12.20.2006 — Lagotek looks to be the first home automation company that will demonstrate gadgets for SideShow devices.

SideShow is a new feature of Windows Vista that allows small bits of PC-based data to be displayed on and controlled through auxiliary displays like remote controls and digital picture frames. To use SideShow, users need not boot up the PC. Furthermore, unlike many of today's options for controlling MCE via two-way remote, SideShow won't hijack the computer desktop.

It's one of the answers to that age-old (well, not that old) problem of having to turn on the TV to see your Media Center playlists, for example.

Now that so many companies are creating home-control applications for Media Center Edition, there absolutely positively has to be a way to get to the critical controls -- lights, thermostats, irrigation status, GOOD NIGHT scenes, etc. -- without having to flip on the TV and navigate to the settings.

Slowly but surely, we'll see the manufacturers of these control systems write the appropriate "gadgets" to be displayed on SideShow devices.

Lagotek, a newcomer to the home-control business, is doing just that. The company does not plan to make its own SideShow-enabled hardware, but it is in the process of writing the gadgets for the new version 3.0 of its Home Intelligence Platform (HIP).

Version 3.0 is specifically for Vista Media Center Edition. Users will be able to control their home through the MCE interface, and naturally control their MCE-based A/V system as well. A/V control has been missing in the earlier versions of the HIP system (see below.)

"Initially we left home theater alone, in anticipation of Media Center under Vista," says Lagotek president Ron Risdon.

Risdon says that the home automation features will be tightly integrated with the Media Center functions. The gadgets are associated with specific scenes written by the integrator for the HIP software -- like a GOOD MORNING scene that ramps up the lights, jacks up the thermostat and plays Neil Diamond in the bedroom and bathroom.

In addition to the SideShow capabilities, Lagotek takes full advantage of the development tools that enable Vista Media Center to expose its state to the HIP application.

Specifically, Lagotek is using the media state aggregation service (MSAS) to retrieve media status information from the Media Center. The HIP program then responds to the MSAS messages, triggering the appropriate event.

So, for example, if a DVD is playing, and the user hits the PAUSE button on the Media Center remote, not only would the DVD player pause, but the lights might ramp up to 50 percent ... only if it's after 6:00 p.m.

Finally, version 3.0 of HIP enables users to operate the whole-house control system, including Media Center controls via a WiFi-enabled PDA running Windows CE 5.0.

A Word on MSAS (Media State Aggregation Service)
MSAS is a tool that allows third-party applications to obtain and respond to real-time happenings within Media Center. Developers can access a variety of states such as transport state, song info, "currently playing", "currently paused," "Playing DVD-Shrek," etc. Any of these states can be used to trigger events. The entire list of tags is extensive, and includes such things as TV movie ratings. How would you like an alarm to sound when an X-rated movie is played in your absence?