Home System Control Technology Highlights
Staff -- TWICE, 9/3/2001
AMX: A new 4- and 6-inch color touchscreen are the first touchscreens with motion sensors to automatically lights up the panel and hard buttons when someone walks near. A light sensor adjusts the brightness of the LCD screen and hard buttons. The 4-inch passive-matrix AXT-CP4, available in in-wall and tabletop versions, features AMX Internet Inside technology to display CD titles and speed-dial lists from connected databases and to display Internet-delivered information services. The CP4 retails for a suggested $1,040.
The 6-inch active-matrix model, available only in-wall, displays baseband video from TV sets or surveillance cameras.
Addition details were unavailable.
Elan: The $1,200-suggested Via SC4 controller is preloaded with RS-232 codes , enabling Via touchpanels to control RS-232 systems from new controller to let touchpanel integrate with RS-232 lighting and HVAC systems. The touchpanels themselves are preloaded with IR codes.
The 6.4-inch color touchscreens are priced at $1,695 for the in-wall version and $2,325 for the tabletop version. Both also display baseband video from surveillance cameras, TVs, and the like.
Vantage: The company is targeting the retrofit market with a wireless-RF home-control keypad that doubles as a light switch. The one- to four-gang keypad, dubbed a ScenePoint Dimmer station, gets 110-volt power from the home's lighting wires. It uses 900MHz digital spread spectrum to send commands to an RF receiver that can be added to the current Vantage Control System controller, a bridge to various home subsystems.
The RF system, called Vantage RadioLink Network, will control contact-closure and RS-232-based products, with plans for future control of IR-based products. It will be available September.
The RadioLink Enabler, which adds RF to Vantage controllers, costs a suggested $580. The Dimmer Stations range in price from $346 for a basic single-gang model to $1,050 for the most complex four-ganger.
