News

International Conference Compares Key Trends in Home Control (12/3/2008)

Parks Associates presents new research highlights at European Home Control Summit

Z-Wave announced that Parks Associates, the internationally recognized market research and consulting firm will present new research findings at the upcoming European Home Control Summit, to be held April 8-9, in Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

Bill Ablondi, top expert and Director of Home Systems Research at Parks Associates, will present "Home Control: Trends and Opportunities," and address various controls in the home, remote home monitoring and consumer interest, and the evolution of the universal remove control. These and other key questions, market trends, plus associated technology platforms will be discussed at the European Home Control Summit.

"The time for manufacturers of home appliances and control systems to take advantage of recent technological advancement in wireless controls is now," says Bill Ablondi. "Consumers are more comfortable with digital technology, industry giants are looking for the 'Next Big Thing', and communications protocols with low implementation costs and high reliability have become reality."

Home networks as "the backbone" for home control systems

Parks Associates forecasts that the number of worldwide households with residential gateways facilitating broadband sharing, remote management and service provisioning, and/or value-added services will grow to 72 million by year-end 2012. Europe's increasingly competitive broadband and pay television market makes it a prime market for home networking.

According to Parks Associates, home networks are poised to become the backbone of connected home systems. In addition to the distribution of audio and video content as well as sharing broadband access, printers and storage devices, RF based control networks such as Z-Wave that can accommodate multi-year battery operation of devices will be a means for communicating with a variety of systems in the home - including energy management, security, lighting and entertainment systems.

"We remain bullish on the growth of the wireless home control market and view the efforts of members of the Z-Wave Alliance as excellent examples of marrying technological advancements with distinct needs of the consumer", states Bill Ablondi. "Awareness and acceptance of the capabilities of Z-Wave have been growing over the past year as shown in the results of our surveys that monitor the home systems integration and installation channels."

Additional topics at the European Home Control Summit Conference:

- Home control in Europe - an OEM perspective - The trend to Unified Home Control(tm) - "Green homes" - Public programs to conserve energy via home control - Control and management of energy consumption - The smart home in your pocket - opportunity for service provider - Comfort and convenience - how does home control improve our lives? - Safety and security - piece of mind as a driver for consumer adoption - The Z-Wave ecosystem - benefits for OEMs and consumers alike

... and many more. You will find the complete agenda - along with the registration page at the web site.

The event will be topped off by an accompanying "Home Control"-specialized exhibition. "Global Players" - along with innovative mid-sized European companies - will present interoperable solutions and products from all "Home Control" areas, such as Remote Home Monitoring, Safety & Security, Energy Saving, Home Entertainment, and Digital HealthCare.

www.Z-WaveAlliance.org/hcs3