Life/Ware: Extends Vista Media Center to Whole-house Automation
February 5, 2009

If you've read the Digital Home story on this site about the emergence of Windows Vista Media Center as a platform for home automation. You are aware Life/Ware (LW) can be a powerful choice for a complete home automation solution.

However, you may not be aware a Life/Ware Media Server or any Windows PC running Vista Media Center can easily be incorporated into an existing entertainment center to consolidate all your digital media, and also into another automation solution such as Control4. Because LW and Media Center PC Systems use a standard IR handheld remote, any controller capable of learning IR codes can be configured to operate a Windows Media Center based system.

The compelling reasons to do the above are: the Vista Media Center is an award winning interface for entertainment control (enhanced beyond the XP Media Center), and a digital media server in your entertainment center consolidates and protects your investment in photos, videos, and music while providing easy access to this priceless chronical of your life.

If your remodeling or building a new home, certainly Life/Ware from Exceptional Innovation (EI) should be considered if a smart home is a desired goal. EI's approach differs from Crestron, AMX or Control4 because Exceptional Innovation is a software company as opposed to a hardware manufacturer. LW extends the Media Center software to provide the same look and feel for controlling touch panels, distributed audio/video, lighting, climate, surveillance and security systems in addition to your digital media.

EI certifies its interfaces to popular home sub-systems from Insteon, Lutron, Aprilaire, Panasonic, Samsung, Niles, and RTI just to name a few. The choices within each sub-system provide a spectrum of capability and cost enabling you to satisfy your needs and stay within budget. EI understands the pitfalls of using an "off-the-shelf" Windows Vista PC for entertainment and home automation. So, they have designed their media servers as "closed" systems where automatic updates from Microsoft don't occur and the configuration of Vista minimizes the potential for problems sometimes experienced in desktop and laptop computers used for everyday business and personal computing. However, it is possible to use the generic Windows software in a LW media server, but not encouraged for frequent personal computing tasks.

What about pricing? Life/Ware fits well below Crestron and AMX in cost primarily due to the relative ease of configuring a home automation solution without incurring the labor $$ required to program the other two solutions. LW fits above Control4 in cost, but provides a more extensive and easily customized user interface compared to Control4.

If you already have an existing investment in entertainment center controller(s), a Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate System PC of your choice can easily be integrated. Also existing automation sub-systems are likely to be accomodated by a Life/Ware system. So, for example, if you have Insteon lighting controls in your home, you can add a LW media server and perhaps an Aprilaire thermostat and control it all with the LW handheld remote.

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