Monster’s Automation Partner Revealed: Pluto

Monster Cable entered into a joint venture to develop its ambitious new automation system (Monster Demos Ambitious New Automation System) but the company declined to name its partner when pressed earlier this year.

Thanks to tips from a cepro.com participant, and the plutohome.com bulletin board, we now have it figured out.

Now it appears that Monster has partnered with Pluto, developer of a whole-house control system that employs the same hardware, technologies, and user interface of the Monster system, down to the big "F" that appears on the cellphone if you put your media into "Follow Me" mode.

Monster will neither confirm nor deny that Pluto is the company's partner, and I can't get anyone at Pluto to return my phone calls or emails but I'll run a full-page retraction in CE Pro if I'm wrong.

Forget that the Pluto and Monster products look exactly the same. The real dead giveaway was when I searched Google for the name of Pluto's founder, Aaron Baalbergen and found this: Please contact Aaron Baalbergen at abaalbergen at monstercable.com."

We first met Pluto at the Electronic House Expo Fall 2003, where Baalbergen was promoting the company's "Zero-Touch" automation system that was heavy on the telecom applications. Since then, it seems the company has found some popularity among the open-source community since Pluto takes an extreme view of the open-source movement. The company gives away its software, believing that tweaks will be tweaks, and regular consumers will buy the stuff from authorized dealers.

From the Pluto Web site:

Why buy a licensed Pluto product? What's the difference?
Pluto is sold as a turnkey smarthome/media server appliance through dealers. But the Pluto software is also available for free. The software sold on the retail products is identical to the free, open source version you can download from our website. We don't hold anything back and there are absolutely no restrictions. So why buy a Pluto system from a dealer instead of building my own?

Everything is pre-installed -- take it out of the box, plug it in, and start using it. There is no issue with hardware compatibility or finding the right drivers. Pluto Pro dealers also offer custom-installed whole-house solution including home theater, security, lighting and climate control, and a wide range of other options.

I'll keep you posted.


Oh, and one more thing. If you search the Pluto site for Monster, this is what you'll get. The site monsternet.us seems to be private for the time being.