News

The Leviton Manufacturing Company and Dedicated Devices Ship Digital Home Entertainment System (24/6/2005)

Built-In Media Manager Targets New Home Construction and Remodeling Markets

The Leviton Manufacturing Company, North America's largest manufacturer of electrical and electronic wiring devices and Dedicated Devices, Inc. (DDi), a designer and manufacturer of a new generation of digital home networking products, announced today that they have begun distribution of their award-wining networked digital home entertainment system, the Leviton Entertainment & Applications Platform (LE&AP). LE&AP is now available for order by select Leviton distributors and certified Leviton installation and system integration firms operating in the home building and remodeling markets.

Two of the home building industry's largest distributors, ADI and Worthington Distribution, were the first to sign on in March 2005. With more than 105 locations in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico, ADI is one of North America's largest wholesale distributors of security and low-voltage products. Worthington Distribution is one of the nation's largest full-line distributors selling home automation and system integration equipment and supplies to dealers and installers.

LE&AP is the first commercially available and affordable digital home entertainment network product specifically designed and built to utilize the Ethernet structured wiring systems home builders have been installing to "future proof" new homes. Since the mid-1990s home builders have steadily increased the number of homes sold with complete Ethernet structured wiring. According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), 61 percent of the 1.9 million new homes expected to be built in 2005 will have structured wiring. By 2008, 10 million homes in the U.S. will have structured wiring systems in place, according to research firm Parks Associates.

For both large system integrators and independent custom electric installers, LE&AP increases the value of Category 5/5e Ethernet (CAT5/5e) wiring installations by creating a digital home entertainment network that unifies home theater and home networking to provide a true digital living experience for home owners. In the past month, some of the largest installers in the country have begun carrying DDi and Leviton's product, making it available to production builders and the home buying public. These companies include, Efficient Electric, the largest low-voltage installer in Las Vegas, Nevada; AES, the leading systems integrator in San Diego and Riverside Counties, California; and Smart Systems Technology (SST), a major low-voltage integrator covering the Orange County, California and Phoenix, Arizona new homebuilding and remodeling markets.

"Today's new-home buyers are eager to incorporate networking and entertainment products in to the final purchase price of their home, rather than deal with the cost and complexity of assembling a system on their own," said Tom Burkett of Efficient Electric. "DDi and Leviton's digital entertainment network provides homebuyers with a great digital living experience today, while providing a sound, expandable platform for future applications such as security and home automation."

"Leviton's expertise in structured wiring combined with DDi's expertise in network and digital media product design led to an innovative product with the reliability and intuitive ease of use that today's PC-based retail products and wireless networks simply cannot match," said Jeffrey K. Moeser, co-founder, president, and CEO of DDi. "Because LE&AP was specifically designed for the new home construction and remodeling markets, we're receiving substantial interest from the channel, including CE Pro 100 integrators working with production home builders as well as electrical, security, and AV installers in the custom home and remodeling market."

"Wireless networks are great for web surfing mobility, but they can't deliver the reliability consumers demand from home entertainment products," said Ian Hendler, Director of Business Development for Leviton Integrated Networks. "DDi has helped Leviton design and deliver the first networked digital home entertainment product that leverages a home's structured wiring installation and simply works from the day it's installed."

Leviton Entertainment & Applications Platform

The Leviton Entertainment & Applications Platform (LE&AP) is built on two of DDi's premier products -- the Digital Distribution Center, a built-in media manager, combined with the Digital Player, a set-top box for playback of digital music, photos and videos. Designed for the new home construction and remodeling markets, LE&AP introduces a new way to seamlessly aggregate, distribute and manage digital music, photos and video throughout the home, eliminating the frustration associated with complex PC-based systems. Its high-performance architecture runs on a secure, structured wiring infrastructure and uses proven, industry-standard networking and server protocols to provide a unified home entertainment and information network that is not subject to the crashes and viruses of PC-based systems. By using professional installers, DDi ensures that consumers have a reliable, intuitive experience from the moment the system is installed.

www.dedicateddev.com
www.leviton.com