Lifeware Automation Runs on RTI Remote; Company Committed to ‘Choice’

When it comes to Media Center, folks in our industry almost always think of Exceptional Innovation, whose Lifeware automation software was built specifically for the Media Center platform.

Now, EI wants to make it clear that Lifeware isn't just for Media Center.

"Media Center is a beautiful way to render Lifeware, but it's not the only way," says EI founder and CEO Seale Moorer.

Back up?!

Moorer's revelation came after EI worked on a 25,000-square-foot house in West Palm Beach, Fla. The clients didn't care to use Media Centers to "run" the house, but they liked the idea of Media Centers as components and they liked Lifeware.

They really wanted to run their home using universal remote controls, without being beholden to a TV interface, a browser-type controller, or in-wall touchscreens and keypads.

The solution was a house full of T-2C RF remotes (28 of them) from Remote Technologies Inc. running Lifeware client software. EI demonstrated the solution for the first time during the Electronic House Expo, March 13-15 in Orlando, Fla.

In the West Palm job, the Lifeware host was a $3,000 LifeController with embedded Lifeware -- not a full-blown computer with Media Center.

"I personally put RTI in my own house and I love it," says Moorer. "It was a real turning point to learn how powerful it can be with our software."

In the West Palm Beach installation, EI created an entire integration package for the RTI remote so it essentially serves as a Lifeware client, able to perform most Lifeware functions, such as activating scenes and controlling multiroom audio.

Since the T-2C is a one-way IR/RF device, however, the unit cannot receive metadata from the network.

Lifeware-enabling the T-2C was a dry run for EI, which plans to support other universal remotes in the future. The company cautions that the RTI solution is not yet available to dealers.

At CES, EI showed Lifeware running on a Philips SRM 7500 ("Tino") remote, but that product is only available in Europe.

Switchers Trump CableCard

Accommodating the T-2C is only a slight departure for Lifeware. What really has changed is that the company has resigned itself to embracing matrix switchers.

In the past, Exceptional Innovation implored integrators to rely on Media Center as the hub of a whole-house automation and media-management system, with all content distributed over the Ethernet network.

Forget that DVD and protected HDTV content cannot be distributed freely over the network. EI still held to its all-network, all-the-time mantra.

Not anymore. "For me it was a light bulb going off," says Moorer of the West Palm Beach job. "You need remotes and video switchers."

He is disappointed by the (non-)progress of CableCard for PCs, and does not blame integrators for dismissing CableCard-enabled PCs in favor of traditional sources of HD content.

"It makes sense for the high end, which is really what our dealers want to go after," Moorer says.

In a departure from earlier days, Moorer now maintains that Lifeware is a suitable automation solution with or without Media Center.

"You can run it [Lifeware] on a $3,000 LifeController or a $500 PC," he says. "What you do not need anymore is putting Media Center at the center of it."

He reiterates, "I don't want to come off that Media Center isn't the right product as a centerpiece, [but] I'm committed to choice. I'm backing dealers who want to use Lifeware without the full-blown Media Center experience. We're going to make this work with a variety of products."

The new approach will help acclimate integrators to the Media Center experience, without making them commit to the platform.