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| Volume 3 Issue 1 February 1998 |
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| HTINews Article - Feb98 - [HTI Home Page] |
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The
Home Director Professional
|
Included Here Press Releases Interviews Opinions |
The following announcement was obtained from the IBM website ( www.ibm.com )
Build a wired home with IBM Home Director Professional
IBM has introduced its Home Director Professional product to let home owners remotely monitor and control automated home systems -- such as security, lighting and HVAC systems -- over the Internet.
Home Director Professional’s open architecture can provide the foundation for future capabilities like distributed home entertainment, PC local area network connectivity and real-time energy management. IBM is currently working with select new home builders and certified installers for initial implementation of the Home Director Professional solution this spring. IBM plans to make this solution generally available by summer 1998.
Home Director Professional represents a critical next step toward IBM realizing its vision of a networked home. Through the integration of a central appliance and structured wiring, a network of home entertainment appliances, PCs, security systems and lights can be created.IBM’s Home Director Professional solution will feature integration with many industry standard home security systems, energy management and automated control of lights and appliances based on lifestyle programmed configurations.
So, what does this mean to us ... home automation consumers and professionals. I'll say it in one word ... Credability. This industry has been plagued for many years with the perception that Home Automation is either for very rich or very technical individuals and many of the systems available have confirmed that perception. IBM's entry into this market may change that perception as well as some of the jargon used to describe home electronics. IBM is a "network" company and it appears that they have at last decided to move beyond the workplace to network the community and our homes. Not a bad market if you think about it.
And what does IBM market? Presently it's Business
Solutions. In future it may be Home Solutions. I
emphasize the word "Solutions" here because that is what the consumer wants and
needs. Electronic networks are fussy and complicated animals and need to be built and
supported by people who know what they're doing. The average consumer does not want to
know how it works but simply that it does work ... every time ... and it does something to
make them happy.
Developers have accepted (or should have by now) the fact that structured wiring is and will remain a standard feature in new home construction. What has been lacking is a reliable and adaptable brain to attach to this nervous system. Consequently, many new owners are at a loss as to what they can do with this electronic highway contained in the walls of their houses. Perhaps IBM's "Solution" will get things rolling.
I always like to compare the evolution of Home Automation to the PC world and will probably continue to do so until someone tells me to get a new line. What made the PC different from the Apple II in the early days was it's Open Architecture. While Apple users may disagree ... it was this fact that caused the explosion in desktop computer use. Every Tom, Dick and Harry developed software, hardware and devices for the PC and still does. Who developed the PC with Open Architecture? IBM did. Now ... go back and read the 2nd paragraph of the announcement above ...
"Home Director Professional’s open architecture can provide the foundation for future capabilities like distributed home entertainment, PC local area network connectivity and real-time energy management."
Sounds pretty familiar to me.
So ... now we have a new home with a physical electronic network (Structured Wiring) and a network brain (HDPro) that alows Tom, Dick and Harry to build stuff that will plug into it. Wow ... I like it already.
But ... does this mean the end of those familiar HA systems and protocols that we know of. I don't think so. Just as the advent of the PC didn't put Apple out of business. Proprietary systems will probably continue but look for interfaces and devices that can be plugged into an HDPro (or other) PC system to evolve. Cyberhouse for example already supports many of the security, HVAC and lighting controllers available today. The CEBus HomePlug and Play world should benefit from this development as well. A CEBus to PC interface would fit nicely into the mix. In theory, any device that plugs into an RS232 port can interface with this PC like brain.
OhOh ... what happens to those of us who already have a house and don't intend on moving again. We still have options and perhaps even advantages (I always like to emphasis the positive :-). First ... you've got to resign to the fact that you'll need to add wiring to your house if you want to take full advantage of much of this new technology. I'm sorry but that's a fact and you may as well get over the indecision. But ... you do have the advantage that you already know how your home fits your lifestyle and that helps when making the decisions regarding where to terminate all that fancy new wiring. Once you've overcome that hurdle then everything looks a bit different. You too can add an HDPro or similar brain to the network and move ahead as the future unfolds.
I suspect that the HDPro will not be the only brain in town for very long. Once the world accepts the fact (thanks to companies like IBM and Savoy) that the home of the future needs a brain then I suspect other PC manufacturers will get at it pretty quickly. Perhaps Apple will join the parade and come up with their own "solution". And what about Mr. Gates over at Microsoft? Will the home network operating system become "Doors 99" or how about this one Bill ... "Windows@home".
To learn more about the Home Director Professional be sure to read the interviews with Mark Schmidt of IBM and Dennis Ford of Savoy Automation as well as the press releases. Both Dennis and Mark are extremely busy guys and I'm grateful to them for taking the time to give us the facts on this development on very short notice. Once you're up to speed please drop in here and post your thoughts and opinions.
Bob Hetherington is the editor of the HTINews and the founder and webmaster of HTI Home Toys. The opinions expressed here are his alone but I think they're pretty good ... don't you ;-)
