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| [January 02, 2007] |
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Introducing 4HomeMedia
SUNNYVALE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- 4HomeMedia announced today that the company will unveil their award-winning, next-generation ControlPoint(TM) platform for broadband services at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to be held starting January 8th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Consumer Electronics Association has awarded the ControlPoint platform the prestigious "Best of Innovations" award in the Integrated Home Systems category for this year's CES, besting a field of over one hundred applicants. This broadband services and software platform has been developed from the ground up to enable consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers, and hardware OEMs to rapidly develop and deploy a new generation of entertainment and control applications for the digital home.
ControlPoint is based on an advanced, patent-pending "contextual" user-interface for managing all connected systems, and an underlying server which can remotely render this UI --- without the need for a special client application --- on any compatible mobile phone, PC, Mac, compatible TV, or gaming system. A single copy of the software deployed anywhere on the home network can deliver an optimized user-interface experience to any user of a browser-based display, anywhere in the world, anytime.
ControlPoint Software Platform
ControlPoint is based on a light-weight, distributed architecture that has been implemented using standard Web technologies for easy portability to a wide range of networked consumer products, and the company believes it is the only user interface solution available that unifies device control and features from Ethernet-based Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standards and IEEE 1394-based High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance (HANA) guidelines into a seamless user experience. ControlPoint also comes standard with full support for two of the new plug and play home control protocols, the LonWorks ISI protocol for reliable whole-home coverage using power line communication, and the Z-Wave wireless mesh protocol. ControlPoint is the industry's first networked user-interface platform, designed to provide partners with the ability to rapidly develop and deploy a range of simple to install, no-new-wires, services-based applications.
ControlPoint 1000
To provide a rapid go-to-market option for partners, 4HomeMedia has developed a hardware reference design, the ControlPoint 1000TM, to enable the development and deployment of a wide range of end-user solutions. The ControlPoint software can be embedded into systems based on this ControlPoint 1000 reference design, or it can be embedded into networked consumer products such as HDTVs, residential gateways, set-top boxes, CE entertainment devices, gaming systems, and other devices.
4HomeMedia.Net
All active copies of ControlPoint are connected with the 4HomeMedia.Net Web portal, which provides a secure connection for remote or mobile access as well as a means to activate, register, backup, and download customizations to each individual home. This portal-based architecture also provides a powerful means to deliver advanced home services to the consumer. The 4HomeMedia end-to-end system enables new business models for service providers and hardware vendors, as well as home integrators and retailers.
A Comprehensive Solution
"There are basically two problems our team had the mission to solve," said Paul Gifford, CEO & president of 4HomeMedia. "First, to provide broadband service providers and their equipment suppliers, as well as consumer electronics manufacturers, new sources of revenue as enabled by our lightweight and embedded services delivery platform. Secondly, we are offering a solution to the complicated and disjointed user-experiences we see in today's broadband and entertainment products by bringing to market an innovative, network-level, cross-platform user-interface system. Our solution essentially hides the complexity of dealing with the various underlying network protocols, devices, and individual control interfaces, and presents the end-user with a seamless experience across a range of home systems and applications."
"A point which often comes up in our discussions with CE companies is the need for a user-interface solution for media and device control which is sorely lacking in the current state of the digital home eco-system," said Ben Bajarin, Consumer Technology and Digital Media Strategist at Creative Strategies. "There is a clear market need there which isn't being addressed."
4HomeMedia is working with customers to deploy new solutions based on ControlPoint starting in Q2 of 2007, and will be demonstrating its end-to-end solution for broadband services at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. 4HomeMedia will be announcing more details of their first set of customers at CES; this first set of customers spans a global reach and includes AlphaTelecom in North America, Nico Technology in Asia, and InAccess Networks and Secyourit in Europe.
About 4HomeMedia, Inc.
With one of the most experienced team in the industry and years of R&D behind its award-winning technology, 4HomeMedia provides the digital home solution that is changing the equation for deploying a new generation of broadband services throughout the world. 4HomeMedia's ControlPoint(TM) is an embedded platform that allows consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers, home automation integrators, and retailers to rapidly create and deploy compelling, easy-to-use applications and services for the digital home. At the heart of this patent-pending solution is a set of easy-to-use, familiar, network-level user-interface engines that transcend individual devices and provide a comprehensive means of controlling all networked devices and systems within the home. The ControlPoint embedded software, when used in combination with the 4HomeMedia.Net services portal, provides a cross-platform user-interface and broadband services system designed for easy portability to a range of consumer devices. A single copy of the networked ControlPoint software installed anywhere on the home network provides whole home coverage -- from anywhere and at anytime.
4HomeMedia, Inc. is based in Sunnyvale, CA, with sales offices in Charlotte, NC and Knoxville, TN. For more information on 4HomeMedia and its award-winning ControlPoint solution, please visit http://www.4HomeMedia.com.
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