Chris Lanier's Blog

News, Analysis, and Opinion on Microsoft Digital Media Technologies (and TGB News!)

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 - Posts

  • Media Centers From Three Different Manufacturers Earn Life|Ware Ready Certification

    Ace, Inteset and Niveus Media Centers now meet criteria for Exceptional Innovation’s “Life|ware Ready” logo program.


    Columbus, OH – October 10, 2006 - Exceptional Innovation (EI), producers of Life|ware™ home control software for Media Center, announce three more leading Media Center manufacturers have achieved Life|ware Ready certification. Life|ware software operates on the Media Center platform to create a hardware-neutral control system that allows integrators the flexibility to choose from the lighting, climate, audio, security, and camera systems that best meet customers’ needs.


    After undergoing a formal qualification process that includes stringent testing to ensure each unit can meet benchmark criteria and handle all of Life|ware’s applications, Media Centers from Ace, Inteset and Niveus all earned the right to bear a Life|ware Ready certification logo. Each Media Center offers something different in the way of functionality, performance and pricing providing integrators yet another measure of flexibility when setting up a Life|ware home control network.


    “Life|ware Ready is something our dealers have been asking for to make their lives easier in identifying the best hardware for each job,” said Mike Seamons, EI’s vice president of marketing. “These are great Media Centers that can meet the usage and functionality demands of end-users in different ways and our Life|ware Ready logo certifies that steps have been taken to ensure a smooth Life|ware integration.”


    AceComputers LHD Limited II and II Pro are award-winning Media Centers that feature a unique touch screen interface on their front panel. Inteset's new 3TB Maximus and award winning Denzel media servers are optimized for home theaters with advanced controllability; media stored on the server can extend the other rooms in the home via the Vana advanced extender system or the Julia All-in-one Touch Screen Advanced Extender. Niveus Media Centers include the Denali, Denali Limited, and K2 Limited Edition which have won multiple awards and are praised for their audio/video performance and silent, fanless design.


    Media Centers from all three companies will join HP in displaying the Life|ware Ready logo on their front panel hardware to provide at-a-glance assurance to integrators designing and implementing a Life|ware home automation system.


    Unlike other home automation solutions that tie the homeowner into a single-branded, proprietary solution, Life|ware by Exceptional Innovation is hardware-neutral giving dealers more choices and flexibility to seamlessly integrate with Windows Media Center. Life|ware can be run on any Life|ware Ready Media Center, Xbox 360 or other Media Center extenders, or EI’s own Life|point™ all-digital high definition touch panel. Exceptional Innovation’s certification and logo programs ensure that dealers have the foundation to successfully implement the Life|ware solution.


    Logos and images available at www.exceptionalinnovation.com.


    About Exceptional Innovation
    Based in the Westerville suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Exceptional Innovation produces Life|ware™ home control software and hardware for digital living. Life|ware creates a lifestyle experience that allows consumers to enjoy their digital entertainment, wherever and whenever they want, as well as manage their lighting, HVAC, security, appliances and other subsystems, such as distributed audio systems, through a single interface by integrating the digital entertainment functionality of Media Center with whole-house automation and control. Led by software industry professionals with extensive experience with distributed computing based on open standards and open architecture, Exceptional Innovation combines Microsoft development expertise with years of home control experience to deliver simple, seamless, life-enhancing solutions for the digital home.

  • David Fleischman and Matt Goyer Add Their Thoughts

    Still getting lots of great feedback from everyone, and even better thanks to everyone out there we have got David Fleischman asking Why Aren’t People More Excited About Media Center?  In addition, Matt Goyer (who I remind you no longer works for Microsoft) replied with a great post about Why Media Center does not stream DVDs (citing core functionalities development) and another great post about eHome blogging (of course, now post-Goyer) titled Does eHome get blogging?


    All great reads, so check them out.  I’d also like to thank David and all other members of the eHome team.  Even though some of us (including me!) are somewhat criticizing the product you work so hard on, it’s only because we want it to be the best solution out there.  Keep up the great work!  And then of course thanks to Matt, he might have moved on from Microsoft but his thoughts and opinions are still appreciated by all.



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