The PC Takes ControlNext-gen home automation systems embrace the personal computer. Should you?

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Perhaps the PC's greatest strength in home automation is its ability to aggregate the emerging stew of standards and products. Many new products will work in multiple formats.

“The PC, either as a home system controller or as a part of a system, could be the key to allowing builders to pick and choose among the various products and protocols coming to market this year and tailor them to the level of homes they're building,” Whalley explains. “Lighting control using a LifeWare-enabled product and a Z-Wave garage door opener, for instance.”

Indeed, builders have plenty of automation possibilities to choose from, as products emerge based on several initiatives, including the LifeWare software system, and the Z-Wave and ZigBee wireless platforms.

Exceptional Innovation's LifeWare platform has 35 participating companies, including Cooper Wiring Devices and Russound, touting products that can integrate with the LifeWare system.

The Z-Wave Alliance, organized around wireless technology from Zensys, boasts 125 members, many of which plan to introduce new products this quarter. (And to make matters interesting, Exceptional Innovation and several of its partners are also Z-Wave Alliance members, meaning their systems can run over wired or wireless networks.)

If that's not enough, momentum is building around ZigBee, a wireless protocol based on an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standard known as IEEE 802.15.4. Companies such as Philips and Texas Instruments are applying the ZigBee low-voltage standard to home automation features.

Then there's the 800-pound gorilla lurking—software giant Microsoft Corp. Starting this month, the PC's role in the home will likely be more pervasive, propelled by the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest operating system. Among other things, Vista includes native support for Web Services for Devices, a software protocol designed to give manufacturers a simple, reliable way to interoperate among home control devices and PCs.

“The arrival of Windows Vista is a watershed event for greater inclusion of the PC in home automation,” according to Mike Seamons, vice president of marketing at Exceptional Innovation (LifeWare works with Microsoft's Media Center software). “Vista takes the PC beyond entertainment applications. A builder may not be able to justify a $5,000 plasma screen display, but he can when it's part of a home automation system. Add the PC, a wireless thermostat, and a security camera at the front door, and there's the basic package you offer the builder.”

“Control of functions like lighting, thermostats, and security is a natural progression from entertainment control,” explains Michael Breton, Intel's home control and automation architect. “A good way for builders to convey that is to let the PC start by controlling not only the entertainment but also the environment around the entertainment. When the movie comes on, the PC will also draw the curtains and dim the lights.”

In fact, it's nearly impossible to deny that PCs are a logical part of any home automation solution. Even proprietary systems have a PC flavor. High-end automation vendor AMX, for instance, recently rolled out HomeManager software that lets home buyers access and control their automation controls over an Internet-enabled PC. (AMX also makes ZigBee products for wireless control solutions.)