And two of Life|ware’s best and brightest are on their list. John Chapman, our VP of Software and Development, and Steve Cashman, our CSO, are both cited for their innovations and vision in the industry. Read the article (and check out their mug shots) here.

To keep our dealers in the know about some of Life|ware’s most compelling features, we’ve created a series of e-mail communications called “Did you know?” This is the companion procedure.

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A study newly released by Parks Associates indicates you should. The market for residential energy management technology is out there, and it’s growing, with over 8 million smart meters currently deployed, and millions more planned–and the federal stimulus bill allocates $11 billion for smart grid initiatives through 2010.

Get more information at Parks Associates.

The Media Center Integrator Alliance has put up a case study of the Kreaden house, the cyberManor installation that won the 2008 Media Center Ultimate Install Contest. It’s a detailed discussion of the installation, the devices used, and a tour of the home.

Here’s what the owner, Mike Kreaden, has to say about Life|ware:

“Without a doubt, the best part of the system is Life|ware. This is the missing link to unify and simplify the integration of all of these systems. I love the fact that we can script ‘scenes’—basically sequences of actions to perform across many systems. I have a ‘firepit scene’ that I use when relaxing by our meeting area around our firepit; -landscape and house lighting is automatically turned on at specific intensities and a favorite playlist from Windows Media Center is played (at a pre-determined level) in the outdoor garden zone via our Russound system. Other key automation scenes like pre-set comfort controls for A/C, and shower and tub scenes that automatically lower the shades, set the lighting, turn on the fan, etc., are what we like best about our system. The ability for fine-grained control of these systems, down to individual lights and devices, is what I know will pay dividends for us for years to come.”

Take the video tour (near the bottom of the page) or download the PDF of the case study at the Media Center Integrator Alliance page. Learn more about the Windows Media Center Ultimate Install contest here.

Today, Exceptional Innovation and Direct Energy unveiled a new Life|ware™ Energy Management Dashboard solution to help consumers reduce energy consumption and lower their energy costs. This partnership brings together technologies and data from power companies, broadband providers, and appliance companies to deliver the most extensive energy management solution available for consumers today. The solution is being showcased on ABD tru2way enabled set-top boxes in the Broadband Nation Exhibit and in the CableLabs’ CableNet 2009 booth at The Cable Show ’09 in Washington, DC.

The Life|ware Energy Management Dashboard demo is the first public demonstration of Exceptional Innovation’s new Life|ware 3.0 software platform. The Life|ware 3.0 platform provides new features and enhancements that make it even easier for Exceptional Innovation to quickly add support for new hardware devices and platforms and to build interactive software solutions like the new Energy Management Dashboard.

The intent of the new Life|ware 3.0 platform is to provide Life|ware dealers with even more powerful configuration tools so that they can create completely customized digital entertainment and automation solutions for their customers. For example, Life|ware’s new Visual Designer is a drag- and-drop screen design tool that provides a “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) interface, allowing dealers to build custom user interfaces and applications in a fraction of the time required by today’s legacy UI design tools.

In addition to the fully-customizable user interface, Life|ware 3.0’s architecture allows the extension of Life|ware to new hardware platforms. The Life|ware 3.0 platform is based on advanced service-oriented application technologies that make it possible to render the Life|ware UI on a wide array of consumer devices, including tru2way-enabled televisions and set-top boxes, TiVo Series 3 DVRs, IPTV set-top boxes, cell phones, widget TVs, audio keypads, and touch panels,  in addition to Microsoft Windows operating system-based PC, consumer entertainment products, and Linux. The ability to run Life|ware on a greater variety of devices will provide Life|ware dealers with exciting new opportunities to deliver cost effective and compelling entertainment and control systems for their customers.

Life|ware 3.0 is the realization of Exceptional Innovation’s objectives to deliver open, hardware neutral, standards-based automation software. The Life|ware Energy Management Dashboard is an excellent example of how Life|ware’s 3.0 platform is working for dealers and consumers today and will be available with the release of Life|ware 3.0 this fall.