What’s a company to do if it’s building a strong AV control business (based on trendy Apple products), but has no residential and commercial lighting control systems?

You go shopping for one, of course.

Savant bought LiteTouch for its lighting control system including a broad range of keypad solutions. Savant expects it can easily sell in its channel any lighting controls that operate in concert with Apple iOS devices controlling connected home and commercial technologies.

Savant announces Lyon-based B&W Group France will start representing the Apple-based automation brand in France and Monaco, handling sales, training and service.

Founded in 2000, B&W France distributes products from a number of premium brands to A/V installers and retailers. It plans to open a 279 square-metre Experience Centre inside a historical building on the banks of the Saone, Lyon, on April 2012.

With interiors by HM Designer's Herve Moreau, the centre will host training sessions and a showcase for qualified end-users.

"Savant is pleased to be working with B&W France as we develop a strong position in this very important market," Savant VP of sales Chuck parrelli says. "Their knowledge of the French dealer network, professionalism, technical expertise and outstanding personnel resources will all prove to be tremendous assets for Savant as relationships with key integrators are established."

Go Savant Announces Distributor for France and Monaco

Sony believes one device out there still needs to evolve and become "smarter"-- the humble electric socket, which has hardly changed over the past 50 years.

The Wall Street Journal reports the company has a prototype "smart socket" using RFID and authentication technologies to track energy use by appliance, limit consumption by time, user or device and even block energy access to non-authorised plugs.

“Electrical sockets are like a user interface for people consuming power,” Sony home energy network business development GM Taro Tadano says. “Can they just stay the way they are?”

Another Sony prototype has devices carrying RFID tags, which in turn communicate with a single reader (via regular power lines) acting as a smart meter.

Visiomatic brought to the IP Security Pavilion at ISE the first release of an intelligent solution for mobile video intercom.

The doorbell rings… and with visiTor the image automatically appears on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. You can now talk directly with your visitor and open the door.

If you have multiple cameras installed, you can easily change between different views, e.g. monitoring the exterior of your home. As long as you stay within the wireless range of your home, visiTor is always ready for you.

At ISE, Siedle presented its new access installation system based on the structured wiring of the internationally uniform IP standard. Building communication now becomes part of the network—with considerable benefits for planners, builders and users.

From wiring compliant with DEN EN 50173 and transfer protocols to the connection technology, Siedle Access employs the same network standards used in IT, building systems engineering and telecommunications. And that simplifies the handling of the system from planning to commissioning.

Access is ideal for large-scale applications because the digital transmission involved eliminates the range restrictions of analogue technology and extends the number of telephone routing options and video connections. IP addressing allows for more than 1000 subscribers and also facilitates their administration. Highly efficient encoding procedures (G.711/G.722 and H.264) achieve good audio and video quality with low bandwidth requirements.

Automation manufacturer Crestron had an interesting demo at ISE 2012-- integrating gestures in its control systems using the Microsoft Kinect.

The company says it is using the Windows-compatible version of the Kinect (announced earlier at CES 2012), meaning any PC can support the technology.

The ISE demo gives two examples of gesture control-- a left-to-right sweep of the hands advances/reverses a PowerPoint presentation, while raising or lowering hands dims/brightens the lights in the room.

Will customers want to stop being couch potatoes in order to control their homes and entertainment by moving around? The Kinect proved to be a success on the Xbox 360, so it is quite possible...

Watch Crestron Integration With Kinect