News

ELAN Home Systems Adds VIA!2 Wireless Control Panel to Lineup of VIA! Products (12/4/2006)

Proven Reliable VIA! Family Extended, Creating Industry's Most Comprehensive and Affordable Touch Panel Line

ELAN Home Systems, a leading manufacturer of award-winning Multi-Room audio/video and home automation systems, will debut the new VIA! (R)2 and SS1, the company's first wireless Home Control Touch Panel and System Control Station, at the 2006 Spring EHX. With the addition of the VIA!2, ELAN's line of VIA! Panels has grown into the most affordable, expansive line of home controllers available on the market today. The announcement was made by Bob Farinelli, ELAN's President and Chief Technology Officer.

The VIA!2 is ELAN's 8.4-inch LCD color Touch Panel providing the latest in wireless home control. Sleek, lightweight and extremely durable, the VIA!2 features a powerful combination of bold and beautiful color graphics and long-range, interference-free 8.02.11b/g wireless control technology. The panel serves as an ideal, premium Home Theater controller, and can also be transported throughout the home, making it available for use wherever the homeowner desires. A tabletop docking/recharging cradle is also included for stationary functionality.

"We are happy to announce that VIA!, ELAN's top-selling, multi award-winning LCD touch panel has gone wireless, putting us in the top echelon of control solution providers. Coupled with our new SS1 System Station, ELAN now offers the industry's most advanced and robust combination of wireless control technology and systems automation for the home," said Mr. Farinelli.

"After 5 years, the VIA! Touch Panel family remains the superior, most reliable and affordable control solution available in today's marketplace. By adding VIA!2, we now offer everything specialty Dealers need in a touch panel. From our unmatched VIA!4.0 at just $850.00 retail, all the way up to full wireless control with VIA!2, this move puts ELAN in a position unlike any other company."

ELAN's VIA!2 will deliver the same proven quality VIA! performance throughout the home without stationary limitations, and is easily programmed by Dealers using ELAN's tried-and-true, award-winning software VIA!TOOLs. Boasting extreme reliability and functional versatility, the VIA!2 does not experience the typical problems associated with the few competitive products on the market that offer web-enabled screens, such as pop-ups and crashes, therefore enhancing the Client's every day wireless control experience and lowering service hassles for Dealers.

The VIA!2 features a high-brightness LCD screen and offers easy navigation and control for all installed compatible audio and video/home entertainment products, as well as lighting, temperature, motorized screens, drapes and security devices. The interface format also features customizable screen layouts with large, easy-to-read buttons and text for intuitive control of all systems. Additionally, the VIA!2 is highly customizable, offering a wide variety of stunning screen motifs that the homeowner can choose from in order to personalize the look and feel of the display to match individual tastes and room decors. With the delivery of VIA!2, ELAN will also offer exciting new motifs to the already extensive palate of options.

The companion piece to the VIA!2, the SS1 System Station is the intelligent, multi-faceted "brains" behind the VIA!2's user-friendly control. The VIA!2-SS1 is a translator, converting each button press on the wireless panel into commands that all other installed compatible system components will understand. After interpreting the wireless commands from the touch panel, the SS1 can issue IR and RS-232 serial commands that control all of the installed compatible A/V components. Its on-board sense inputs and relay outputs provide automation features that can instantly lower a motorized screen in the home theater or open the relay-controlled drapes in the bedroom. And the SS1 interfaces easily with ELAN's other serial controllers, providing wireless access to whole-house lighting, security and temperature control systems from a VIA!2 Panel.

When first introduced in 2001, the original ground-breaking, wired VIA! Touch Panel from ELAN set a whole new standard for whole-house systems control, garnering the industry's most prestigious awards with its easy-to-use, program and afford graphical user interface. Today, the VIA! Touch Panel's incomparable speed, reliability, ease of use and affordability are still earning awards, and have firmly entrenched it as the most unique panel with the best value on the market. With VIA!2, ELAN takes the VIA! legacy to the next level, unleashing the power of user-friendly wireless control for the home theater or any other room in the home.

The VIA!2 Wireless Touch Panel and the SS1 are in the final phase of testing and are targeted to be released in April, 2006. The VIA!2 and the SS1 each come with a two year manufacturer's warranty. The VIA!2 will carry a MSRP of $3,000.00, and the SS1 System Station will carry a MSRP of $550.00. Recharging/docking cradle is included in the VIA!2 price, and additional cradles may be purchased separately.