[May 07, 2013]

Digital Home World Summit to Energise the Smart Home Ecosystem

As Smart Home services rapidly evolve and increasing focus is placed on rising energy costs, consumption and conservation, the industry is undoubtedly poised for further growth. This represents an attractive opportunity for telecom operators and utility companies to expand their services and revenue streams, which will be addressed at this year's Digital Home World Summit, taking place 18-19 June in London.

Home control can be tracked back to the 1980s; however, despite the continuous development of Smart technologies for Smart Homes, there is still a huge growth opportunity within the industry. It has been forecast that the number of installed households with HEMS (Home Energy Management Systems) will grow to more than 40 million in 2020¹, highlighting the enormous potential for operators and energy companies.

Jean-Paul Krivine, Project Director of Smart Energy - Smart Home at French energy supplier, EDF, who is speaking at the event, says: "Helping to create energy-efficient Smart Homes, where the energy bill is controlled, is an obligation and commitment for energy companies. By becoming smart, the house will also be able to deliver energy flexibly to the power system. The Smart Home is an opportunity for utilities to reinforce trust and confidence and to consolidate an improved and sustainable relationship with their customers."

Focussing on the energy sector, the fourth annual Digital Home World Summit holds more relevance than ever for those in the HEMS ecosystem. This is echoed by the content of the event programme which also includes a presentation from Vince Maret, Director, E-Lab at Bouygues Telecom, who will explore converging energy, Smart Grids and telecoms. His session will assess the Smart Home opportunity for energy companies and the prerequisites for achieving profitability, while highlighting the importance of partnerships, collaborations, eco-systemsand standardisation.

The conference will include a focus on standardisation, which plays a crucial role in the evolution and adoption of energy management systems. Standardisation promotes best practices and provides the tools to design sound policies, optimise installations and systems and improve energy efficiency.

"The past two decades, and particularly the past five years, have changed consumer expectation of technology services and products. The combination of continuous internet access, and smart phones with effective user interface and app-store, means that people expect a similar style user interface, downloadable functions and extensibility when dealing with home services like energy, security and health. HGI (News - Alert) is working with broadband service providers, manufacturers and chip vendors to develop software and hardware architectures to make this a reality and we'll be discussing the latest findings at the conference," says Ruth Wilson, Member of Board of Directors, HGI, who will discuss the value of standards in the connected home as part of the agenda.

The conference and exhibition will take place at the Hilton Paddington in London on 18-19 June. To view the full event programme and register for Digital Home World Summit, please visit http://www.digitalhomeworldsummit.com/. Alternatively, keep up to date with the event on twitter by following @DIGTALHOMEWS.

About Digital Home World Summit

Connected home services have seen an influx of support by the pay TV industry and unlikely partnerships have been established across a variety of vertical sectors such as energy, healthcare, education and vehicles. Now in its fourth year Digital Home World Summit brings together thought-leaders to present and discuss new user interface and content discovery ideas, plus innovative new platforms and solutions relating to this fast-moving industry. For more information, please go to http://www.digitalhomeworldsummit.com/.

About Informa Telecoms & Media (News - Alert)

Informa Telecoms & Media (www.informatm.com) is the leading provider of business intelligence and strategic services to the global telecoms and media markets. Driven by constant first-hand contact with the industry, its 90 analysts and researchers produce a range of intelligence services including news and analytical products, in depth market reports and datasets focussed on technology, strategy and content. Informa Telecoms & Media also organises 125 global annual events, attended by more than 70,000 executives worldwide.

For media information please contact Dana Corson at [email protected] or Holly Tyrrell at [email protected] or call on +44 1636 812152.

¹ Source (News - Alert): Pike Research, Home Energy Management report, 2012

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