All Articles Tagged Europe

Julie Jacobson | 02/06 06:40 AM, 0 Comments

Power management and protection doesn’t seem to have the following in Europe as it does in the U.S. UK integrator Steve Moore said as much last year when we met with him at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2011. He bemoaned a lack of “decent power conditioning” for the European market. Panamax/Furman is working on it. The maker of power conditioning products cites a couple of reasons that Europe is “10 years behind in this category,” said senior product designer Garth Powell during ISE 2012 in Amsterdam last week. First, Powell… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 02/08 08:15 AM, 0 Comments

Two years ago, Control4 had an itty bitty booth at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE). Last year, the manufacturer of affordable home control systems upped its booth size substantially, and this year the Control4 exhibit is downright large. Business in Europe increased 38 percent this year for Control4, a relative newcomer compared to its competitors in the home automation category. “We are taking some competitors’ business away,” says VP EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, Africa) Tony Leedham. Control4 attributes much of its success in Europe to a growing market in certain… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 04/05 09:59 AM, 4 Comments

Say you’re a Spanish speaker in a French hotel and you have this fancy automation touchscreen in the room. Too bad, everything’s in French so you can’t control the room or pick your favorite radio stations. That's why Colorado vNet is introducing vNet Builder 4.6, which supports multiple languages. When a language selection is made, the entire user interface switches to the preferred language. The initial version of the software will support English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, with additional languages to be added later in the year. The new 4.6… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 02/17 07:00 AM, 1 Comment

It’s a light! It’s a speaker! It’s a light speaker! Although “LightSpeaker” is the registered trademark of Klipsch, several other vendors fit the bill. During the recent Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) in Amsterdam, a few European companies and at least one American manufacturer demonstrated high-quality speakers that double as light fixtures. Those products, as well as the European version of LightSpeaker, are described in the slide show. Speaker Lights: That was Then The concept isn’t new. One of the best “real” implementations so far has been Soundolier’s Duo wireless speaker… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 02/03 09:16 AM, 2 Comments

NuVo Technologies' highly anticipated Renovia system uses the home’s existing powerlines to distribute music throughout the home. So the product should be a natural for Europe, where it can be impossible to retrofit an existing home. Eventually, it will be a natural, but NuVo had to modify the product to make it even more suited to unforgiving cement-walled homes. The U.S. version of Renovia includes an in-wall amplifier that powers a connected keypad. But that won't work for much of Europe, where many of the homes have solid concerete walls.… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 02/03 07:45 AM, 1 Comment

Steve Moore, founder of London-based SMC (one of the better-known integration companies in Europe and elsewhere), can’t understand the utter lack of power conditioning products in Europe. At Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) in Amsterdam, after scouring the show floor, Moore told CE Pro, “There’s still no decent power conditioning here. There’s so many in the U.S.” Why the discrepancy? Obviously U.S. manufacturers can’t simply add a “220v” button on their power products for the European market. “It’s completely different physics," Moore notes. Is the lack of product because each country… View this story

Julie Jacobson | 01/21 05:18 AM, 7 Comments

Every year at this time, I read reports of Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) and hate that I can't be there. This year, I get to go to the show, which is sponsored by CEDIA and Infocomm, and sort of known as the CEDIA Expo of Europe. ISE is reporting that pre-registration for ISE 2010 is up 20% compared to the same time last year, with over 11,500 people signed up. Who are these people? I hope to meet as many of them as possible so I can share any European… View this story