnings call.

Cisco Home Energy managementThe company will instead concentrate on the core networking business within the smart-grid area.

Cisco is not the first big IT company to try to enter the energy management business, before quietly getting out-- both Microsoft and Google's home energy efforts saw their discontinuation earlier this June.,

It appears the exit will not affect its earlier partnership with Control4-- which allows the integration of Control4's technology with Cisco's Service Delivery Platform (SDP), as well as the introduction of Cisco-branded Control4 products.

Go Cisco Fiscal Q4 2011 Earnings

Go Cisco Exits Energy Management Software Market (Forbes)

Go Control4 & Cisco: More Than a Collaboration